Song of Solomon 8:6
What does Song of Solomon 8:6 mean?
A plain-English look at Song of Solomon 8:6 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Song of Solomon 8:6 means
She asks to be set as a seal upon his heart and arm—an emblem of ownership, identity, and permanence. Love, she declares, is as strong as death: unavoidable, unconquerable. Jealousy—zeal for exclusive devotion—is as relentless as Sheol, the grave. Love’s flashes are like fire, a very flame of Jehovah, signaling a holy intensity that both warms and burns. This is not casual romance; it is covenantal commitment with divine-like fervor. To be “sealed” is to be bound in faithful allegiance, inwardly (heart) and outwardly (arm). Such love is possessive in the right sense: it pledges and protects, not to imprison, but to keep a sacred bond unbroken.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of Jehovah.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of Jehovah.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Put me as a sign on your heart, as a sign on your arm; love is strong as death, and wrath bitter as the underworld: its coals are coals of fire; violent are its flames.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Set me as a seal on thy heart, as a seal on thine arm, For strong as death is love, Sharp as Sheol is jealousy, Its burnings <FI>are<Fi> burnings of fire, a flame of Jah!
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol: The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, Flames of Jah.
Context
After the wilderness scene and memory under the apple tree (v. 5), the Song reaches its summit in this verse and the next. Here love’s nature is defined in superlatives—strength, jealousy, flame—preparing the matching image of waters unable to quench it (v. 7). This climactic confession summarizes the Song’s argument: love is exclusive, enduring, and holy. It stands as the theological heart of the poem before the narrative shifts (vv. 8–10) to practical concerns about nurturing chastity and maturity in a younger sister.
v.5Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple-tree I awakened thee: There thy mother was in travail with thee, There was she in travail that brought thee forth.
v.6This passage
v.7Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, He would utterly be contemned.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Numbers 25:11
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
- Song of Solomon 5:8
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If ye find my beloved, That ye tell him, that I am sick from love.
- Acts 20:24
But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
- Proverbs 25:22
For thou wilt heap coals of fire upon his head, And Jehovah will reward thee.
- Romans 12:20
But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.
- Haggai 2:23
In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith Jehovah, and will make thee as a signet; for I have chosen thee, saith Jehovah of hosts.
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