Song of Solomon 8:8

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?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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.

Benson Commentary

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?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

We have a little sister,.... Which seems to be the Gentile church, so called by the Jewish church; for as the church catholic, or universal, with respect to its parts, is called a mother, as often in this Song; so these parts, with respect to each other, as the Jewish and Gentile churches, may be called sisters; and the rather, as they belong to the same Father and family, are partakers of the same grace, and are of the same faith and religion as to the substance of them; and the object and nature of their worship the same, though as to circumstances different: and it may be observed that the Gentile church is not only sister to the Jewish church, but to Christ, and therefore she says, not I, but we, have such a sister; of which relation, see Sol 4:9; also that she stood in this relation to Christ and to the Jewish church before the coming of Christ, and before the Gospel was preached to her, and she was called and separated from the world; as elect Gentiles are also called the sheep of Christ, and children of God, before that time, John 10:16. This church is described as a "little sister", younger in age than the Jewish church, and in some respects less honourable, Romans 3:1; the same with the younger son and brother, in the parable of the prodigal; little in esteem among men, especially the Jews, Ephesians 2:11; little in stature, light, knowledge, and faith, at first conversion; and but few in number, particularly at first, and in comparison of the world: and so the church of Christ, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, is called a little flock, Luke 12:32. As a further description of her, it is added,

and she hath no breasts: is not arrived to years of ripeness, nor marriageable; see Ezekiel 16:7; the time of her open espousal to Christ was not yet come: at this time she had no ministers nor ordinances, from whence she could have the sincere milk of the word, or share it with others; and it was some time after the Gospel came among the Gentiles before they had a settled ministry;

what shall we defer our sister? or, "what shall be done for her?" being moved with pity to her, in her forlorn and helpless condition, like a little infant, Ezekiel 16:4; and willing to do anything for her that lay in her power, though seeming at a loss to know what to do for her: the believing Jews were very assisting to the Gentiles, in carrying the Gospel among them at first; and in supplying them with ministers, and with money too, to carry on the interest of Christ among them. The Jewish church here is not forgetful of the chief and principal agent, Christ, and therefore says, what shall we do? she was willing to do what she could; but she knew all would be insignificant without Christ, his agency and blessing. The time she was concerned what should be done for her in is,

in the day when she shall be spoken for, or "with", or "unto" (y): when she should be wooed or treated with for marriage, by the ministers of the word, at the first preaching of the Gospel to her; or be spoken to by her enemies, by fair words, or severe menaces, to desert the faith. Or, "be spoken of" (z); the fame of her be spread abroad, far and near, for her light, knowledge, and faith; for her profession, and her sufferings for it; and the concern is, how she should behave under all the noise and talk about her: or, "be spoken against" (a); as she would be by unbelieving Jews, and by ignorant Heathens, for embracing the Christian religion, for receiving the Gospel of Christ, submitting to his ordinances, and professing his name, Acts 28:22. Now the old church might be concerned, that she might stand firm to her faith and the profession of it, notwithstanding the reproaches and persecutions of men.

(y) "alloquenda est", V. L. "fiet sermo cum ea", Pagninus; "in colloquendum", Tigurine version. (z) "Sermo fiet de ea", Brightman, Mercerus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis, so Cocceius. (a) So the Targum, Shir Hashirim Rabba, & Jarchi in loc. Bereshit Rabba, s. 39. fol. 34. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

{e} 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?

(e) The Jewish Church speaks this of the Church of the Gentiles.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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.

Pulpit Commentary

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. Delitzsch thinks that the question which is asked by the bride is answered by her brothers, as they were the actual guardians of the little sister (see Genesis 21:50, 55; 34:6-8). But there is no necessity to introduce any new interlocutors at this point. The words are certainly addressed to Solomon. It is quite natural that he should reply to them in a royal style, with the pluralis majestatis which suits the corresponding position of the bride as a suppliant for her sister. Song of Solomon 8:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The locality of this scene is Shulamith's parental home. It is she herself who speaks in these words:

8 We have a sister, a little one,

   And she has no breasts:

   What shall we do with our sister

   In the day when she will be sued for?

