Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Song of Solomon 8:10
I [am] a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favor.
10. I am a wall ] or, I have been a wall. The bride here proudly claims that she has proved herself the sufficient guardian of her own honour. All her brothers’ anxieties were idle.
then was I in his eyes, &c.] The most obvious explanation of this phrase is that the Shulammite explains her return in safety by saying, ‘I have been, throughout, a wall and my breasts like towers, then was I in his (my oppressor’s) eyes as one finding peace ’: that is to say, he dealt with her as a king deals with a city which he cannot capture, he made peace. This fits in admirably with the view that the bride had been besieged by Solomon’s attentions, and that she had resisted them. It also accounts for the mention of Solomon again in Son 8:11-12. If ‘his’ be taken to refer to the lover, then the meaning would be: ‘When I had shewn my chastity and constancy, then I was in his eyes as one finding peace,’ i.e. I was favoured in my lover’s eyes. Budde, Siegfried, and Delitzsch can find no satisfactory explanation of this clause on their theories of the book.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 10. I am a wall, and my breasts like towers] I am become marriageable, and I stood in need of the defense I have now in my beloved; and as soon as I was so, and became pleasing in the eyes of my beloved, I was given to him in marriage, and have ever since found favour in his sight. As soon then as my sister is in my state, let a proper match be sought out for her. These expressions show the solicitude which the bride felt for her sister, and in her favour she wishes to interest her spouse.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These seem to be the words of the Jewish church to Christ: O Lord, by thy grace I am what thou wouldst have my sister to be, a wall, and therefore do humbly beg and hope that, according to thy promise to her in that case, thou wilt build upon me a palace of silver.
My breasts like towers; which stand out from and above the wall, and are an ornament and defence to it. Of the churchs breasts, see before, Son 4:5; 7:3,7.
Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour; when by his grace I was made a wall, he was well-pleased with me, and with his own workmanship in me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. The Gentile Church’s joy atits free admission to gospel privileges (Act 15:30;Act 15:31). She is one wall inthe spiritual temple of the Holy Ghost, the Hebrew Church is theother; Jesus Christ, the common foundation, joins them (Eph2:11-22).
breasts . . . towersalludingto the silver palace, which the bridal virgins proposed to build onher (So 8:9). “Breasts”of consolation (Isa 66:11);faith and love (1Th 5:8);opposed to her previous state, “no breasts” (Son 8:8;2Th 1:3). Thus Eze 16:46;Eze 16:61 was fulfilled, bothSamaria and the Gentiles being joined to the Jewish gospel Church.
favourrather, “peace.”The Gentile Church too is become the Shulamite (So6:13), or peace-enjoying bride of Solomon, that is, JesusChrist, the Prince of Peace (Rom 5:1;Eph 2:14). Reject not those whomGod accepts (Num 11:28; Luk 9:49;Act 15:8; Act 15:9).Rather, superadd to such every aid and privilege (So8:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I [am] a wall,…. The words of the little sister, or Gentile church; either wishing she was what was supposed, and desiring to be in a well settled state, “O that I was a wall!” or as asserting d that she was in such a state, well walled; God was a wall of fire about her; salvation was appointed as walls and bulwarks to her; she was one of the two walls Christ was a cornerstone unto, and cemented together; and was a wall built up of lively stones, of true believers, built on Christ, the foundation; and established in the doctrine of grace; and constant and immovable in her love to Christ;
and my breasts like towers; round, plump, and high; signifying that she was now marriageable; and the time of her being presented as a chaste virgin to Christ, and of her open espousals to him, was now come: of ministers of the word, of the Scriptures, and of the ordinances of the Gospel, as signified by breasts, [See comments on So 4:5]; which may be said to be “like towers”: ministers of the word, because set for the defence of the Gospel; the Scriptures, because an armoury from whence saints are supplied with armour, to repel Satan’s temptations, refute errors, and defend truth; and the ordinances of the Gospel, because they stand firm and immovable against all the efforts of men to subvert and abolish them; and these are peculiar to the Gentile church, under the Gospel dispensation;
then was I in his eyes as one that found favour; from the time that the Gentile church became a wall, firmly built on Christ, and was formed into a church state, and had a settled ministry and Gospel ordinances, she became acceptable to Christ, and was admitted to near communion with him; and not only her person, but her services, met with a favourable acceptance from him; and these privileges and blessings were the fruit of his love, layout, and good will, he bore to her; which before was secret and hidden, but now her breasts being fashioned, her time was a time of love, of the open love of Christ to her, and of her espousals to him: and when, as the words may be rendered, she was “as one that found peace” e; peace being made by the blood of Christ, and the partition wall broken down between Jew and Gentile, and they peaceably joined together in a Gospel church state; and when she enjoyed inward peace and tranquillity of mind, which is found in Christ, the word and ordinances; even all kind of prosperity, which peace, with the Hebrews, includes; every spiritual blessing, as reconciliation, justification, pardon, adoption, and eternal life, which are all the fruits and effects of divine favour, good will, grace, and love.
d “Hoc est, nolite dubitare ultrum murus sum”, Ambros. Enarrat. in Psal. cxviii. octon. 22. p. 1087. e , Sept. “pacem”, Pagninus, Montanus, Marckius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10 I was a wall,
And my breasts like towers;
Then I became in his eyes
Like one who findeth peace.
