Longing for Her Beloved
1 The love of the church to Christ. 6 The vehemency of love. 8 The calling of the Gentiles.
14 The church prayed for Christ’s coming.
Son 8:1 If only you were to me like a brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.
The bride seems to reminisce of the time before the obstacles to their union were removed.
Not being able yet to declare her affection to him as a lover, she wished that their relationship had been that of brother and sister.
Despised. That is, her family and her friends should not reproach her.
Son 8:2 I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house— she who has taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates.
Mothers have sane counsel for daughters about to be married. The wise Solomon, too,
could have thrilled the heart of his young bride by sharing with her his vast fund of
knowledge. In return she would reciprocate by supplying suitable refreshments.
Son 8:3 His left arm is under my head and his right arm embraces me.
Son 8:4 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. The repetition of this refrain lends strong support to the idea of an intended unity of the song.
Son 8:5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth.
Verse 5 appears to be a description of the arrival of the royal pair at the bride’s home.
Roused you. Solomon probably means to say that they have come back to the place where he first inspired his bride with love.
Your. They have returned to the home where his bride was born.
Son 8:6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.
A seal. The bride is speaking, as is evident in the Hebrew by the masculine form of “your”.
The Hebrew word for “seal,” chotham, means signet ring (see Ex. 28:11, 21; Job 38:14; 41:45; Jer. 22:24). The Hebrews sometimes wore the signet ring suspended upon the breast by a string. Solomon’s bride wants her husband to view her as such a precious signet ring.
Son 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
Pure love is such that nothing can destroy it. It cannot be bought. The highest offer would be completely scorned. This passage, telling of the invincible might and enduring constancy of true love, stands without a parallel in literature for forcefulness of expression.
Final Advice
Son 8:8 We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
This statement may have been made by the Shulamite’s brothers, in reminiscence of the bride’s childhood days. It appears they had been debating as to how to deal with their little sister when an offer of marriage should be made to her.
Son 8:9 If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
Son 8:10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. Thus I have become in his eyes like one bringing contentment.
Son 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver.
This was doubtless one of Solomon’s many vineyards.
Son 8:12 But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.
The bride renews her vows to her husband. She speaks of herself as the keeper of her own vineyard, but she transfers these rights and privileges to her husband.
Son 8:13 You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!
As the curtain falls, Solomon requests to hear once more the voice of his beloved, perhaps in a refrain he had heard her repeat in their courtship.
Son 8:14 Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains.
Thus, the poem ends with two short verses that compress into them all that has been repeated over and over under different figures: the wooing and the wedding of two happy hearts.