Song of Solomon 8:4 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

That ye stir not up - literally, as in the margin. For “my love” read as before love. The omission of “the roes and hinds” here is noticeable. Hebrew scholars regard this charge here and elsewhere Song of Solomon 2:7; Song of Solomon 3:5 as an admonition to Israel not to attempt obtaining a possession of, or restoration to, the promised land, and union or reunion there with the Holy One, before being inwardly prepared for it by the trials of the wilderness and the exile. This interpretation comes very near to what appears to be the genuine literal meaning (see Song of Solomon 2:7 note). They suppose the words here to be addressed by Messiah to Israel in “the wilderness of the people” Ezekiel 20:35, in the latter day, and the former words Song of Solomon 3:5 by Moses in the wilderness of Sinai.

Song of Solomon 8:4

4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.