Song of Songs 8:4

4 I have charged you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the virtues of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake love, until he please.

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 take thee, I would bring thee into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me; I would make thee to drink of spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranates.

3 His left hand under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

4 I have charged you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the virtues of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake love, until he please.

5 Who is this that comes up all white, leaning on her kinsman? I raised thee up under an apple-tree; there thy mother brought thee forth; there she that bore thee brought thee forth.

6 Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave, her shafts are shafts of fire, the flames thereof.