Aroused love

Explaining the adjuration of Song of Songs 2:7 (repeated in slightly different form in 8:4), Cheryl Exum ( Song of Songs (Old Testament Library) ) helpfully points to the connection with the theme verses of the Song, 8:6-7: these are the only places “where love is spoken of in the abstract and virtually personified.” The repetition of the adjuration “is rather like a riddle or puzzle” until we reach the climax of the poem in 8:6-7. The paradox is, “If love has a will of its own, how can one rouse love before it wishes to be roused.” She also suggests that the adjuration playfully points to the power of love – playfully because the oath, while sounding like an oath in the name of Yahweh Zebaoth and Elohim, is not. On 8:4, she says that the question become rhetorical, with the implied answer being: “there is no need to [arouse love] since, when it is ready to be roused, love overwhelms with its force.”

Perhaps we can push the link of 2:8 and 8:6-7 a step further. The fire that inspires the flame of love, the love that is stronger than death, is the Flame of Yah Himself. And that fiery love does need to be roused at times, as David well knew (cf. Psalm 7:6; 35:23; 44:23; 57:8; 59:4; 78:38; etc.). That love might express itself in jealous wrath, in which case it is a danger, and even when it doesn’t it is a relentless power that is stronger than death and fiercer than Sheol. Once that love is aroused, no water can quench it, and so one must be prepared for the consequences before stoking up that Fire.

This is wisdom literature: As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, do not be hasty to utter a word before the Lord, since He is in heaven and you are on earth.