Discovery BoxThe Song of Songs 8:3-5
ContextThe Beloved about Her Lover:
8:3 His left hand caresses my head,
and his right hand stimulates me. 1
The Beloved to the Maidens:
8:4 I admonish you, O maidens 2 of Jerusalem:
“Do not 3 arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”
The Maidens about His Beloved:
8:5 Who is this coming up from the desert,
leaning on her beloved?
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Under the apple tree I aroused you; 4
there your mother conceived you,
there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth. 5
[8:3] 1 tn See the notes on 2:6, which is parallel to this verse.
[8:4] 2 tn Heb “daughters of Jerusalem.”
[8:4] 3 tn Heb “Why arouse or awaken …?” Although the particle מָה (mah) is used most often as an interrogative pronoun (“What?” “Why?”), it also can be used as a particle of negation. For example, “How (מָה) could I look at a girl?” means “I have not looked at a girl!” (Job 31:1); “What (מַה) do we have to drink?” means “We have nothing to drink” (Exod 15:24); “What (מַה) part do we have?” means “We have no part” (1 Kgs 12:16); and “Why (מַה) arouse or awaken love?” means “Do not arouse or awaken love!” (Song 8:4). See HALOT 551 s.v. מָה C.
[8:5] 4 sn The imagery of v. 6 is romantic: (1) His mother originally conceived him with his father under the apple tree, (2) his mother gave birth to him under the apple tree, and (3) the Beloved had now awakened him to love under the same apple tree. The cycle of life and love had come around full circle under the apple tree. While his mother had awakened his eyes to life, the Beloved had awakened him to love. His parents had made love under the apple tree to conceive him in love, and now Solomon and his Beloved were making love under the same apple tree of love.
[8:5] 5 tn Or “went into labor.” The verb חָבַל (khaval, “become pregnant”) is repeated in 8:6b and 8:6c, and has a two-fold range of meaning: (1) transitive: “to conceive [a child]” and (2) intransitive: “to be in travail [of childbirth]” (HALOT 286 s.v. IV חבל). In 8:6b it denotes “to conceive,” and in 8:6c it is “to be in travail [of childbirth].”
