Song of Solomon 8:4

4 Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me that you will not awaken love or arouse love before its proper time!

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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

Song of Solomon 8:4 In-Context

2 I would lead you. I would bring you into my mother's house. (She is the one who was my teacher.) I would give you some spiced wine to drink, some juice squeezed from my pomegranates.
3 His left hand is under my head. His right hand caresses me.
4 Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me that you will not awaken love or arouse love before its proper time!
5 Who is this young woman coming from the wilderness with her arm around her beloved? Under the apple tree I woke you up. There your mother went into labor with you. There she went into labor and gave birth to you!
6 Wear me as a signet ring on your heart, as a ring on your hand. Love is as overpowering as death. Devotion is as unyielding as the grave. Love's flames are flames of fire, flames that come from the LORD.
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