Song of Songs 8
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 8
1 Oh, if only you were to me like a brother,
nursed at my mother’s breast.
Then if I met you out of doors,
I could kiss you
without people regarding me with scorn.[a]
2 I would lead you
and bring you into the home of my mother.
There you would teach me to give you spiced wine to drink
and the juice of my pomegranates.
3 His left hand is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.
Bridegroom:
4 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem:
Do not stir up or awaken love
before its time has come.[b]
Epilogue
Love Is as Strong as Death[c]
Companions:
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
leaning on her beloved?
Bridegroom:
Under the apple tree[d] I awakened you;
it was there that your mother conceived you,
and there where she who conceived you bore you.
Bride:
6 [e]Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal upon your arm.
For love is as strong as death,[f]
and ardor is as relentless as the netherworld.
Its flames are flashes of fire,
an unending blaze.[g]
7 Flood waters cannot quench love,
nor can torrents drown it.
If one were to offer all his wealth for love,
he would be regarded with contempt.
One Who Brings Peace[h]
Companions:
8 “Our sister is little,
and her breasts are not yet formed.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build a silver battlement upon it;
if she is a door,
we will board her up with planks of cedar.”
Bride:
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.
So now in his eyes
I have become one who brings peace.
My Vineyard Is under My Control[i]
11 [j]Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon,[k]
and he entrusted that vineyard to tenants.
For its fruit each one would have to pay him
a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard[l] is under my control.
You, O Solomon, may have the thousand silver pieces,
and those who tend the fruit may have two hundred.
Bridegroom:
13 O you who dwell in the gardens,
my companions are listening for your voice;
let me hear it.
Bride:
14 Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle or a young stag
upon the spice-filled mountains.
Footnotes
- Song of Songs 8:1 Without people regarding me with scorn: the bride could show her affection openly and incur no scorn.
- Song of Songs 8:4 See note on Song 2:7.
- Song of Songs 8:5 The chorus no longer recognizes the bride; love has awakened her to a new life. Quite violent is the passion that makes the lovers into one single being. Love seizes them as a force that cannot be resisted. They can no more escape it than they can escape death and the subterranean pit that, in the words of the ancients, one day will snatch all the living, the netherworld. God, who created love, willed this unity that nothing can divide. “And the two shall become one flesh,” declares Paul the Apostle (Eph 5:31) with the Gospel (Mt 19:5) and the Book of Genesis (Gen 2:24). Such a love cannot be acquired at the price of silver.
It is something unheard of that between God and his people there is established a definitive link that holds despite all kinds of trials and dramas. And how can one hide forever from the Lord’s ardor? - Song of Songs 8:6 Under the apple tree: fruit trees were regarded as conducive to lovers’ embraces.
- Song of Songs 8:6 Love is as strong as death: starting with these words, the author gives three climactic wisdom sayings about the awesome power of true love. Love stands its ground against the greatest powers on earth: death, fire, and water, and conquers even great wealth. An unending blaze: another translation may be: “Like the very flame of the Lord,” showing that love is enkindled by God.
- Song of Songs 8:6 Love is as strong as death: starting with these words, the author gives three climactic wisdom sayings about the awesome power of true love. Love stands its ground against the greatest powers on earth: death, fire, and water, and conquers even great wealth. An unending blaze: another translation may be: “Like the very flame of the Lord,” showing that love is enkindled by God.
- Song of Songs 8:6 Love is as strong as death: starting with these words, the author gives three climactic wisdom sayings about the awesome power of true love. Love stands its ground against the greatest powers on earth: death, fire, and water, and conquers even great wealth. An unending blaze: another translation may be: “Like the very flame of the Lord,” showing that love is enkindled by God.
- Song of Songs 8:8 Suddenly a life that is still young finds itself mature with passion; already love has decided the future of the bride even though her brothers are still thinking of the men to whom they could contract her in marriage. They did not notice their little sister becoming a woman. Elders always have trouble admitting that their siblings have already entered into life, that love has already brought new freedom to them.
Israel, apparently always adolescent and indecisive, the most insignificant of nations in any case, is fulfilled more than one could believe by faith in God. And the believer, so fragile in his own eyes, finds an inconceivable freedom in the Lord’s presence. - Song of Songs 8:11 The great monarch Solomon had a large harem, which had to be guarded by officers of the palace. The bridegroom, a poor shepherd, has his beloved all to himself. She awaits his call and will then flee her tactless companions: the two of them alone! Love is an ever renewed quest.
In this final song of love, the community of Christ can also express its expectation. It is above all a call: “Come, Lord Jesus, come”; and it is also and above all a certitude: I am coming soon. Maranatha. It is with this Hebrew word, maranatha, that the last Book of the Bible comes to a close (Rev 22:17-20). Human love is most suitable to be a symbol of divine love. - Song of Songs 8:11 These verses are capable of various interpretations. In addition to the one given in the previous note, they may be interpreted as the bride saying to an imaginary Solomon that his vineyard has only monetary value while she is making a free gift of her vineyard (which is herself) to her bridegroom—in keeping with the text of verse 7b that insists that there is no price great enough to buy love.
- Song of Songs 8:11 Baal-hamon: an unidentified place, which is said to have a vineyard worth a thousand pieces of silver. Since it means “Lord of multitudes,” it may be intended to contrast the single beloved of the Song with the many wives of Solomon.
- Song of Songs 8:12 My vineyard: i.e., the bride herself as in Song 1:6. It is contrasted with the vineyard of Solomon in 8:11. In what may be a satirical note, she offers Solomon the owners’ portion for her vineyard and two hundred pieces of silver to the tenants.
