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Introduction

Song of Solomon 8 opens with the woman expressing a wish that her beloved were like a brother to her, so that she could openly show affection to him in public without concern for cultural restrictions of the time. This reflects a longing for open acknowledgment of their relationship despite the customs limiting public displays of affection between unmarried or newly married individuals.

She imagines bringing him into her mother’s house for teaching and intimacy, reflecting the value placed on close relational bonds and instruction within family life. She again expresses her desire for closeness, comparing his embrace to safety and comfort.

Once more, she repeats the earlier refrain, charging the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up or awaken love until it pleases, reinforcing throughout the book the wisdom of allowing love to develop properly and not forcing premature intimacy.

The scene shifts to a question asked about the woman coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved, symbolizing dependence, support, and completion found within committed love. This leads into one of the most theologically significant sections of the book, where love is described using powerful and enduring imagery.

The woman declares that love is to be set like a seal upon the heart and upon the arm, symbolizing identity, ownership, and permanence. She states that love is strong as death, and jealousy, in the sense of exclusive devotion, is as cruel as the grave, meaning true love demands total commitment and cannot be shared or divided. She continues by describing love’s flame as burning intensely, comparing it to a very flame of the Lord, emphasizing its divine origin and seriousness.

She further states that many waters cannot quench love, nor can floods drown it, illustrating its unstoppable and resilient nature. She adds that love cannot be bought with wealth, emphasizing its priceless and non transactional value, reflecting that true love is not something that can be purchased or manipulated through material means.

The chapter continues with a brief mention of a younger sister who has no breasts, likely reflecting either a story about protecting a family member’s purity until marriage or a metaphor for guarding virtue until the appropriate time, echoing the broader theme of guarding love until it is properly ready to be expressed. The woman affirms her own maturity and readiness for love, describing herself as a wall with breasts like towers, symbolizing her strength, purity, and readiness for marriage, which brought her peace in the eyes of her beloved.

The final verses reference Solomon’s vineyard, possibly symbolizing wealth or responsibility, contrasted with the woman’s own vineyard, meaning her personal identity and worth, which she claims is her own to give.

The book closes with the beloved expressing a desire to hear her voice, and the woman inviting him to make haste, comparing him once again to a young deer upon the mountains of spices, echoing the poetic imagery used throughout the entire song and leaving the relationship in a state of continued desire, anticipation, and enduring love.

Chapter 8

1 Oh that you were my brother, who took milk from my mother’s breasts! When I came to you in the street, I would give you kisses; yes, I would not be looked down on.
2 I would take you by the hand into my mother’s house, and she would be my teacher. I would give you drink of spiced wine, drink of the pomegranate.
3 His left hand would be under my head, and his right hand about me.
4 I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not let love be moved till it is ready.
5 Who is this, who comes up from the waste places, resting on her loved one? It was I who made you awake under the apple-tree, where your mother gave you birth; there she was in pain at your birth.
6 Put me as a sign on your heart, as a sign on your arm; love is strong as death, and wrath bitter as the underworld: its coals are coals of fire; violent are its flames.
7 Much water may not put out love, or the deep waters overcome it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be judged a price not great enough.
8 We have a young sister, and she has no breasts; what are we to do for our sister in the day when she is given to a man?
9 If she is a wall, we will make on her a strong base of silver; and if she is a door, we will let her be shut up with cedar-wood.
10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then was I in his eyes as one to whom good chance had come.
11 Solomon had a vine-garden at Baal-hamon; he let out the vine-garden to keepers; every one had to give a thousand bits of silver for its fruit.
12 My vine-garden, which is mine, is before me: you, O Solomon, will have the thousand, and those who keep the fruit of them two hundred.
13 You who have your resting-place in the gardens, the friends give ear to your voice; make me give ear to it.
14 Come quickly, my loved one, and be like a roe on the mountains of spice.

Important Verses

  • Song of Solomon 8:6 “Set me as a seal upon thine heart… for love is strong as death.” This verse emphasizes permanence, identity, and total devotion within love.
  • Song of Solomon 8:6 “Jealousy is cruel as the grave… the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” This reflects the intense and exclusive nature of true love, sometimes translated as having a divine origin.
  • Song of Solomon 8:7 “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” This illustrates love’s resilience and unstoppable strength when genuine.
  • Song of Solomon 8:7 “If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” This affirms that true love cannot be bought or reduced to material transactions.

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