Song of Songs 8 (abbreviated as Song 8) is the eighth (and the final) chapter of the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.[1] This book is one of the Five Megillot, a collection of short books, together with Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, within the Ketuvim, the third and the last part of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish tradition views Solomon as the author of this book (although this is now largely disputed), and this attribution influences the acceptance of this book as a canonical text.
This chapter contains dialogues between the woman and the daughters of Jerusalem, the woman and her brothers, then finally, the woman and the man, the "bride" and the "bridegroom".
The original text is written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 14 verses.
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Codex Leningradensis (1008).
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;
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The Modern English Version (MEV) identifies the speakers in this chapter as:
Kugler and Hartin treat verses 5 onwards as an appendix. The Jerusalem Bible treats verse 7b onwards (from Were a man to offer all the wealth of his house to buy love ...) as "appendices".[2]
This female passage is the last part of a long section concerning the desire and love in the country which runs from chapter 6 until verse 4 here. It consists probably or possibly of more than a single song, describing the woman's wish that her lover to be her brother, so that they can be together in her 'mother's house' (verses 1–2; cf. 3:4 KJV); they embrace (verse 3; cf. 2:6 KJV) and another appeal to the daughters of Jerusalem (verse 4).
Oh, that you were like my brother,
Who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
If I should find you outside,
I would kiss you;
I would not be despised.[3] For "like my brother", or "as my brother" in the King James Version,[4] the International Standard Version notes that the Hebrew text lacks the preposition "like".[5] Andrew Harper argues that the word 'as' "should probably be omitted, as the accidental repetition of the last letter of the preceding word".
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
do not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.[6]
The names of God are apparently substituted with similar sounding phrases depicting 'female gazelles' (Hebrew: צְבָא֔וֹת, ) for [God of] hosts (Hebrew: צבאות ), and 'does of the field'/'wild does/female deer' (Hebrew: אילות השדה, ha-) for God Almighty (Hebrew: אל שדי, ).
Verse 5 opens the last section or epilogue of the book, speaking about the power of love which continues to verse 14 (the end of the book).
[Friends of the Woman]
Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
leaning upon her beloved?[The Woman]
Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
there she who bore you was in labor.[8]
There are two fragments of the female voice in this part (verse 5; cf. KJV, KJV) and verses 6-7 containing her declaration of love which 'might have constituted a suitable end for the whole book'.
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its fires of desire are as ardent flames,
a most intense flame.[9]
These two verses form a part describing how the woman's maternal brothers decide to keep their sister's virginity, when necessary. However, they do that in disparaging way, which recalls their maligning attitude in chapter 1.
As a response, the woman answers her brothers mockingly. When in –6 she "ineffectually complained" about her brothers' antagonism towards her, here she can stand up for herself and has found her peace.
My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
No doubt that this part contains the words of the man addressing the bride that 'it is delightful to him to hear her voice'.[16]
You who dwell in the gardens,
The companions listen for your voice—
Let me hear it![17] The man (or the bridegroom) calls upon his bride (the Shulammite) to let his companions, that is 'his friends who may have come to congratulate him on his bride's safe return', hear her voice.[15]
In the community of Sephardic and Oriental Jews, the congregation in traditional synagogues goes back and recites verse 13 after reciting verse 14 to avoid ending a reading in a negative note.
The very last verse: the woman's voice calls to her male lover to run, like a gazelle or deer, to “the distant nevernever land of the perfume hills”. With that, ‘the love's game can begin afresh, suspended in timelessness and moving cyclically’.
Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle or a young stag
on the mountains of spices![18] This verse is almost identical to 2:17 KJV and just like in the situation of the earlier verse, it implies another meeting and prolongs "indefinitely the moment of young and love".
. Michael D. Coogan . The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 . Coogan . Michael David . Marc Zvi . Brettler . Carol Ann . Newsom . Pheme . Perkins . Augmented 3rd . Oxford University Press . 2007 . 9780195288810 .
. Henry Hampton Halley. Halley's Bible Handbook: an abbreviated Bible commentary . 24th (revised). Zondervan Publishing House . 1965 . registration. 0-310-25720-4.
. Ernst Würthwein . The Text of the Old Testament . Wm. B. Eerdmans . Grand Rapids, MI . 1995 . Erroll F.. Rhodes . 0-8028-0788-7 . January 26, 2019.
King James Version
International Standard Version