Song of Solomon 8
What Happens in This Chapter
In this last chapter the woman wishes she could show her love openly, and she tells the women of Jerusalem again not to wake love before it is ready. She asks her beloved to keep her close, and says love is as strong as death, cannot be put out, and cannot be bought. Her brothers talk about what to do for their little sister, and she answers that she is grown. She then compares her own vineyard to Solomon's, and the book ends with the two calling to each other.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
O 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.
1I wish you were like my brother, who nursed at my mother's breast. Then if I met you outside, I could kiss you. And no one would look down on me.
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.
2I would take your hand and bring you to my mother's house. She is the one who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, made from my pomegranates.
3His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
3His left hand is under my head. His right arm holds me close.
4I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
4Women of Jerusalem, promise me this. Do not stir up love or wake it before the time is right.
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.
5Who is this coming up from the wild, empty land? She is leaning on the one she loves. I woke you under the apple tree. That is where your mother gave birth to you.
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.
6Hold me close, like a seal pressed on your heart. Keep me like a mark on your arm. Love is as strong as death. Its jealousy, wanting someone all for yourself, is as hard as the grave. Love burns like coals of fire. Its flame is the strongest flame of all.
A seal was a small stamp that people wore. They pressed it into soft clay to show that something belonged to them.
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.
7Deep waters cannot put love out. Rivers cannot wash it away. Suppose a man offered everything he owned to buy love. People would only laugh at his offer.
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?
8We have a little sister. She is not grown up yet. What will we do for her when someone asks to marry her?
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.
9If she is like a wall, we will build a silver tower on her. If she is like a door, we will cover her with cedar boards.
10I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
10I am a wall, and I am grown up now. So in his eyes I am someone who brings him peace.
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.
11Solomon had a vineyard, a field of grapevines, at a place called Baal-hamon. He rented it out to farmers. Each one had to pay him a thousand pieces of silver for the fruit.
A thousand pieces of silver was a very large amount of money.
12My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
12But my own vineyard belongs to me. Solomon, you may keep your thousand pieces of silver. The farmers who care for the fruit may have two hundred.
13Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.
13You who live in the gardens, my friends are listening for your voice. Let me hear it too!
14Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
14Hurry to me, my love. Be like a deer running over the hills where spices grow.
The King James words "roe" and "hart" mean kinds of deer. They run fast and jump well.
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