Chapter 8

Verse 1 — this is a conversation as they are moving along in the chariot. It is one-sided because she hasn’t seen her shepherd lover for a long time and she has a lot of things to bring him up to date. They are moving toward her home city Shunem. She talks about inexperience at this point. She obviously has a very clear understanding of the soul relationship in category #2 love. But all of a sudden she turns shy. Here is someone she loves desperately, someone who is constantly in her soul. When he is absent it is the fragrance of memories, when he is there she is completely occupied with him. Now after this dramatic rescue and after they are moving along in the chariot she has spoken so many wonderful and intimate things and she turns shy. This is typically feminine. And she begins to talk about her inexperience and she suddenly expresses a great desire.

“Oh, that thou wert as my brother that sucked the breasts of my mother!” The reason is that all of this time she could have loved him without anyone censoring it.

“When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee” — the Hebrew word for ‘kiss’ here is used also in Proverbs 7:13. It is not the ordinary word for kissing, it is the kiss of a very clever and well-trained prostitute. In other words, ‘I would learn to kiss you so that you would be utterly intrigued with me.’

“yea, I should not be despised” — the word ‘I’ is not found here in the Hebrew, it is ‘they should not despise you.’ They are her brothers. One of the problems they have had in their relationship is that the brothers despised the shepherd lover, and that is why they hustled the young lady off to the north country where they had their vineyards and where Solomon discovered her and all of this broke loose.

Verse 2 — “I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house.” This is a formal engagement type of request. To be led into the mother’s house is idiomatic for a formal engagement.

“who would instruct me” — this is not what the Hebrew says. It says, ‘you would instruct me.’ This is the piel imperfect of lamadh which means to give careful, personal and detailed instruction. In other words, this is the expression of her shyness. She feels she needs some kind of instruction for human love. This is the silly idea that plagues the human race from time to time. No one needs experience. Experience doesn’t make you better, experience often makes you worse. The whole doctrine of adultery is to head you off at the pass from experience, you don’t need experience. When a woman finds her right man all she needs to do is be a normal woman, the man will take it from there. She is correct when she says, ‘You will teach me.’ The piel stem of lamadh is intensive, it will be a very interesting classroom which will last for the rest of their lives and she will enjoy every bit of it.

“I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate” — in the ancient world the pomegranate was an erotic symbol on the part of the woman. The drinking of spiced wine and so on is that she would make herself available to him at all times. This is really an expression of her response in category #2 love. With that mental attitude she doesn’t need experience.

Verse 3 — once again, as she has dreamed all the way through the Song of Solomon. “His left hand under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.” This has been her constant thought with regard to her shepherd lover.

Verse 4 — she describes her faithfulness. He is still driving the chariot and she is still talking. She is expressing what she has been holding up for all of the time of her separation, she just can’t stop talking, and that is good. We learn a lot of doctrine from some of the things that are going to be said.

“I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem [the virgins of the harem], that ye stir not up, nor awake love, until she [love] pleases.” In other words, she is waiting for her right man and no one else will do, and don’t try to sell her on someone else. The daughters of Jerusalem had tried to talk up Solomon. But because of doctrine, because of the protection of her right man, she was not stirred up and was not interested in Solomon. She refuses to express her category #2 love in any way except toward her shepherd lover, her right man. This, again, is the principle of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

Verse 5 — this begins Act 5. We start with some bystanders again. These are people who don’t have anything to do so they are standing around the edge of the village of Shunem to watch the traffic. “Who is this who cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”

Then her mother joins the bystanders and in the middle of verse 5 she says, “I raised thee up under the apple tree,” I taught you to be a proper young lady, and what is this you are doing? The mother is defending herself, ‘Well I taught her better than that.’

“There thy mother brought thee forth; there she brought thee forth that bare thee.” In other words, she was brought up under proper conditions. She was her daughter and from the earliest of childhood she trained her properly. Obviously, what is said here is said while the chariot approaches. The next two verses are a dialogue in the chariot and it is one of the most important dialogues in the entire book.

Verse 6 — the first phrase is uttered by the shepherd lover. “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is as strong as death.”

Then the Shulamite woman starts in with the word ‘jealousy,’ and she says, “jealousy is as cruel as the grave.” The rest of it is not correctly translated in the KJV, but down through the end of verse 7 we have the Shulamite woman speaking. Then in verse 8 the two brothers are going to start a dialogue.

