Reflections on Song of Solomon 8

 Song of Solomon 08 (Contemporary English Version)

1. If you were my brother, I could kiss you whenever we happen to meet, and no one would say I did wrong.
   
2. I could take you to the home of my mother, who taught me all I know. I would give you delicious wine and fruit juice as well.
   
3. Put your left hand under my head and embrace me with your right arm.
   
4. Young women of Jerusalem, promise me by the power of deer and gazelles never to awaken love before it is ready.
   
5. Who is this young woman coming in from the desert and leaning on the shoulder of the one she loves? I stirred up your passions under the apple tree where you were born.
   
6. Always keep me in your heart and wear this bracelet to remember me by. The passion of love bursting into flame is more powerful than death, stronger than the grave.
   
7. Love cannot be drowned by oceans or floods; it cannot be bought, no matter what is offered. Their Friends Speak:
   
8. We have a little sister whose breasts are not yet formed. If someone asks to marry her, what should we do?
   
9. She isn't a wall that we can defend behind a silver shield. Neither is she a room that we can protect behind a wooden door.
   
10. I am a wall around a city, my breasts are towers, and just looking at me brings him great pleasure.
    
11. Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-Hamon, which he rents to others for a thousand pieces of silver each.
    
12. My vineyard is mine alone! Solomon can keep his silver and the others can keep their share of the profits.
    
13. You are in the garden with friends all around. Let me hear your voice!
    
14. Hurry to me, my darling! Run faster than a deer to mountains of spices.

---

In the last verses of chapter 7, the beloved responded to her lover's praise of her beauty by offering herself to him for lovemaking. "I am yours," she says, "Let's stroll through the fields and sleep in the villages." With 8:1 she continued to express her desire for her lover for whom she wanted to show her affection with a kiss whenever she felt like it - even publicly. But public show of affection was frowned on except in the case of certain family members. So she suggested that if he were her brother she could kiss him "whenever we happen to meet." She wouldn't have to be concerned about where they were. Then she would take him to her mother's house where she would serve him wine and he could embrace her. But she cautioned the "young women of Jerusalem" not to awaken love before it is ready. It is as if she were telling them not to do what she is talking about with her husband until they, too, have a husband.

In the last scene of the book, the couple came in from the desert and looked on an apple tree where they first met. This suggests they were emerging from a time of difficulty in the relationship and reflecting on the beginnings of their love. She asked her lover/husband to always keep her in his heart and then gave him a bracelet by which to remember her. She wanted him to give her a love that is powerful enough that oceans cannot drown it and is more priceless than any amount of money.

When she was young and not yet a woman, the beloved's brothers considered what they would do when she came to a marriageable age and someone asked to marry her. They determined that if she were chaste, that is, if she were like a wall that blocks entry to a room, they would give her a silver dowry. But if she were not chaste, like a door that allows entry to a room, they would hide her away.

The beloved spoke for herself saying, "I am a wall." She was now a woman (her breasts were like towers) and she was chaste, having saved herself for marriage. She went on to explain that while she worked in Solomon's vineyards she was around many other tenants, but she did not give herself to any of them. Her vineyard, that is, she herself, she did not give away except to her husband.