“Set me as a seal on your heart, As a seal on your arm, For love is strong as death, Jealousy is cruel as Sheol, Its flashes are flashes of fire, A very flame of Yah. Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can floods drown it If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, He would utterly be condemned.”
Solomon's new wife now calls on him to set her as a seal on his heart and arm in order to demonstrate that both his love and his strength belong to her, and she cites as her reason the extraordinary, unquenchable and intense power of love and its counterpart jealousy. Her love is so great that she cannot bear the thought of being separated from him again.
Her first reasoning is that she demands it because her love is as strong as death. Once death has its claws into a victim he has no hope. Nothing can rescue him from the grip of death. In the same way she sees her love as being equally as strong, so strong that even Solomon is to be bound by it. Her second reasoning is that she demands it because jealousy is as cruel as the grave (Sheol). To the victim who is gripped by it, it is like Sheol, heartless and unyielding. It never lets anyone go. And she knows that she does not want to be consumed by a jealousy like that. Thus to ensure this she wants a firm seal on his heart guaranteeing that he is hers.
For love is such that it strikes like lightning, like the very flame of God, as it has done with her. It is so powerful that many waters cannot quench it. Floods cannot drown it. And for a man to think that he could buy it, even though he gave all that he possessed for it, would simply bring him under condemnation. For true love is so important and of such a nature that it cannot be bought even for the sum total of a man's wealth. Thus it is important that it be preserved at all costs.
The introduction of the name of God here might well be seen as emphasizing the divine significance of the song. It is about love which comes from Yah (God's covenant Name), which strikes like lightning and is irresistible, unquenchable and not available to be bought, and about His jealousy over His own which threatens judgment on all who turn from His love (Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14). So in the end this song is not only about love that comes from God, but about the covenant love of Yah Himself. (As in Isaiah 5:1-7 the punch line comes at the end).
The setting of the seal on the heart and on the arm possibly has in mind the way in which the names of the tribes of Israel were set in the breastpouch and on the shoulder of the High Priest (Exodus 28:7-10; Exodus 28:29-30) thus likening Solomon's wife to Israel in its relationship to God. It can also be compared with Isaiah 49:16 where God tells Zion that He has engraved her upon the palm of His hand, as a token that she was not forsaken or forgotten.
In the New Testament the idea is reversed because there is no doubt about the constancy of the love of Christ and of God (1 Corinthians 1:8-9). No seal has to be set on that. It is God therefore Who sets His seal on those who are His by giving them the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30; 2Co 1:22; 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27). But the result of the seal is equally as secure. Once we have received the Holy Spirit we are His for ever. This is a reminder that those who would be part of the bride of Christ must ensure that they are possessed by His Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9).
An Example Of How A True And Chaste Love Can Be Preserved.
The importance of preserving such true love as has been described in verses 6-7 is now illustrated in terms of someone who has not yet known such love, his wife's little sister. The question is put as to how her true love can be preserved for the one who will have the right to it, her prospective husband. The reply is basically that it is the responsibility of the family to protect her by any means. The importance of this illustration lies in the fact that it enables Solomon's new wife to stress her total purity and reliability.
There may also be an indication in this incident that God's love reaches out beyond Israel. The little half-sister possibly represents the subject nations whom Solomon is seeking to bring into subjection to the God of Israel. With their propensities they will have to be kept on a tighter rein than Israel.
Some see a parallel between these verses and Song of Solomon 1:6. In Song of Solomon 1:6 the brothers had sent the young maiden to work in their vine gardens, regardless of her purity, which had resulted in the marring of her complexion. Here the very opposite situation arises. The younger sister is to be kept under lock and key in order to preserve her purity, probably as a result of the exaltation of her elder sister. Everything is changed as a result of her having met her exalted beloved.