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.
    

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The fervor of the Beloved's feelings for her Lover are strong, now, and she wishes he were her brother so she could show him affection at any time. (Except for certain family members, public display of affection was not considered appropriate.) In verses 2 and 3 the Beloved seems in a playful mood and tells what she will do for her Lover, but her role in this description is a shifting one. First she is his older sister who will take him to her mother's house. Then she is the lady of the house who serves him wine to drink. And finally she is his wife who desires his caresses. As the concluding note of this section, she again cautions the young women not to stir up such love until the appropriate time.

Verses 5-7 bring a conclusion to this love story. The couple is depicted as coming out of the wilderness, a place of trials, and arriving at an orchard, a place of love and romance. This love they now have runs deep, so deep, says the Beloved, that it is as "strong as death." Continuing, the Beloved says that love's flames are so fierce that mighty waters cannot extinguish them. The couple has gone from a courting relationship in which their feelings for each other are somewhat tentative to a marriage relationship in which their love has grown to these depths she describes. Such a love is priceless. No amount of wealth could purchase it.

The concluding verses serve as an epilogue to the story. They return to when the Beloved was a girl at home. Her brothers planned for the day when she would be spoken for in marriage. As she grew up, if she were as a wall, closing out temptation, they would allow her freedom and reward her. But if she were as a door that was open to allow temptation to enter, they would restrict her freedom, enclosing her in cedar planks, or barricading the door. The Beloved's own testimony is that she was as a wall, saving herself for her Lover and providing for him contentment.

The closing note is the Beloved's giving of herself to her Lover, using a vineyard as a metaphor. As Solomon had a vineyard from which he received an income and paid the workers, so the Beloved had her own vineyard, herself, which she chose to give to Solomon. Not only does she give him the vineyard (herself), but also the income it brings in (all that she has).

The Song of Solomon gives us a picture of love and sex as it is intended. It is a thing of beauty and great pleasure when kept within its intended setting of marriage. Outside that setting it is not so beautiful and can bring much sorrow and destruction. The beauty of the marriage relationship is also God's picture of His intended relationship with us. Some people give up on marriage because they have no example to observe that depicts the type of relationship displayed in this book. And, some people give up on God for the same reason. They have no example or grasp of the intended relationship God has for His people.