The love of the church for Christ, 1-5. The vehemency of love, 6, 7. The calling of the Gentiles, 8-13. The church prays for Christ's coming, 14.
[Lady:]
1 O that you were as my brother/
who was nourished at the breasts of my mother!/
When I should find you outside, I would kiss you./
Indeed, I should not be despised.
2 I would lead you and bring you into my mother's house,/
who would instruct me./
I would cause you to drink of spiced wine/
of the juice of my pomegranate.
3 His left hand should be under my head/
and his right hand should embrace me.
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,/
that you do not stir or awake my love/
until he pleases.
[Others:]
5 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness/
leaning upon her beloved?
[Lady:]
I raised you up under the apple-tree./
There your mother brought you forth./
There she brought you forth who bore you.
6 Set me as a seal upon your heart,/
as a seal upon your arm./
For love is as strong as death,/
jealousy as cruel as the grave./
Its coals are coals of fire/
which has a most vehement flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,/
neither can the floods drown it./
If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,/
it would utterly be despised.
[Others:]
8 We have a little sister/
and she has no breasts./
What shall we do for our sister/
in the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,/
we will build upon her a palace of silver./
And if she is a door,/
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
[Lady:]
10 I am a wall and my breasts like towers./
Then I was in his eyes as one who found favor.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon./
He lent out the vineyard to keepers./
Each for its fruit was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard which is mine is before me./
You, O Solomon, must have a thousand,/
and those who keep its fruit, two hundred.
[Gentleman:]
13 You who dwell in the gardens,/
the companions listen to your voice./
Cause me to hear it.
[Lady:]
14 Make haste, my beloved,/
and be like a gazelle or a young buck/
upon the mountains of spices.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Song of Solomon, Chapter 8[➚]
John Gill's Chapter Summary:
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 (Song of Solomon 8:1-2); what familiarity should be between them (Song of Solomon 8:3); charging the daughters of Jerusalem not to give him any disturbance (Song of Solomon 8:4); upon which they inquire who she was who was in such a posture they saw her in (Song of Solomon 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 (Song of Solomon 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 (Song of Solomon 8:8-9); and the answer of the little sister declaring what she was and what she enjoyed (Song of Solomon 8:10); then the words of the church again, concerning her husband’s vineyard, the place, keepers, and profit of it (Song of Solomon 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 (Song of Solomon 8:13); and with a petition of hers to him that he would come quickly to her (Song of Solomon 8:14).