Chapter 8
verse 4
4 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
(24) again this admonishment that sexual passion should not be aroused until it can also be satisfied.
This third time the statement is different, no charge by the does and gazelles. Note the translation by Glickman
(22a) p 145 8.4 I want you to promise me, of young women of Jerusalem, that you will surely arouse, you will surely awaken love when love please to awaken.
Long quote because he points out something obscured in other translations and commentaries.
(22a) p 226-228 151. This might be translated “Promise me you will not arouse… love until it please to awaken.” But that seems unlikely. This refrain appears in a slightly different form than in 2.7 and 3.5 where it is translated that way. The comments on the subject of the verb “pleases” in the notes at 2.7 are not affected. But I believe the new form of the refrain at 89.4 makes the translation much more likely to be “Promise me you will surely arouse,” etc. The refrain at 8.4 omits the phrase “by the gazelles and by the does of the field” and replaces the word rendered “not” (im) that precedes “arouse” and “awaken” in the earlier refrains with a different word (mah).
The word “if” (im) that precedes “arouse” and “awaken” I the first two occurrences of the refrain and the work “that” or “what” or “how” (mah) that precedes the verbs in the third refrain each follow the request of “promise me” in 5.8. And either word indicates negation there. “Promise me if (im) you find my beloved, that (or “what” – mah) you will tell him that I am faint from love.” The songwriter appears to intentionally prepare the reader for the different sense of the refrain in 8.4, when mah occurs twice.
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