We are at the point where they are approaching in the chariot and we have this beautiful phrase uttered by the shepherd lover. He is her right man and he speaks to the Shulamite woman as his right woman. The combination of body and soul between one man and one woman designed by God in eternity past is the category #2 principle which is expressed in this passage. He speaks in the qal imperative, this is the aggressiveness of the male in the right man, right woman relationship. It is the qal imperative of the Hebrew word sum; it is a command that comes from confidence, it is a command that comes from the identification of the right woman.

“Set me” doesn’t mean to set at all, it means to impress. A seal has to be impressed upon wax to be used. The seal isn’t really a seal at all, it is a signet ring — chaotah, a signet ring which every woman carried on a string or some kind of chain suspended around her neck and which suspended between her breasts. We find this custom first in Grenesis 38:18. The signet ring was something which represented waiting for the right man. He is saying in effect, ‘Identify me as your right man.’ When he says ‘Seal me’ that means that she was to take it off and impress it in him. He was, as it were, the wax. By putting her signet to him she is saying, ‘I am yours for life.’ When a woman took a signet from off her neck and gave it to the man that meant that she belonged to him, soul and body. This was a recognition of category #2 love. This meant that she knew in eternity past that God had designed a man for her, and that no other man would do, and that no other man was necessary. There was just one man who would fulfil the principle and therefore she was willing to wait for that one man.

Notice that he commands her to ‘impress the seal upon thine heart.’ It refers to the right lobe of the woman. In the right lobe she has a frame of reference, a memory centre, she has doctrine, she has the experience of identification with him, and therefore the word heart is actually referring to the frame of reference in the memory centre. It is the frame of reference in the right lobe that identifies the right man. It is first of all a soul identification.

‘Upon thine heart’

1. It refers to the frame of reference in the right lobe. It becomes a matter of identification.

2. Since the heart is a part of the soul, soul love precedes sex love.

3. The right man must first be in the soul of the right woman — in the right lobe.

4. Once in her soul the right man never leaves.

5. The woman will never be satisfied with another man once he is there.

6. But in her vindictiveness she may go to another man. This will develop a fantastic frustration.

7. In her heart [right lobe, frame of reference] the man fulfils the woman.

a) He fulfils her norms and standards — Song of Solomon 2:3

b) He gives reality to her romantic dreams and imagination — Song of Solomon 8:1-3.

c) When he is absent he provides fragrance of memory — Song of Solomon 1:13; 4:6.

d) He provides soul stimulation which is the basis for sex stimulation — Song of Solomon 1:16,17.

“as a seal upon thy fingers [not the arm]” — al zeroa means fingers, not arm. This indicates marriage. This could be interpreted as a seal upon your strength, for the man in fulfilling the woman’s body becomes her strength — the fulfilment of the sex relationship.

“for love is as strong as death” — the Hebrew word for ‘love’ is ahabah and it comes from the verb ahab. In the qal stem it meant strong breathing, the breathing which comes from the sex relationship, and that is really the concept behind it. It is the concept of love which relates the soul to the body. The word for ‘strong’ means fortified — azah. The words ‘as death’ — God has designed provision for both love and death. For death He has provided the doctrine of dying grace, for love He has provided right man, right woman which is a part of living grace.

The doctrine of category #2 love

1. There are three general categories of love;

a) Category #1 is toward God — Deuteronomy 6:5; Romans 8:35; 1 John 4:19.

b) Category #2 love is right man, right woman — Song of Solomon 8:6,7.

c) Category #3 love is toward friends — John 15:13; 2 Samuel 1:26.

2. The strength of category #2 love is given in Song of Solomon 8:6,7. It is as strong as death and therefore cannot be quenched by any pressure of life. Love is as strong as death means that there is nothing in life that can quench category #2 love once it is there.

3. However, death destroys pseudo love and mental attitude sins — Ecclesiastes 9:5,6.

4. Category #2 love produces an exclusive and perfect happiness which is self-sustaining and partner-sustaining, it does not depend on anyone else — Proverbs 15:17.

5. Therefore category #2 love is protective. It is protective in absence of right man, right woman — Song of Solomon 1:13; 4:6. It is also protective in presence — Song of Solomon 2:4.

6. Category #2 love illustrates relationship between believers and the Lord: believers in Israel — Jeremiah chapters 2 & 3; Ezekiel 16; 23; believers in the Church Age — Ephesians 5:23-33.

7. Mental attitude sins attack all forms of true love — 1 John 5:18. This includes pride, the woman who is too proud to take certain things from her right man. Also, jealousy, vindictiveness, etc.

