Song of Solomon 5:8

8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him this: I am faint with love.

Song of Solomon 5:8 Meaning and Commentary

Song of Solomon 5:8

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem
Young converts, as before observed; who, upon the hideous outcry the church made in the streets, came to her to know what was the matter, whom she addressed as after related; this shows the humility and condescension of the church, in desiring the assistance of weaker saints in her present case, and her earnestness and resolution to make use of all ways and means she could to find her beloved; and it becomes saints to be assisting to one another; and conversation with one another, even with weak believers, is often useful. And these the church "adjures", or "causes to swear" {p}; charged them on oath, as they would answer it to God; which shows the strength of her love, her sincerity, and seriousness in her inquiry after him:

if ye find my beloved;
who had but little knowledge of him, and communion with him, since at present he was yet to be found by them; and it was possible, notwithstanding, that they might find him before she did, as Christ showed himself to Mary Magdalene, before he did to the disciples. The charge she gave them is,

that ye tell him that I [am] sick of love;
or, "what shall ye", or "should ye tell him?" ^F17 not her blows and wounds, the injuries and affronts she had received from the watchmen and keepers of the wall; nor many things, only this one thing, which was most on her heart, uppermost in her mind, and under which she must die, if not relieved, "tell him that I [am] sick of love"; and that for him, through his absence, and her eager longing after him, and the discoveries of his love to her; and which, though not incurable, nor a sickness unto death, for Christ suffers none to die through love to him, yet is a very painful one; and is to be known by a soul's panting after Christ, and its prodigious jealousy of his love, and by its carefulness, diligence, and industry, to enjoy the manifestations of it. Of this love sickness, (See Gill on Song of Solomon 2:5).

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 (ytebvh) (wrkisa) , Sept. "adjuro", V. L. Pagninus
F17 (wl wdygt hm) "quid narrabitis ei?" Pagninus, Michaelis; "quid indicabitis ei?" Montanus, Marckius.

Song of Solomon 5:8 In-Context

6 I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and was gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but did not find him; I called him, but he gave no answer.

7 Making their rounds in the city the sentinels found me; they beat me, they wounded me, they took away my mantle, those sentinels of the walls.

8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him this: I am faint with love.

9 What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?

10 My beloved is all radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.