Song of Solomon 8:8

8:8-12 The church pleads for the Gentiles, who then had not the word of God, nor the means of grace. Those who are brought to Christ themselves, should contrive what they may do to help others to him. Babes in Christ are always seen among Christians, and the welfare of their weak brethren is an object of continual prayer with the stronger believers. If the beginning of this work were likened to a wall built upon Him the precious Foundation and Corner-stone, then the Gentile church would become as a palace for the great King, built of solid silver. If the first preaching of the gospel were as the making a door through the wall of partition, that door should be lasting, as cased with boards of durable cedar. She shall be carefully and effectually protected, enclosed so as to receive no damage. The church is full of care for those yet uncalled. Christ says, I will do all that is necessary to be done for them. See with what satisfaction we should look back upon the times and seasons, when we were in his eyes as those that find favour. Our hearts are our vineyards, which we must keep with all diligence. To Christ, and to his praise, all our fruits must be dedicated. All that work for Christ, work for themselves, and shall be unspeakable gainers by it.

Song of Solomon 8:8 . We have a little sister — These are still the words of the bride. The present church, which was that of the Jews, speaks of another future church, which was to consist of the Gentiles, which she calls little, because she was the younger sister, and then, as a church, scarce had a being. And she calls her her sister, partly because she was such in the foreknowledge and purpose of God, their common Father, though, at present, in a great measure, a stranger to him; and partly to intimate that this Gentile church should be admitted to the participation of the same privileges with that of the Jews. And she hath no breasts — No grown and full breasts, as virgins have when they are ripe for marriage. This signifies the present deplorable state of religion among the Gentiles, and their want of the word and ordinances of God, the means of instruction and consolation, the milk and food of life for themselves and their posterity. They were neither married to the heavenly bridegroom, nor in a state to be married to him. What shall we do for our sister? — Namely, to fit her for this spiritual marriage? How shall we supply this defect? How shall we promote the conversion of the Gentiles, and their union with the promised Messiah? In the day when she shall be spoken for — When proposals of marriage shall be made from the King of heaven, and her consent shall be required?

(8) We have a little sister. —Commentators are almost all at one in the feeling that the poem properly ends with Song of Solomon 8:7 . Those who construct the poem on the plan of a drama can find no proper place for what follows (unless as a meaningless epilogue), and the want of cohesion with the main body of the work is so evident that many scholars have rejected it as a later addition; others have tried to find a place for it by re-arranging the whole poem. But if the various sections are, as above explained, only a succession of different presentments of the same story of courtship and marriage, made without any regard to order, but simply as they occurred to the memory of the poet, this conclusion presents no difficulty, either from its position or its meaning. With a view to artistic form, we might wish it away or in some other part of the poem; but the author had no regard to artistic form, or not the same conception of it as we have. A little sister . . .—The recollection is carried back to the childhood of the bride. Her brothers are supposed to be debating how to deal with her when an offer of marriage should be made for her. In the day when she shall be spoken for?—i.e., asked in marriage (comp. 1Samuel 25:29). At present she is unmarriageable.

A brief dialogue commencing with a question and answer probably made by brothers of the bride concerning a younger sister who will soon be old enough to be asked in marriage. The answer is given in the form of a parable: "If she be a wall," i. e., stedfast in chastity and virtue, one on whom no light advances can be made, then let us honor and reward her. This fortress-wall shall be crowned as it were with a tower or battlement of silver. But "if she be a door," light-minded and accessible to seduction Proverbs 7:11-12 , then let us provide against assailants the protection of a cedar bar or panel.

These are manifestly the words of the bride, still continuing her speech. The present church, which was that of the Jews, speaks of another future church, which was to consist of the Gentiles, which she calls little, because she was the younger sister, and then scarce had a being; and she calls her her sister, partly because she was so in the purpose of God, their common Father, though at present she was a stranger to him; and partly to intimate that the Gentile church should be admitted to the participation of the same privileges with that of the Jews. She hath no breasts; no grown and full breasts, as virgins have when they are ripe for marriage, Ezekiel 16:7 . This signifies the present doleful estate of the Gentiles, which as yet were not grown up into a church estate, and wanted the milk or food of life, as for itself so also for its members. What shall we do for our sister? teach us to know and perform our duty to them, which is to embrace them with sincere and fervent affections, to promote their coming in to Christ, and to rejoice in it, and not to envy it, and murmur at it, as the Jews did in the days of Christ and of his apostles. In the day when she shall be spoken for, to wit, for bringing her into the state of matrimony; when Christ and his apostles, and others, the first ministers of the gospel, who were members of the Jewish church, did speak and act for the conversion of the Gentiles.

