Song of Songs 8:4-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
4 (A)I adjure you, Daughters of Jerusalem,
do not awaken or stir up love
until it is ready!
The Return from the Desert
5 D?(B) Who is this coming up from the desert,
leaning upon her lover?
W Beneath the apple tree I awakened you;[a]
there your mother conceived you;
there she who bore you conceived.
True Love
6 Set me as a seal[b] upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
For Love is strong as Death,
longing is fierce as Sheol.
Its arrows are arrows of fire,
flames of the divine.
Footnotes
- 8:5 Awakened you: the speakers in this verse are difficult to identify. Someone (the poet? Daughters?) hails the couple in v. 5a. According to the Masoretic vocalization, the woman is the speaker in v. 5b.
- 8:6 Seal: this could be worn bound to the arm, as here, or suspended at the neck, or as a ring (Jer 22:24). It was used for identification and signatures. Strong…fierce: in human experience, Death and Sheol are inevitable, unrelenting; in the end they always triumph. Love, which is just as certain of its victory, matches its strength against the natural enemies of life; waters cannot extinguish it nor floods carry it away. It is more priceless than all riches. Flames of the divine: the Hebrew is difficult: the short form (-Yah) of the divine name Yhwh found here may associate love with the Lord, or it may be acting as a superlative—i.e., god-sized flames.
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