(To the Daughters of Jerusalem)
Love Renewed in Lebanon
A Relative
Leaning upon her beloved?
I awakened you under the apple tree.
There your mother brought you forth;
There she who bore you brought you forth.
The Shulamite to Her Beloved
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
bJealousy as1 cruel as the grave;
Its flames are flames of fire,
1A most vehement flame.
Nor can the floods drown it.
aIf a man would give for love
All the wealth of his house,
It would be utterly despised.
The Shulamite’s Brothers
And she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
In the day when she is spoken for?
We will build upon her
A battlement of silver;
And if she is a door,
We will enclose her
With boards of cedar.
The Shulamite
aHe leased the vineyard to keepers;
Everyone was to bring for its fruit
A thousand silver coins.
(To Solomon)
You, O Solomon, may have a thousand,
And those who tend its fruit two hundred.
The Beloved
The Shulamite
| << Song of Solomon 8:4 | Song of Solomon 8:6 >> |
Song of Solomon 8:5
That cometh up from the wilderness - Perhaps the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, who, seeing the bride returning from the country, leaning on the arm of her beloved, are filled with admiration at her excellent carriage and beauty.
I raised thee up under the apple tree - The original of this clause is obscure, and has given birth to various translations. The following is nearly literal: "Under the apple tree I excited thee (to espouse me): there, thy mother contracted thee; - there, she that brought thee forth contracted thee (to me). Or it may be understood of the following circumstance: The bridegroom found her once asleep under an apple tree, and awoke her; and this happened to be the very place where her mother, taken in untimely labor, had brought her into the world." And here the bridegroom, in his fondness and familiarity, recalls these little adventures to her memory.
The Vulgate gives this an abominable meaning.
Sub arbore malo suscitavi te: ibi corrupta est mater tua; ibi violata est genetrix tua ; "I raised thee up under the apple tree: it was there that thy mother was corrupted; it was there that she who brought thee forth was violated." Spiritually, all this is applied to Eve losing her purity by sin; and Jesus as the promised seed raising her up by the promise of mercy, through the blood of his cross. But the text says nothing of this.
| << Song of Solomon 8:4 | Song of Solomon 8:6 >> |
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