Song of Solomon 8:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Song of Solomon 8:1
O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.
to give · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
brother
כְּאָ֣חke.'Ach
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sucked
יוֹנֵ֖קyo.Nek
H3243
to suck · noun, common masculine singular construct
breasts
שְׁדֵ֣יshe.Dei
H7699
the breast of a woman or animal (as bulging) · noun, common masculine dual construct
mother
אִמִּ֑י'i.Mi
H517
a mother (as the bond of the family) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
find
אֶֽמְצָאֲךָ֤'em.tza.'a.Kha
H4672
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
without
בַחוּץ֙va.Chutz
H2351
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
kiss
אֶשָׁ֣קְךָ֔'e.Sha.ke.cha
H5401
to kiss · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
despised
יָב֥וּזוּya.Vu.zu
H936
to disrespect · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 45:10-11 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lo…
Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Psalms 102:16-17 When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,…
Isaiah 60:14 The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the sol…
Isaiah 66:11-12 That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her gl…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
John Gill on Song of Solomon 8:1
O that thou wert as my brother,.... Or, "who will give thee as a brother to me?" (q) an usual form of wishing, Deuteronomy 5:29, Psalm 14:7. The church here not only requests that Christ would be like a brother to her, but appear to be really one, and to act the part of one towards her; with whom she might as freely converse as brother and sister may. Several Jewish (r) writers own, that the King Messiah is intended here; and in such a relation Christ does stand to his church and people, by virtue of his incarnation, Hebrews 2:11; hence many of the ancients take this to be a wish of the Jewish church, for the coming of Christ in the flesh; and also through their adoption, he and they having…
The woman expresses her desire to be with the man and in his embrace.
8:1 If he were her brother she could kiss him publicly; romantic kisses were not appropriate in public, but kisses between blood relatives were acceptable.
Rashi on Song of Solomon 8:1
If only you were a brother to me. That you would come to comfort me in the manner that Yoseif did to his brothers,1Alternatively, if only my desire that my relationship with God, i.e., to be near Him and to pursue His holiness were out of love, as one’s relatioship is with his brother. (Sforno) who did evil to him, and it is stated concerning him, “and he comforted them.”2The Gemara in Bechoros 8a states, that from the time of an apple tree’s blossoming until its fruits are ripened, a period of sixty days elapse. Accordingly, an apple represents the sixty masechtos incorporated into the Oral Law. Mount Sinai was suspended over Bnei Yisroel’s heads “like an apple” in order to arouse them to a…
Here are shown many infancies in her, from which we ought to learn. First, it was the Creator of everything that is born from the union of masculine and feminine who fabricated a body from a virgin without the assistance of a man. Next, no sin is congenital to humankind, since it comes forth surrounded by the truth of the flesh and free from stain. Finally, it is impious to ascribe our origin to the works of the devil, since it rejoices that the true God is not only its founder but also its inhabitant.
What are the breasts of the church except the sacrament of baptism? And well does he say "sucking," as if the baptized were seeking him as a draught of snowy milk. "Finding you without," he says, "I shall kiss you," that is, finding you outside the body, I embrace you with the kiss of mystical peace. No one shall despise you; no one shall shut you out. I will introduce you into the inner sanctuary and hidden places of Mother Church, and into all the secrets of mystery, so that you may drink the cup of spiritual grace.
Therefore she interceded so that he would go forth from the bosom of the Father, go out of doors like the bridegroom coming out from his chamber, and run his course. She interceded, too, that he would win those who were weak, would not linger on the distant throne of the Father and in that light, for those without strength cannot follow there. Instead he would be taken up and led into the dwelling of the bride and her chamber, that he would be out of doors for her but within for us, would be in our midst, even though unseen by us.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Wean — Among the Hebrews children (whom it was customary for the mothers to nurse, Ex. 2:7-9; 1 Sam. 1:23; Cant. 8:1) were not generally weaned till they were three or four years old.
Brother · Love of — Love of
Children · Mostly nursed by the mothers — Mostly nursed by the mothers
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
