Song of Songs 8:5-14

5 Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in travail with you, there she who bore you was in travail.
6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.
8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister, on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
10 I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who brings peace.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, my very own, is for myself; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
13 O you who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it.
14 Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices.

Context: This work expresses the love between God and His people. It’s more of a parable than an allegory, an affirmation that the passion we feel within is indeed something good created by God. The biblical writer looked at Genesis 1-2, and strove to express exactly how beautiful the love of a man and woman could be.

Translation: Love sometimes is the most painful of emotions, and this passage reminds us that the pain is related to the fact that God created us for this first love, this primeval sensuousness and passion. After the fall, we love imperfectly…and thus painfully. Though attributed to King Solomon, it probably was written after the experience of exile many centuries after the time of Solomon, just a few hundred years before the birth of Christ.

Vocabulary (Hebrew):

love: ‘ahabâ – true love
jealousy – qin’â –  connotes ardor more than covetousness
“flashes of fire”  - šalhebetyâ – “a flame of Yahweh,” conjures hot intensity
peace:  šalôm  – peace or well-being

Meditation
The Song of Songs is beautiful, and yet uncomfortable. Perhaps it is a sign of our  degraded gender relations that we are reticent to describe God as the passionate Bridegroom.

St. John of the Cross experienced a great spiritual awakening  through the Song of Songs. His Spiritual Canticle was written while he was unfairly thrown in prison. He was trying to express the deep peace and joy that he had found in the love of God despite all hardships.  While the Dark Night of the Soul is more well-known, the flora and fauna of the Song of Songs were the foundation of his work.

Verse 8:5 begins with the Bridegroom offering His love, that survives even death. And this passage ends with the vineyard that we cultivate for the sake of our Beloved. You might wonder, though, about that middle section about our little sister – what is that all about?

So, shall she be a wall, or a door? Biblical scholars point to the wall as virtue, building a foundation for society, a safe haven for love. When women build safe havens, love can abound in a protected place. Conversely, the image of the “door” refers to spending too much time opening to others in ways that imperil the inner life of the soul. Boards of cedar would enclose such a soul, protecting her from harm.

The maturity of the bride then emerges from the “wall” as “mountainous” breasts, capable of great nurture. And the milk of her breasts is that interior peace. In our culture, in which so much commotion predominates, the notable women of peace are beacons of light to me.

Our hidden souls are as mysterious as the very life of Christ itself. We were created, indeed, to be an enclosed garden for the bridegroom. So, in these obscure passages, that express love this side of the veil, we can be encouraged to ask God to ignite in our own hearts a meaning that was created for us alone.

Discussion Questions:

1. Has a passionate love ever taken your heart by surprise? Was it more carnal and physical? Or was it more spiritual and hidden? What were its promptings?

2. Do you have a little sister, literally or figuratively? How would you nurture her faith? How would nurturing her faith affect your own faith?

3. What is the relationship between peace (shalom) and passion? How can we understand a God who encompasses both?

4. The bride tends her own vineyard, yearning to hear the Bridegroom’s voice. What kinds of gardening does your soul need today? Why?