Song of Solomon 8

I wish you were like a brother to me, one who nursed at my mother's breasts. Then if I met you out in the street, I could kiss you, and no one would look down on me.

1O 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.

NoteIn this culture a woman could not show physical affection to a man in public without disgrace, but she could kiss a brother openly. The wish is not for him to be her actual brother but for the freedom that relationship would have given them in the street.

2I would lead you and bring you into my mother's house, and she would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranates.

2I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

NoteA mother's house is where a daughter's courtship and marriage were arranged and discussed; the Song mentions the mother's household rather than the father's throughout. The Hebrew of "she would teach me" is unclear about who teaches whom: it can be read as the mother teaching the woman, or as the man teaching her. Spiced wine and pomegranate juice were both associated with love and desire.

3His left hand is under my head, and his right arm holds me close.

3His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

4Daughters of Jerusalem, I make you promise me this: do not stir up love or wake it up until it is ready.

4I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

NoteThe King James "I charge you" means to put someone under a formal oath. This same sworn refrain appears twice earlier in the Song. The Hebrew of the last phrase is ambiguous: it can mean "until love itself is ready" or "until he wishes it."

5Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on the man she loves? I woke you under the apple tree. That is where your mother went into labor with you; there she gave birth to you.

5Who 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.

NoteThe Hebrew text of the Song has no labels saying who is speaking; the shifts between voices here and elsewhere are worked out from the grammar, and translators disagree about some of them. In this verse the person being addressed is grammatically male, so the woman is speaking to the man about his own birth.

6Set me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. Love is as strong as death, and the jealousy it brings is as unyielding as the grave. Its sparks are sparks of fire, a blaze fiercer than any other.

6Set 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.

NoteA seal was a personal stamp, carved with its owner's mark and pressed into wax or clay to sign documents and show ownership. It was carried close to the body, worn on a cord round the neck or as a ring on the hand, which is why the two places named are the heart and the arm. "Jealousy" here translates a Hebrew word for fierce, possessive passion rather than petty suspicion, and "the grave" is Sheol, the underworld where the dead were thought to go, a place that never gives anything back. The last word of the verse may end in a shortened form of the divine name, giving "a flame of the LORD," or the ending may simply be an intensifier, "a raging blaze"; translators are divided.

7Floods of water cannot put love out, and rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man offered everything he owned in his house to buy love, people would only scorn his offer.

7Many 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.

NoteMarriages were normally settled with a payment from the groom or his family to the bride's household. The line measures love against that ordinary transaction.

8We have a little sister, and her breasts have not yet grown. What will we do for our sister on the day someone asks to marry her?

8We 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?

NoteBrothers had a recognized say in whether and to whom their sister was married, and were expected to protect her until then. "Spoken for" means formally asked for in marriage by another family.

9If she is a wall, we will build a silver tower on top of her. If she is a door, we will board her up with cedar planks.

9If 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.

NoteWhat the wall and the door stand for is disputed. Most read the wall as a girl who keeps herself closed and guarded, rewarded with ornament, and the door as one who is open to approach, needing to be barred shut, but the tone of the brothers' plan, protective or controlling, is left open by the Hebrew.

10I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. So in his eyes I became like one who finds peace.

10I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "one who brings peace" is shalom, meaning wholeness, safety and contentment as well as peace. The phrase can mean that she brings him peace or that she has found it herself, and it plays on the sound of Solomon's name.

11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon. He rented it out to caretakers, and each one was to pay a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.

11Solomon 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.

NoteBaal-hamon is a place name found nowhere else; it appears to mean something like "lord of abundance" or "owner of a crowd," and may be chosen for its sense rather than as a real location. Coins had not yet been invented, so silver was weighed out; a thousand pieces would be roughly twenty-five pounds of silver, an enormous rent for one vineyard.

12But my own vineyard belongs to me, and it is mine to give. Keep your thousand pieces, Solomon, and give two hundred to the men who tend the fruit.

12My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

NoteEarlier in the Song the woman calls herself a vineyard, and that is the sense here: what she has is not leased out to tenants or priced in silver. The two hundred left to the caretakers is the fifth share a tenant would normally keep.

13You who live in the gardens, the companions are listening for your voice. Let me hear it too.

13Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.

NoteThe person addressed is grammatically male, so the woman is speaking to the man. "Companions" is the word for his circle of friends, who appear elsewhere in the Song as listeners.

14Hurry away, my love. Be like a gazelle or a young deer on the mountains of spices.

14Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

NoteThe Hebrew verb literally means "flee" or "run away," and it is genuinely unclear whether she is calling him to run to her or away with her; the King James "make haste" leaves the direction open. "Mountains of spices" are hills where balsam and other aromatic shrubs grow, and echo the imagery used earlier for her own body.