Song of Solomon 8:4

4 I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim, not to awaken or stir up love until it wants to arise!

Song of Solomon 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 Solomon 8:4 In-Context

2 I would lead you and bring you to my mother's house, and she would instruct me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, fresh juice from my pomegranates.

3 His left arm would be under my head and his right arm around me.

4 I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim, not to awaken or stir up love until it wants to arise!

5 [Chorus] Who is this, coming up from the desert, leaning on her darling? [He] I awakened you under the apple tree. It was there that your mother conceived you; there she who bore you conceived you.

6 [She] Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, passion as cruel as Sh'ol; its flashes are flashes of fire, [as fierce as the] flame of Yah.