1 O that you were as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find you outside, I would kiss you; yes, I should not be reproached.
2 I would fain lead you there [in triumph], and bring you into my mother's house, you (or she) would instruct me: I would cause you to drink of the aromatic wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
3 [Let] his left hand be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
4 I have adjured you (in this last charge the addition is not "by the roes",&c.), O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up, nor awake my love (love used in the abstract. See 2:), until she please.
A S1 5-. The companions of the shepherd see them approaching.
T1 -5-7. The Shulamite and her beloved [shepherd] revisit the spot were the 1st plighted their troth;
and renewed their vows.
S2 8,9. The brothers confer as to their sister's dowry. "What shall we do for her?" "if she be a wall
[i.e. virtuous] we will adorn her." "she be a door [accessible to any] we will shut her up."
T2 10-12. The Shulamite: "I am a wall" [not a door]. Solomon has many vineyards; I will keep my own.
S3 13. The Beloved [shepherd] asks her to tell them her story.
T3 14. The Shulamite owns him her beloved. He is to hasten to her now and ever. No longer over the
mountains which separated them, for these have given place to mountains of delight.
(The Shulamite returns home from Solomon, and is seen by her brothers and their companions, approaching; her beloved [shepherd] is with her.)
5 Who is this (the companions of the shepherd are the speakers) that comes up from the plain of Esdraelon (lying between Jezreel and Shunem), leaning upon her beloved?
I raised you up (i.e. I awakened [love] in your heart: i.e. I won your heart) under the orange tree (the place of the birth of their love. The orange-blossom is everywhere, now, the bridal flower): there she came that bare you (confinements in the open air are of frequent occurrence), your mother to bring you forth: there she brought you forth that bare you.
6 Oh place me as a signet upon your heart (regarded as good as a signature. Now that writing is more common it has become an ornament. It was worn around the neck [Gen. 38:18,25], or worn on the right hand [Jer. 22:24]. Cp. also Hag. 2:23), as a seal upon your arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is hard (inexorable) as Sheol: its flames are flames of fire, the vehement flames of the Lord. (See Gen. 3:24.)
7 Many waters cannot quench love (i.e. earthly things cannot destroy that which is divine), 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 Our sister is still young (one of the brothers now speaks), and she has no breasts (this idiom for not yet marriageable. This is what the brothers had once said in earlier days. The reference here is "not obscure" when we note who the speakers are, and when they said this): what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? (I.e. demanded [in marriage. Cp. 1 Sam. 13:9; 25:39.)
9 If she be a wall (spoken by another brother: i.e. like a wall that keeps out intruders), we will build upon her a turret (or battlement) of silver: and if she be a door (i.e. accessible to any one), we will enclose her with planks (or panels) of cedar.
10 I am a wall (the Shulamite thus replies: I stand firm against all the blandishments of Solomon. I am not a door admitting any one), and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes (i.e. her lover's, or the brother's who last spoke [not Solomon's. Solomon is mentioned in the next verse) as one that found favor.
11 Solomon (the Shulamite, in demanding her reward, gives her reasons) had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard to husbandmen (i.e. tenants); every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, which is mine, is my own: you (apostrophising the absent Solomon whom she had left), O Solomon, may keep his thousand, and the keepers [may keep] their two hundreds.
13 Oh you that dwell in the gardens (spoken by the shepherd. No longer in "the city" of 5:7, but now abide permanently), my companions (who were the speakers of v.5) are listening to your voice: cause me [and our companions] to hear.
14 Make haste, my beloved, and be you like to a roe or to a young hart [that turns itself about]: or bounds over the mountains of spices; and no longer over the mountains of separation.