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Chapter 8, from The Living
Bible translation
THE GIRL:
“Oh, if only you were my brother; then I could kiss you no matter who was
watching, and no one would laugh at me. I would bring you to my childhood
home, and there you would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink,
sweet pomegranate wine. His left hand would be under my head and his right
hand would embrace me. I adjure you, O women of Jerusalem, not to awaken
him until he please.”
THE YOUNG WOMEN OF JERUSALEM:
“Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved?”
KING SOLOMON:
Under the apple tree where your mother gave birth to you in her travail,
there I awakened your love.”
THE GIRL:
“Seal me in your heart with permanent betrothal, for love is strong as
death and jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. It flashes fire, the very flame
of Jehovah. Many waters cannot quench the flame of love, neither can the
floods drown it. If a man tried to buy it with everything he owned, he
couldn't do it.”
THE GIRL:
“We have a little sister too young for breasts. What shall we do if
someone asks to marry her?”
KING SOLOMON:
If she has no breasts we will build upon her a battlement of silver, and
if she is a door we will enclose her with cedar boards.”
THE GIRL:
“I am slim, tall, and full breasted and I have found favor in my lover's
eyes. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon which he rented out to some
farmers there, the rent being one thousand pieces of silver from each. But
as for my own vineyard, you, O Solomon, shall have my thousand pieces of
silver and I will give two hundred pieces to those who care for it. O my
beloved, living in the gardens, how wonderful that your companions may
listen to your voice, let me hear it too. Come quickly, my beloved, and be
like a gazelle or young deer upon the mountain of spices. |
