Song of Solomon, Chapter 8
Song of Solomon 8 NWT - New World TranslationChapter 8 of Song of Solomon—New World Translation (NWT)
- ¶ “O that you were like a brother of mine,1 sucking the breasts of my mother!2 Should I find you outside, I would kiss you.3 People would not even despise me.
- I would lead you, I would bring you into the house of my mother,4 who used to teach me. I would give you a drink of spiced wine,5 the fresh juice of pomegranates.
- His left hand would be under my head; and his right hand—it would embrace me.6
- ¶ “I have put YOU under oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, that YOU try not to awaken or arouse love [in me] until it feels inclined.”7
- ¶ “Who is this woman8 coming up from the wilderness,9 leaning upon her dear one?”10
¶ “Under the apple tree I aroused you.[a] There your mother was in birth pangs with you. There she that was giving birth to you experienced birth pangs.11 - ¶ “Place me as a seal upon your[b] heart,12 as a seal upon your arm; because love is as strong as death is,13 insistence on exclusive devotion14 is as unyielding as Sheʹol[c] is. Its blazings are the blazings of a fire, the flame of Jah.[d]15
- Many waters themselves are not able to extinguish love,16 nor can rivers themselves wash it away.17 If a man[e] would give all the valuable things of his house for love, persons would positively despise them.”[f]
- ¶ “We have a little sister18 that does not have any breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day that she will be spoken for?”
- ¶ “If she should be a wall,19 we shall build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she should be a door,20 we shall block her up with a cedar plank.”
- ¶ “I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers.21 In this case I have become in his eyes like her that is finding peace.
- ¶ “There was a vineyard22 that Solʹo·mon happened to have in Baʹal-haʹmon. He gave the vineyard over to the keepers.23 Each one would bring in for its fruitage a thousand silver pieces.[g]
- ¶ “My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal.[h] The thousand belong to you, O Solʹo·mon, and two hundred to those keeping its fruitage.”
- ¶ “O you who are dwelling in the gardens,24 the partners are paying attention to your[i] voice. Let me hear it.”25
- ¶ “Run away, my dear one, and make yourself[j] like a gazelle or like a young one of the stags upon the mountains of spices.”26
FOOTNOTES
- ^ “You,” masc.
- ^ “Your,” masc.
- ^ “As Sheol.” Heb., khish·ʼohlʹ; Gr., haiʹdes; Lat., inʹfer·us. See App 4B.
- ^ “Jah.” This is the only place in The Song of Solomon where the divine name occurs, here in abbreviated form. See Gins.Int, pp. 386, 387; Ps 68:4 ftn; App 1A.
- ^ “Man.” Heb., ʼish.
- ^ Or, “him.”
- ^ Or, “a thousand pieces of money.”
- ^ Lit., “is before me.”
- ^ “You,” and “your,” both fem.
- ^ “Yourself,” masc. Compare 2:8, 9, 16, 17.
REFERENCES
- ^ Sg 1:6
- ^ Ga 4:26
- ^ Ps 2:12; Sg 1:2
- ^ Sg 3:4
- ^ Pr 9:2; Sg 5:1
- ^ Sg 2:6
- ^ Sg 2:7; 3:5
- ^ Sg 6:13; 7:10
- ^ Ps 45:10
- ^ Sg 7:11
- ^ Ge 3:16
- ^ Hg 2:23
- ^ Jn 15:13; Ro 16:4; Eph 5:25; Re 12:11
- ^ Ex 20:5; Jos 24:19
- ^ Ps 89:8; 118:17; Is 12:2; 1Jo 4:8
- ^ 1Co 13:8, 13
- ^ Ro 8:39
- ^ Sg 1:6
- ^ 2Co 7:1; Ga 5:23; 1Pe 3:2
- ^ Pr 7:11; Ho 2:7; 1Co 7:9
- ^ 1Co 7:34; Col 3:5; 1Pe 2:12
- ^ Ec 2:4; Sg 7:12
- ^ Lu 20:9
- ^ Sg 1:6; 6:11
- ^ Sg 2:14
- ^ Sg 2:17
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