The Power of Love
The Young Woman
v1 I wish that you were like my brother.
My mother fed him at her breasts.
Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you.
Nobody would say that it was wrong!
v2 I would lead you to my mother’s house.
She is the person who taught me.
I would give you wine with spices.
And you could drink wine from my pomegranates.
v3 Your left arm is under my head.
And your right arm holds me.
v4 Women in Jerusalem, make a promise to me.
Do not think about love until the right time.
The Women in Jerusalem
v5 Who is this coming from the desert?
She is leaning on her lover.
The Young Woman
I woke you under the apple tree.
It was the place where you were born.
It was the time when your mother struggled at your birth.
v6 Keep me near you like a seal.
Keep the seal on your arm
because love is as strong as death.
Strong love is as strong as death.
It quickly becomes like a flame.
And that flame becomes a great fire!
v7 If love were like fire, then even plentiful water could not put it out.
A river can be powerful.
But nothing can stop our love.
A man might offer all his wealth for love.
But someone else would not want this offer.
Friends
And her breasts are still small.
A man might ask her to marry him.
But we will not know what to do.
v9 If she becomes like a wall,
we shall build her a silver parapet.
If she becomes like a door,
we shall put cedar boards round her.
The Young Woman
v10 I am like a wall.
And my breasts have grown strong.
I have made my husband content.
v11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon.
Men rented his vineyard from him.
And each man brought fruit to him.
This fruit was worth 1000 pieces of silver.
v12 But my own vineyard is mine to give.
The 1000 pieces of silver are for you, Solomon.
And 200 pieces of silver can pay the workers who look after the vineyard.
The Young Man
v13 Let me hear your voice from the garden, my dear.
My friends are waiting to hear you speak.
The Young Woman
v14 Come with me, my lover.
Be like a gazelle
or a young deer on the mountains of spice.
Commentary
Verse 1
Love is not just about the relationship between a bride and her bridegroom. It is much more wonderful even than that. In this chapter, the poet mentions some new subjects, like love between brothers and sisters. And the poet shows how love continues after marriage and even to death. Love is, he says, ‘as strong as death’ (verse 6). It seems that he wants to emphasize the greatness and the power of love.
When this chapter begins, the man and woman are already married. Some people think that they may already have children. Certainly, the woman is thinking about how children behave. She imagines herself as a little girl. She wishes that she knew her husband then! Her love for him is so wonderful. So she wishes that she had always known that love.
For a long time before their marriage, this man and woman loved each other. But they had to be very careful about their behavior. They were anxious only to do those things that were proper. In their society, a young woman would not kiss a young man whom she liked. But a little girl can kiss her young brother. Nobody thinks that such an act is wrong. So this woman imagines that the man was her brother. Then she could have always shown love to him, even in public.
Verse 2
Such a little girl can show love to her brother in many different ways. She can stay with him, and she can lead him about. She can take him into her home. She can make a special drink for him.
That drink is wine. Its juice comes from pomegranates. It contains spices. Elsewhere in the Song, those things are all word pictures for love. So, the girl is showing love to her brother. She is showing it by her desire to look after him well. She wants him to be content and happy. So she works hard for him, and she gives him precious things. All of these things are expressions of love. And this is real love.
We must not imagine that sex is the only way to express love. And we must not imagine that we can only have real love for our husbands and wives. Sex is only for husbands and their wives. But love for brothers and sisters can be real love. Love for friends can be real love. Love for children and parents can be real love. The Bible tells us that Christians should love each other, too. We express such love when we use our lives to help other people (see verse 7).
Verses 3-4
The woman repeats her words from 2:6-7. If she were still a little girl, she could show love for her brother. But at that time, she could not show love to the man who would become her husband. Even when she became a young woman, she could not express love to him until the right time. There is a proper time for love. And she knew that she had to wait for that time. As she waited, she had to be careful about her behavior with him. She could only marry him when the right time arrived. And only then did she have the opportunity to express her love to him completely.
Verse 5
As she walked, she leaned on him. She walked close to him. And she depended on his strength.
The passage that follows is difficult to understand. But it is a beautiful passage.
At its start, the passage mentions an apple tree. In 2:2-5, the woman used an apple tree as a word picture for the man. She described how she loved to sit in its shade and to eat its fruit.
Here, she links the tree with the idea of birth. The poet is showing a relationship between love and birth. The poet’s style is impressive because in the next verse he will write about death. He is making his poem much more serious. And he achieves this very suddenly. This makes the effect even more impressive.
Verse 6
A seal is a mark. Its purpose is often to show that someone owns something. The mark is permanent. The woman mentions the seal to say that their love is permanent. It will last for their whole lives. It is so powerful that they must never end it.
