Song of Solomon 8:1

This final chapter is more eloquent in what it does NOT say than in what is clearly declared. Note that the Shulamite is not with king Solomon. She is not in his harem. She is in her own vineyard, not in the one Solomon let out for a thousand pieces of silver.

I WISH YOU WERE LIKE MY BROTHER

Song of Solomon 8:1-3

"Oh that thou wert as my brother,

That sucked the breasts of my mother!

When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee;

Yea, and none would despise me.

I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house,

Who would instruct me;

I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine,

Of the juice of my pomegranate.

His left hand should be under my head,

And his right hand should embrace me."

Balchin saw these verses as, "the maiden's soliloquy."[1] "She expresses here a longing for the closest intimacy with her lover."[2] It is difficult to see any real connection here with rest of the Song. "It may be a separate piece altogether."[3] "The Shulamite is addressing her lover on their way to the fields together; and she wishes he were as a brother, so that she might kiss him affectionately in public."[4] The background of this is that in the East brothers and sisters might show their affection in public, but not so with husbands and wives. This fragment offers no solution as to the identity of the lover, whether he is the shepherd or king Solomon; but the weight of evidence favors the shepherd. If Solomon had been the lover, he would have taken her into the royal bedroom adjacent to his harem, not into the house of the bride's mother.