8. Category #2 love is the provision of God’s grace — Proverbs 18:22, correctly translated: “Whosoever finds the right woman receives grace from the Lord.” Divine institution #2 is designed for category #2 love — Ephesians 5:25,28,33; Colossians 3:19.

9. God has set aside time in each life for category #2 love — Ecclesiastes 3:8. However certain functions in life can destroy this time: not waiting for the right man or the right woman, adultery, drug addiction, mental attitude sins.

10. Women must be taught to love under category #2 — Titus 2:4. Women have to be taught to love. Since she is the responder she actually has to be trained in this.

Verse 6b — “jealousy is as cruel as the grave” is a parenthesis and it belongs to the Shulamite woman. Now the shepherd lover goes right on.

The Hebrew word for ‘jealousy’ is qenaah. It is used not only for jealousy. It means to become flushed and then to become intensely something that caused the blood pressure to go up. It is actually a word for blood pressure. It is the effect of mental attitude sins on the individual. Jealousy is not only a mental attitude sin and the great enemy of category #2 love but jealousy here represents all the mental attitude sins. This parenthesis which for a moment discontinues the shepherd lover’s discourse on love is actually set up in the conversation to show that there is an interruption. She interrupts him when she says jealousy is as cruel as the grave. He is talking about love being as strong as death and when she interrupts him that is exactly the concept of mental attitude sins. They are the interrupter of category #2 love.

The word for ‘cruel’ is the qal perfect of qashah which means ‘harsh, hard, cruel, adamant, non-responsive; “as the grave” — the grave robs of loved ones, therefore jealousy robs of love capacity of category #2. Mental attitude sins do exactly the same things that the grave does, they bereave of loved ones. Jealousy can completely destroy category #2 love. There is no problem of jealousy between the shepherd lover and the Shulamite woman, this is stated as a principle.

The doctrine of jealousy

1. So great was the sin of jealousy that a special offering was designated for it under the Levitical code. It is the only special sin of any kind that gets this high rating — Numbers 5:11ff.

2. Jealousy is the basis for destruction of category #2 love — Song of Solomon 8:6.

3. Mental attitude sins like jealousy destroy any individual — Job 5:2. Job’s psychosis was based upon mental attitude sins. His was bitterness. Proverbs 14:30.

4. Jealousy, therefore, is the strongest mental attitude sin — Proverbs 27:3,4.

5. Love (any kind) precedes jealousy — Ecclesiastes 9:6.

6. Jealousy motivates to revenge — Proverbs 6:34. Here is where you get into serious trouble in your spiritual life because when jealousy pushes you into the revenge area you have taken a real or an apparent wrong out of the Lord’s hands and therefore have intruded upon the divine prerogative — Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19.

7. Jealousy split the nation of Israel. The motivation for the ten tribes revolting from Judah was Ephraim’s jealousy — Isaiah 11:13.

8. Jealousy was a motivator of the religious leaders who crucified Christ — Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10.

9. Jealousy of the authority of Joseph motivated his brothers to sell him into slavery — Acts 7:9.

10. Whenever a believer is negative toward Bible doctrine sooner or later he is going to find a jealousy level. Negative volition manifests itself in jealousy — Romans 1:28,29 teaches the principle where it is used for an unbeliever.

11. Jealousy, then, rejects the teaching of Bible doctrine — Acts 13:45; 17:5.

12. False doctrine produces its own jealousy — 1 Timothy 6:4. The words ‘jealousy’ and ‘envy’ are synonymous terms in both the Hebrew and the Greek.

“its coals are the coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame” — this sentence is completely erroneous. The word for ‘coals’ is reshapejah and it means flame. The jah is the third feminine singular suffix and it means ‘her flame.’ This is the flame of category #2 love. So in place of “the coals” should be ‘her flame.’ Then we have the word ‘flame’ again, the same resheph again, and it means “her flames [loves] are flames of fire” — no verb. This phrase means that category #2 love has a passion, a power, a tenderness, an intensity that cannot be duplicated in anything else in life. It is exclusive. Remember that category #1 love is toward God and it involves the soul. Category #3 love is toward friends and it involves the soul. Only category #2 love (right man, right woman) involves the body. In other words, category #2 love is the only love where there is any touching, where the body is involved.

