Song of Songs 8

This is a repeat of her request in 2:7 and 3:5. What she’s asking of the ladies in Jerusalem isn’t all that clear. Some say Some say she’s advising them not to rush into falling in love, but rather to wait until the time is right. Others say she’s giving them a “Do Not Disturb” sign, and telling them not to rattle the pans to wake this lover up and end her wonderful night. That could make more sense to some than the idea that the love-aggressive lady is telling others not to be so aggressive. From the sounds of this poem so far, the lady has been nothing but aggressive.

In the Bible and in other ancient Middle Eastern writings, the apple was a fruit often associated with lovemaking. When we see “apple” in the Song of Songs, somebody is getting a wet kiss. Not a friendly peck on the cheek or a polite “welcome.”

It’s not clear if the Hebrew word hbl refers to conception or to struggling through childbirth. Hebrew was written in shorthand, with consonants only. We have to fill in the vowels, based on context clues from the other words in the section. Depending on which vowels we use, the translation can go either way.

The poet writes in metaphor, using what some scholars say is the word wall, to mean walled off from sexual intercourse. Door the poet seems to use as a metaphor for open doors of sexual activity. So, if this interpretation is right, a woman who’s a wall is a virgin. A woman with an open door is not.

Location uncertain. Some scholars associate it with the city of Hammon (Joshua 19:38), in the tribe of Ashur, along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Baal-hamon was also the name of a god from Lebanon.

Shekels.  A thousand silver shekels is about 37 pounds (17 kg). Here, some say it seems to refer to Solomon’s 1,000 wives. “He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines” (1 Kings 11:3 New American Standard Version).