Love is as strong as death. This husband and wife will love each other for as long as they both live. When one of them dies, the married relationship will end. But the love will not end. The other one might remarry. But that person’s life will always be different because of the love that the original married couple knew.
Death is powerful. It overcomes a person completely. But love is also powerful. Love also overcomes a person completely. In fact, God’s love is so powerful that in the end, it will even defeat death (John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:54; Revelation 21:2-4). When Jesus became alive again after his death, he overcame the power of death (Romans 6:8-9).
Love is like fire. This is so for the same reason that love is like death. Fire too overcomes people completely. The Bible sometimes compares death to a terrible animal that eats people alive! Fire is like that too; nobody can control it. And love is like that, but of course in an opposite manner. It is powerful, but real love is always good. It always benefits people. It always helps people. It always is kind to people. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
Verse 7
Plentiful water can put out a fire. But nothing can put out love. Nothing can destroy real love.
Love is not something that a person can buy. It is a gift. One person gives it, without price, to another person. Or God gives it, without price, to us.
Love does cost something. It costs the person who gives it. It costs that person’s life. That is so because the person gives his or her life to another person. When a person marries, that person does not still have complete freedom. That person cannot still do whatever he or she wants to do. If a husband and wife genuinely love each other, that will affect their whole lives.
And God’s love too was not without cost. It cost the life of his Son, Jesus. He gave his life for us because he loved us. And now he wants us to invite him into our lives. He wants to have the relationship with us that only his love could provide. We cannot earn that relationship and we cannot pay for it. But we can receive it because he offers it to us as a free gift.
Verse 8
After such serious matters, the poet returns to the subject of children.
The woman’s brothers were cruel to her. They forced her to work hard (1:6). But that is not a proper way for brothers to behave towards their younger sisters. It is clear from the Song that a woman’s purpose is not to live like a slave. A young woman deserves proper honor. People should respect her.
So, the people discuss the proper way to look after a girl. They try to work out how they should prepare other girls to marry well.
This sister’s breasts are still small because she is just a child. She is not old enough to marry yet. But if her family wants her to marry a good husband, they should start to prepare now.
Verse 9
The people answer their own question.
If people want a wall to be stronger, they build a *parapet over it. If people want a door to be stronger, they put boards round it. So, the answer is clear. The family must look after the girl well. Then she will become stronger.
But the family does not just want her to be stronger. They also want her to be more beautiful. And they want her to have a more pleasant character.
If people use silver instead of stone, a wall would be very beautiful and pleasant. If people use the best wood, their door would be very beautiful and pleasant. So the family must train the girl well. And then she will become a graceful and pleasant young woman.
Verse 10
The young woman seems pleased with the answer that the people have given. She compares herself to a wall with strong towers. By the towers, she means her breasts. This is not how the man described her breasts earlier (7:3). He compared her breasts to small animals. But now she refers to something that everyone considered large.
A woman’s breasts become much larger when she produces milk for a baby. So it is possible that this verse shows that she has a baby. Not everybody agrees about that. But clearly, she is saying that her breasts are strong. And that they will make her family strong. When she does have a baby, that baby will have a good supply of milk. And, as a wall defends a city, so this woman will defend her family well.
The result of this is that she has made her husband content. He is content, and he is safe. The word ‘content’ here is the same as the word for ‘safety’ or ‘peace’. She defends her family well – they are like a peaceful city!
Verses 11-12
The woman returns to the subject of her vineyard. She mentioned that vineyard in 1:6.
It was not usual for women to own their own land in ancient Israel. Sometimes they might receive land after their fathers’ deaths if they had no brothers. So we cannot really say how she began to own this land. We could guess that her father gave her the property to help her to find a husband. But that is just a guess. Ruth had rights because of her family’s property in Ruth 4:3-5.
However, the Song says that this woman had her own vineyard. Before her marriage, she neglected it. She did not want to neglect it. But her brothers forced her to work hard for them. So she did not have any time to look after her own vineyard.
But now, after her marriage, she can manage her vineyard. She is not working there herself. But she has employed workmen. However, this is not just a commercial arrangement, as the royal vineyards in verse 11. Instead, the profits are her gift to her husband (whom she calls by the king’s name, Solomon). She gives him these rich profits because she wants to give a generous gift to her husband. She loves him, and this gift shows her love.
Verse 13
The gift in verse 12 is very precious. But the man does not just appreciate his wife’s gifts! He genuinely loves her. He loves to hear her voice. He respects her, and he gives her honor. He asks her to end the Song.
Verse 14
Other people are present (verse 13), but the woman does not speak to them. Instead, she speaks only to her husband. She wants to show her love to him alone. She invites him to join her. Like the gazelles and the deer, he knows the right time for love. And she does too. The right time is now. And the right place is the mountains, where beautiful smells fill the air.
With that lovely word picture in words, the Song of Songs ends.
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