“a most vehement flame” — shelheveth means a most intense flame, it is another word for flame but now the flame is intensified. The suffix in the Hebrew text is jah. That would mean ‘it,’ and it would be translated “its flame.” But in the correct reading there is a little dot on the Hebrew and that changes the meaning of the suffix from the word ‘it’ to the word for God. But it is the word for God, jah [two letters], instead of Jehovah [four letters]. This two-letter word, when it is used for God, is used for God in connection with believer and unbeliever. So this word, the intense flame, says the flame is from Jah, from God. Category #2 love is for believers and unbelievers: “the intense flame is from the Lord.” Jah is used instead of Jehovah for the simple reason that this is a principle that applies to believers and unbelievers. Literally, “her flames are flames if fire, the intense flame of [or ‘from’] the Lord.” Hence, all right man, right woman love whether it is two believers or two unbelievers is designed by God in eternity past. God designed one man for one woman.

Verse 7 — the shepherd lover continues: the durability of category #2 love. “Many waters cannot quench love.” ‘Many waters’ means the pressures, disasters, the difficulties, the misunderstandings, nothing is going to put out the fire. When you pour water on this fire it just becomes strong, there is no way you can put it out. We have the hophal a jakal for ‘quench,’ the causative passive stem in the Hebrew. The word means are not able, it has a negative lo. It should be translated ‘is not able.’ Then there is a piel infinitive ‘to extinguish.’ “many waters are not able to extinguish” — kabah in the piel, the intensive stem. The intensity of attempts, the pressure often becomes intense to destroy it. It cannot be destroyed.

“love” — literally, ‘the love,’ the right man, right woman relationship designed by God.

“neither can the floods drown it” — the floods: in this case we have a masculine noun brought in, nahar. It has a feminine plural construct suffix, and it is a reference to the rivers or the floods of water. It is no accident that we have a masculine noun and a feminine suffix tacked on because that is category #2 love. The word ‘drown’ is the qal imperfect of shataph. There is no way to destroy what God has designed. You can distort it, you can run from it, you can destroy capacity, you can knock out the happiness connected with it, but you can’t change it.

“If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, he would utterly be contemned.” The word ‘contemned’ is old English for ‘despised’ and happens to be a correct translation 300 years ago. The word for ‘give’ used here, he would give all of his substance, qal imperfect of nathan. It is in the qal imperfect which means he would make payments. If it was in the perfect he would pay it all at once, but the qal imperfect means he would keep on giving for the rest of his life just to buy this love. But it can’t be bought.

To try to buy it, “it would be utterly contemned” — qal infinitive plus a qal imperfect of the verb buz and the word means to despise. It should be translated, ‘despising they would despise him.’ You cannot buy category #2 love. You cannot buy what God has designed.

Verse 8 — the brothers have arrived and begin to speak. The first brother says as the chariot arrives, “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts.” Having no breasts is an idiom for she is not of marriageable age. But then the second brother begins to suspect that maybe marriage is closer than they think: “What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?”

Verse 9 — the first brother answers. “If she be a wall [virgin] we will build upon her a palace of silver” — we are going to give her a great dowry; “but if she is a door [promiscuity], we will enclose her with boards of cedar.” The brothers took a very dim view of anything except category #2 love.

Verse 10 — The Shulamite woman speaks in the rest of this book. She assures her brothers. “I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers [I am ready for marriage]; then was I in his eyes as one that found grace” — he is designed for me.

Verse 11 — she explains. “Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon [apparently adjoining the vineyard where she was chasing the foxes]; he let out the vineyard unto keepers” — she explains how she got into the hands of Solomon.

“everyone for the fruit of it was to bring out a thousand pieces of silver” — in other words, Solomon was checking his business deal. That is why he was up north and that is how he spotted her in the next vineyard chasing the foxes. That is when he brought her into his harem.

Verse 12 — she goes to her own personal life. “My vineyard, which is mine” — we have two possessive pronouns indicating she has freedom of choice. A response love in a woman must be from freedom. A woman’s freedom must never be destroyed, she must always be free to respond to her right man; “is before me; thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand” — she is talking about the size of his harem, and she is accurate, according to 1 Kings 11:1-9.

“and those who keep the fruit thereof its two hundred” — she is explaining where she was a part of the virgin part in the harem who did a certain job.

Verse 13 — “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions harken to thy voice. Cause me to hear it.” She is turning to her shepherd lover in front of her brothers. The word ‘gardens’ means pleasurable memories in contrast to fragrance of memories. In other words, the brothers are listening and want to hear her declaration. Then to make sure that the brothers understand that this is her right man she concludes, verse 14:

“Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices” — mountains of spices is an idiom for the build-up of even greater memories in the future. Memories are going to be built out of the most beautiful possible relationship.