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Song of Solomon 8

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

1 Oh that you were like a brother to me, who nursed at my mother's breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me. 2 I would lead you and bring you into my mother's house; you would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate. 3 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. 4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, why should you stir up or why awaken love until it pleases?

Love strong as death

5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor. 6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is unyielding as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a flame of Yah. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man gave all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly despised.

Our little sister

8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? 9 If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. 10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who finds peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he gave the vineyard over to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. 12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me. The thousand are yours, O Solomon, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit.

13 O you who dwell in the gardens, companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it. 14 Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Notes

  • 8:4 The refrain of 2:7 and 3:5 returns a last time, but shorter: there is no oath "by the gazelles or by the does of the field," and instead of "that you not" the Hebrew asks "why should you…?", a strong way of saying "do not." Love is not to be forced before its time.
  • 8:5 The question "Who is this coming up from the wilderness?" was first asked in 3:6; now the woman comes up leaning on her beloved. "I awakened you" uses the same verb as the refrain just before it (verse 4): the love that was not to be stirred up too soon has now awakened in its time, under the apple tree that pictured the beloved in 2:3.
  • 8:6 A seal (chotam) was worn on a cord over the heart (compare Genesis 38:18) or on the hand or arm, and it marked what belonged to its owner; she asks to be worn that close to him, bound to him for good. Love holds as firmly as death and Sheol hold their own, and its jealousy (kin'ah) is the fierce devotion that will not share the beloved. The last word, shalhevetyah, may mean "a flame of Yah," the short form of God's name, which would make this the only place the Song names Him; many scholars instead take -yah as a Hebrew way of saying "mighty," "a mighty flame."
  • 8:12 In 1:6 the woman said that her own vineyard she had not kept; the vineyard has pictured her and her love throughout the Song. Solomon may let out his great vineyard for a thousand pieces of silver, but this one is not for hire: as verse 7 said, love cannot be bought. Whether the man or the woman speaks here is debated; either way, the speaker's vineyard belongs to the two of them alone.
  • 8:14 The Song ends as it so often moves, with longing: the man asks to hear her voice, as in 2:14, and she calls him to come swiftly, as in 2:17. There the mountains were "the mountains of Bether," a name that may mean "division"; here they are "the mountains of spices," the fragrant place of their love.

Song of Solomon 7 · Isaiah 1

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