Song of Solomon 8:2-12

2 I would take you to my mother's house, where you could teach me love. I would give you spiced wine, my pomegranate wine to drink.

3 Your left hand is under my head, and your right hand caresses me.

4 Promise me, women of Jerusalem, that you will not interrupt our love.

5 Who is this coming from the desert, arm in arm with her lover? Under the apple tree I woke you, in the place where you were born.

6 Close your heart to every love but mine; hold no one in your arms but me. Love is as powerful as death; passion is as strong as death itself. It bursts into flame and burns like a raging fire.

7 Water cannot put it out; no flood can drown it. But if any tried to buy love with their wealth, contempt is all they would get.

8 We have a young sister, and her breasts are still small. What will we do for her when a young man comes courting?

9 If she is a wall, we will build her a silver tower. But if she is a gate, we will protect her with panels of cedar.

10 I am a wall, and my breasts are its towers. My lover knows that with him I find contentment and peace.

11 Solomon has a vineyard in a place called Baal Hamon. There are farmers who rent it from him; each one pays a thousand silver coins.

12 Solomon is welcome to his thousand coins, and the farmers to two hundred as their share; I have a vineyard of my own!

Song of Solomon 8:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SONG OF SOLOMON 8

This chapter begins with an ardent wish of the church for a free and intimate converse with Christ; declaring what she would do to him, and for him, should she have such an interview with him, So 8:1,2; what familiarity should be between them, So 8:3; charging the daughters of Jerusalem not to give him any disturbance, So 8:4. Upon which they inquire who she was that was in such a posture they saw her in, So 8:5; when the church, instead of giving them an answer, says some things concerning her beloved, on whom they saw her leaning; and makes some requests to him for more nearness to him, and manifestations of his love to her; urged from the strength her love and affections to him, which was invincible, So 8:6,7. Next follows a speech of the church about her little sister; expressing a concern for her, and what she would do to her and with her, So 8:8,9; and the answer of the little sister, declaring what she, was, and what she enjoyed, So 8:10; then the words of the church again, concerning her husband's vineyard; the place, keepers, and profit of it, So 8:11,12. And the chapter, and with it the Song, is concluded with a request of Christ to the church, that he might hear her voice, So 8:13; and with a petition of hers to him, that he would come quickly to her, So 8:14.