Song of Solomon 8 KJV
The Power of Love
Song of Solomon Chapter 8: The Power of Love
This chapter explores themes of Marriage. The declaration in verse 6 that love is strong as death and jealousy cruel as the grave employs the rare pairing of สฟazzรข and qฤลกรข, terms elsewhere applied to YHWHโs own attributes, implying that human eros participates in divine power.
1 that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.
2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my motherโs house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, 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 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.
10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.
14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
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Did You Know?
The declaration in verse 6 that love is strong as death and jealousy cruel as the grave employs the rare pairing of สฟazzรข and qฤลกรข, terms elsewhere applied to YHWHโs own attributes, implying that human eros participates in divine power.
Verses 11โ12 contrast Solomonโs lucrative vineyard at Baal-hamon, leased for a thousand pieces of silver, with the Shulammiteโs personal vineyard that she alone tends, subtly critiquing royal economics by elevating private devotion over state wealth.
The command to set the beloved as a seal upon heart and arm in verse 6 invokes ancient Near Eastern cylinder-seal practices that rendered documents and persons legally unalterable, thereby portraying love as an indelible covenant rather than mere emotion.
Verse 8โs reference to a โlittle sisterโ whose breasts are not yet grown echoes Mesopotamian and Egyptian wisdom texts that assigned brothers legal responsibility for a sisterโs marriage negotiations, revealing the Songโs familiarity with ANE family law.
The final summons in verse 14 for the lover to appear โlike a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spicesโ deliberately reverses the earlier flight imagery of 2:17, creating a chiastic frame that moves the entire book from anticipation to consummated presence.