Charles Ellicott Commentary Song of Solomon 8

O that thou wert as my brother. —The poet makes his beloved recall the feelings she had for him before the obstacles to their union were removed. She dared not then avow her affection for him as a lover, and wished that their relationship had been such as to allow of their meeting and embracing without reproach. A marginal note states: “They (i.e., her family and friends) should not despise (i.e., reproach) me.”

Juice of my pomegranate. — “People in the East,” says Dr. Kitto, “indulge largely in beverages made of fresh juice of various kinds of fruits. Among these, sherbet made of pomegranate juice is particularly valued; and from its agreeable and cooling acidity, I myself was accustomed to prefer it to any other drink of this kind.” The meaning of the verse is explained by Song of Solomon 1:2; Song of Solomon 5:1; Song of Solomon 7:9.

I charge you. —See Note, Song of Solomon 2:6–7.

Who is this that comes. —This begins a new section, which contains the most magnificent description of true love ever written by a poet. The dramatic theory encounters insuperable difficulties with this strophe. Again we presume that the theater and the spectators are imaginary. It is another sweet reminiscence, coming most naturally and beautifully after the last. The obstacles have been removed, the pair are united, and the poet recalls the delightful sensations with which he led his bride through the scenes where the youth of both had been spent, and then bursts out into the glorious panegyric of that pure and perfect passion which had united them.

Leaning upon her beloved ... —The Septuagint adds here shining white, and the Vulgate, flowing with delights.

I raised you up. —Literally, aroused: i.e., I inspired you with love. For this sense of exciting a passion, given to the Hebrew word, compare Proverbs 10:12; Zechariah 9:13. Delitzsch restores from the Syriac what must have been the original vowel-pointing, making the suffixes feminine instead of masculine.

There your mother ... —This is not necessarily under the apple-tree, which is commemorated as the scene of the betrothal, but near it. The poet delights to recall these early associations, the feelings with which he had watched her home and waited for her coming.

The Vulgate has here ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genetrix tua, which suggests allegory. So in later times, the tree has been interpreted as the Cross; the individual inspired to love under it represents the Gentiles redeemed at the foot of the Cross; and the deflowered and corrupted mother signifies the synagogue of the Jews (the mother of the Christian Church), which was corrupted by denying and crucifying the Savior.

Seal. —See Jeremiah 22:24; Haggai 2:23, and others. A symbol of something especially dear and precious.

Jealousy. — Strong passion, from a word meaning to be red with flame; not in a bad sense, as the parallelism shows:—

“Strong as death is love,
Inexorable as Sheol is ardent passion.”

Grave. —Hebrew sheôl. Perhaps, as in the Septuagint, Hades, with its figurative gates and bars (Psalms 6:5, Note).

Coals. —Hebrew resheph; in Psalms 78:48, hot thunderbolts ; in Job 5:7, sparks; Margin: sons of the burning;Deuteronomy 32:24, burning heat of the burning fever of the plague.

A most vehement flame. —Literally, a flame of Jah, the only place where a sacred name occurs in the book, and here, as in the Authorised Version, adverbially, to express something superlatively great and strong. Southey’s lines are a faint echo of this:—

“But love is indestructible,
Its holy flame forever burns,
From heaven it came, to heaven returns.”