Song of Songs 8:4

4 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.^[a]

Song of Songs 8:4 Meaning and Commentary

Song of Solomon 8:4

I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up,
nor awake [my] love, until he please.
] The phrase, "by the roes [and] by the hinds of the field", used in ( Song of Solomon 2:7 ) ( 3:5 ) ; is here omitted; not as if the charge was less vehement and earnest here, for the form of expostulation seems rather to express more earnestness: for the words may be rendered, "why will ye", or "why should ye stir up, and why awake my love?" ^F9 being apprehensive they were about to do it; and which she dissuades from, as unreasonable and dangerous, and might be prejudicial to them as well as to her. The allusion is to virgins, that sung songs at marriages; one in the evening, lulling to sleep; and another in the morning, awaking and stirring up from it ^F11.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (hm) , "cur", Montanus, Schmidt.
F11 Vid. Theocrit. Idyll. 18.

Song of Songs 8:4 In-Context

2 I would lead you, I would take you, to the house of my mother who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink from my pomegranate juice.

3 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.

4 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.

5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on the one she loves? I awakened you under the apricot tree. There your mother conceived you; there she conceived and gave you birth.

6 Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death; ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol. Love's flames are fiery flames- the fiercest of all.

Footnotes

• [a]. Sg 2:7; 3:5