Between Sol 8:8 and Sol 8:7 is a blank. The figure of the wanderers is followed by the figure of the visitors. But who speaks here? The interchange of the scene permits that Shulamith conclude the one scene and begin the other, as in the first Act; or also that at the same time with the change of scene there is an interchange of persons, as e.g., in the third Act. But if Shulamith speaks, all her words are not by any means included in what is said from Sol 8:8 to Sol 8:10. Since, without doubt, she also speaks in Sol 8:11 f., this whole second figure consists of Shulamith's words, as does also the second of the second Acts; Sol 3:1-5. But there Shulamith's address presents itself as the narrative of an experience, and the narrative dramatically framed in itself is thoroughly penetrated by the I of the speaker; but here, as e.g., Ewald, Heiligst., and Bttch. explain, she would begin with a dialogue with her brothers referable to herself, one that had formerly taken place-that little sister, Ewald remarks under Sol 8:10, stands here now grown up she took notice of that severe word formerly spoken by her brothers, and can now joyfully before all exclaim, taking up the same flowery language, that she is a wall, etc. But that a monologue should begin with a dialogue without any introduction, is an impossibility; in this case the poet ought to have left the expression, "of old my mother's sons said," to be supplemented by the reader or hearer. It is true, at Sol 3:2; Sol 5:3, we have a former address introduced without any formal indication of the fact; but it is the address of the narrator herself. With Sol 8:8 there will thus begin a colloquy arising out of present circumstances. That in this conversation Sol 8:8 appertains to the brothers, is evident. This harsh entweder oder (aut ... aut) is not appropriate as coming from Shulamith's mouth; it is her brothers alone, as Hoelemann rightly remarks, who utter these words, as might have been expected from them in view of Sol 1:6. But does Sol 8:8 belong also to them? There may be two of them, says Hitzig, and the one may in Sol 8:9 reply to the question of the other in Sol 8:8; Shulamith, who has heard their conversation, suddenly interposes with Sol 8:10. But the transition from the first to the second scene is more easily explained if Shulamith proposes the question of Sol 8:8 for consideration. This is not set aside by Hitzig's questions: "Has she to determine in regard to her sister? and has she now for the first time come to do nothing in haste?" For (1) the dramatic figures of the Song follow each other chronologically, but not without blanks; and the poet does not at all require us to regard Sol 8:8 as Shulamith's first words after her entrance into her parental home; (2) but it is altogether seeming for Shulamith, who has now become independent, and who has been raised so high, to throw out this question of loving care for her sister. Besides, from the fact that with Sol 8:8 there commences the representation of a present occurrence, it is proved that the sister here spoken of is not Shulamith herself. If it were Shulamith herself, the words of Sol 8:8, Sol 8:9 would look back to what had previously taken place, which, as we have shown, is impossible. Or does Sol 6:9 require that we should think of Shulamith as having no sister? Certainly not, for so understood, these words would be purposeless. The "only one," then, does not mean the only one numerically, but, as at Proverbs 4:3, it is emphatic (Hitzig); she is called by Solomon the "only one" of her mother in this sense, that she had not one her equal.

Thus it is Shulamith who here speaks, and she is not the "sister" referred to. The words, "we have a sister ... ," spoken in the family circle, whether regarded as uttered by Shulamith or not, have something strange in them, for one member of a family does not need thus to speak to another. We expect: With regard to our sister, who is as yet little and not of full age, the question arises, What will be done when she has grown to maturity to guard her innocence? Thus the expression would have stood, but the poet separates it into little symmetrical sentences; for poetry present facts in a different style from prose. Hoelem. has on this remarked that the words are not to be translated: we have a little sister, which the order of the words וגו אחות ק would presuppose, Genesis 40:20; cf. 2 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 12:2 f.; Isaiah 26:1; Isaiah 33:21. "Little" is not immediately connected with "sister," but follows it as an apposition; and this appositional description lays the ground for the question: We may be now without concern; but when she is grown up and will be courted, what then? "Little" refers to age, as at 2 Kings 5:2; cf. Genesis 44:20. The description of the child in the words, "she has no breasts," has neither in itself nor particularly for Oriental feeling anything indecent in it (cf. mammae sororiarunt, Ezekiel 16:7). The ל following מה־נּעשׂה is here not thus purely the dat. commodi, as e.g., Isaiah 64:3 (to act for some one), but indiff. dat. (what shall we do for her?); but מה is, according to the connection, as at Genesis 27:37; 1 Samuel 10:2; Isaiah 5:4, equivalent to: What conducing to her advantage? Instead of בּיּום, the form בּיום lay syntactically nearer (cf. Exodus 6:28); the art. in בּיּום is, as at Ecclesiastes 12:3, understood demonst.: that day when she will be spoken for, i.e., will attract the attention of a suitor. בּ after דּבּר may have manifold significations (vid., under Psalm 87:3); thus the general signification of "concerning," 1 Samuel 19:3, is modified in the sense of courting a wife, 1 Samuel 25:39. The brothers now take speech in hand, and answer Shulamith's question as to what will have to be done for the future safety of their little sister when the time comes that she shall be sought for: