The Song of Songs 8:8-9

The Brother’s Plan and the Sister’s Reward

The Beloved’s Brothers:

8:8 We have a little sister,

and as yet she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister

on the day when she is spoken for?

8:9 If she is a wall,

we will build on her a battlement of silver;

but if she is a door,

we will barricade her with boards of cedar.

The Song of Songs 8:1

The Beloved’s Wish Song

The Beloved to Her Lover:

8:1 Oh, how I wish you were my little brother,

nursing at my mother’s breasts;

if I saw you outside, I could kiss you –

surely no one would despise me!

The Song of Songs 3:3-6

3:3 The night watchmen found me – the ones who guard the city walls.

“Have you seen my beloved?”

3:4 Scarcely had I passed them by

when I found my beloved!

I held onto him tightly and would not let him go

until I brought him to my mother’s house,

to the bedroom chamber of the one who conceived me.

The Adjuration Refrain

The Beloved to the Maidens:

3:5 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields:

“Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

The Royal Wedding Procession

The Speaker:

3:6 Who is this coming up from the desert

like a column of smoke,

like a fragrant billow of myrrh and frankincense,

every kind of fragrant powder of the traveling merchants?