8. The Gentile Church (Eze 16:48). "We," that is, the Hebrew Church, which heretofore admitted Gentiles to communion, only by becoming Judaic proselytes. Now first idolatrous Gentiles are admitted directly (Ac 11:17-26). Generally, the saint's anxiety for other souls (Mr 5:19; Joh 4:28, 29). no breasts—neither faith nor love as yet (see on [684]So 4:5), which "come by hearing" of Him who first loved us. Not yet fit to be His bride, and mother of a spiritual offspring. what shall we do—the chief question in the early Church at the first council (Ac 15:23-29). How shall "the elder brother" treat the "younger," already received by the Father (Lu 15:25-32)? Generally (2Sa 15:15; Joh 9:4; Ac 9:6; Ga 6:10). In the day … spoken for—that is, when she shall be sought in marriage (Jud 14:7), namely, by Jesus Christ, the heavenly bridegroom.

8 . she hath no breasts ] She is not yet of marriageable age. in the day when she shall be spoken for ] i.e. when she is asked in marriage. Cp. 1 Samuel 25:39 , R.V. This conversation too does not fit in well with Budde’s view, for it clearly implies some special story told of particular persons. How it could appear in a collection of songs for use at weddings in general it is difficult to see. The anger of the brothers mentioned in ch. Song of Solomon 1:6 , and the sending of their sister into the vineyards, together with their over-anxiety here, can hardly be circumstances which regularly occurred and were regularly introduced in the songs at weddings. Budde says indeed that we have nothing here but an Oriental version of what is found in popular songs in Europe where the mother is informed very plainly that the daughter is grown up and seeks marriage. But that is by no means a parallel case. It is not the general fact of growing up unnoticed from childhood to womanhood that is dealt with here. It is such circumstances as can be accounted for only by events which were related in some well-known story. 8, 9 . The Shulammite recalls her brothers’ scornful speeches. Chap. Song of Solomon 8:8-14 . Reminiscences and Triumphs This section is one of those which weigh heavily on the side of the view that the Song is a series of dramatic lyrics rather than a connected drama. For as Oettli admits, it is very difficult to find place for such a scene as this in a drama.

But taken as a dramatic lyric it has an almost exact analogy in Tennyson’s Maud , which he calls a melodrama, and which is made up of separate but connected poems. There we have in Part VII a song of four verses, referring to a conversation remembered by the hero of the poem as having taken place between his father and Maud’s, regarding his future marriage, if the child of the latter, at that time only expected, should prove to be a daughter. It is introduced quite abruptly as this song is here, and the circumstances have to be gathered from the words: “Men were drinking together, Drinking and talking of me, ‘Well, if it prove a girl, the boy Will have plenty, so let it be’ ”; and so on. Following that analogy, we have to imagine the bride now returned to her home and recalling what she had heard her brothers ( Song of Solomon 1:6 ) say of her in the past ( Song of Solomon 8:8-9 ). For the little sister is the Shulammite herself, as the choice of the figure of a wall for herself in Song of Solomon 8:10 shews. She recalls it, however, only to point out how unnecessary their anxiety about her had proved. In Song of Solomon 8:11-12 she finally shews her scorn for Solomon and his wealth. In Song of Solomon 8:13 her lover calls upon her to sing to his comrades; Song of Solomon 8:14 contains the words she sings.

Verse 8. - We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? The term "little" refers, of course, to her tender age, as in 2 Kings 5:2 , the "little maid;" and in Genesis 44:20 , "a child of his old age, a little one," referring to Benjamin. "She hath no breasts" is equivalent to saying she is not yet mature, of marriageable age (see Ezekiel 16:7 ). The question which the bride asks of King Solomon refers to the promise which he is supposed to have made, and which he is virtually pledging himself to fulfil by this visit to the country home of his queen. "What shall be done for the advantage of my little sister? Let us consult together" (cf. Genesis 27:37 ; 1 Samuel 10:2 ; Isaiah 5:4 ). "The day when she shall be spoken for" is the day when she shall attract the attention of a suitor. It must necessarily be difficult to find satisfactory interpretations forevery detail in such a poem of human love as this. It might be sufficient to see in this reference to the younger sister the general idea of love's expansion. Those who are themselves the objects of it, being full of exquisite happiness, desire to call others into the same joy. This is true both of the individual and of the Church. What shall be done for others? That is the question which is awakened in every heart where true love is at work. There is no need to explain the language further.

But the allegorists have been very ingenious in attempting to find meanings forevery allusion of the poem. Who is the little sister? What is her virginity? What is the day in which she shall be spoken for? Some have said that the little sister represents the firstfruits of the Jews and Gentiles received into the Christian Church immediately after the time of our Lord's ascension, as Beza and others. Some, again, take it to mean the whole body of Jews and Gentiles yet to be converted. Others would see in it those that are weak in faith, the beginners in Christian life. And, again, it has been regarded as pointing to the "daughter of Zion" at the time of the first beginnings of her conversion to the heavenly Solomon, which is the view of Hengstenberg and others. There is no end to such fancies. The broad general meaning is all that we can rest upon. The bride naturally thinks of her sister. It is a lovely incident in a perfectly idyllic poem. The visit to the home is quite in harmony with the fresh, pure, and simple life which reveals itself in all the utterances of the bride, and is honoured by the devoted attention of the splendid monarch. It is a real touch of nature when the young bride, in her family life once more, asks what shall become of her sister. It is an exquisite type of that sisterly solicitude with which all true Christians will care for the souls around them.