Love Is Strong as Death
5
Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness,
leaning upon her beloved?
I raised thee up under the apple tree:
there thy mother brought thee forth;
there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
6
Set me as a seal upon thine heart,
as a seal upon thine arm:
for love is strong as death;
jealousy is cruel as the grave:
the coals thereof are coals of fire,
which hath a most vehement flame.
7
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it:
if a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
it would utterly be contemned.
8
We have a little sister,
and she hath no breasts:
what shall we do for our sister
in the day when she shall be spoken for?
9
If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver:
and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.
10
I am a wall, and my breasts like towers:
then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.
11
Solomon had a vineyard at Ba’al–ha’mon;
he let out the vineyard unto keepers;
every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
12
My vineyard, which is mine, is before me:
thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand,
and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
13
Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
the companions hearken to thy voice:
cause me to hear it.
14
Make haste, my beloved,
and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart
upon the mountains of spices.