In the language of prose, the statement would be: Your conduct is good and wise, as my own example shows; of me also ye thus faithfully took care; and that I met this your solicitude with strenuous self-preservation, has become, to my joy and yours, the happiness of my life. That in this connection not , but has to be used, is clear: she compares herself with her sister, and the praise she takes to herself she takes to the honour of her brothers. The comparison of her breasts to towers is suggested by the comparison of her person to a wall; Kleuker rightly remarks that here the comparison is not of thing with thing, but of relation with relation: the breasts were those of her person, as the towers were of the wall, which, by virtue of the power of defence which they conceal within themselves, never permit the enemy, whose attention they attract, to approach them. The two substantival clauses, murus et ubera mea instar turrium , have not naturally a retrospective signification, as they would in a historical connection ( vid., under Gen 2:10); but they become retrospective by the following “then I became,” like Deu 26:5, by the historical tense following, where, however, it is to be remarked that the expression, having in itself no relation to time, which is incapable of being expressed in German, mentions the past not in a way that excludes the present, but as including it. She was a wall, and her breasts like the towers, i.e., all seductions rebounded from her, and ventured not near her awe-inspiring attractions; then ( , temporal, but at the same time consequent; thereupon, and for this reason, as at Psa 40:8; Jer 22:15, etc.) she became in his (Solomon’s) eyes as one who findeth peace. According to the shepherd-hypothesis, she says here: he deemed it good to forbear any further attempts, and to let me remain in peace (Ewald, Hitz., and others). But how is that possible? is a variation of the frequently occurring , which is used especially of a woman gaining the affections of a man, Est 2:17; Deu 24:1; Jer 31:2 f.; and the expression here used, “thus I was in his eyes as one who findeth peace” is only the more circumstantial expression for, “then I found ( ) in his eyes peace,” which doubtless means more than: I brought it to this, that he left me further unmolested; in this case, as syn. of , means inward agreement, confidence, friendship, as at Psa 41:10; there it means, as in the salutation of peace and in a hundred other cases, a positive good. And why should she use instead of , but that she might form a play upon the name which she immediately, Son 8:11, thereafter utters, , which signifies, 1Ch 22:9, “The man of peace.” That Shulamith had found shalom (peace) with Shelomoh (Solomon), cannot be intended to mean that uninjured she escaped from him, but that she had entered into a relation to him which seemed to her a state of blessed peace. The delicate description, “in his eyes,” is designed to indicate that she appeared to him in the time of her youthful discipline as one finding peace. The is veritatis , i.e., the comparison of the fact with its idea, Isa 29:2, or of the individual with the general and common, Isa 13:6; Eze 26:10; Zec 14:3. Here the meaning is, that Shulamith appeared to him corresponding to the idea of one finding peace, and thus as worthy to find peace with him. One “finding peace” is one who gains the heart of a man, so that he enters into a relation of esteem and affection for her. This generalization of the idea also opposes the notion of a history of seduction. is from the ground-form matsiat , the parallel form to , 2Sa 18:22. Solomon has won her, not by persuasion or violence; but because she could be no other man’s, he entered with her into the marriage covenant of peace (cf. Pro 2:17 with Isa 54:10).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
SHULAMITE AFFIRMS HER OWN MATURITY ‘
Verse 10 expresses the Shulamite’s affirmation that she is mature, strong, and fully sufficient for the obligations of a wife.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(10) I am a wall . . .The heroine interrupts with a protestation of her purity, and of her right to marry, being of age, and conscious of being beloved.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. I am a wall, etc. Better, I am a wall, and of marriageable age. This is her reply to the suggestions of her brothers. Her principles have stood the test. The development of the bosom in woman, as the growth of beard in man, marks puberty, the time of life when marriage unions may properly be consummated.
“ ‘ Tis the time of times, in the dewy morn,
When the sunbeams flush the earth,
To yield in love a glowing heart,
Whatever that heart be worth.”
She turns to the Beloved with an air of triumph. The last obstacle of love the removal of her brothers’ misgivings seems removed.
Then was I Better, therefore am I. This is said to the Beloved concerning her brother, whose anxiety for her character is now at rest.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Son 8:10 I [am] a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
Ver. 10. I am a wall; and my breasts like towers. ] If she be a wall, saith Christ. I am a wall, saith this Church of the Gentiles; I will carefully keep the doctrine of truth committed unto me, I will stand firm in the faith, being founded upon the rock of ages. And whereas lately I was looked upon as breastless, Son 8:8 now my breasts are fashioned, Eze 16:7 yea, they are grown far greater than those of mine elder sister’s; so that they look “like towers.” The Church of the Gentiles, though little at first, and scarce considerable, yet after Christ’s ascension, was marvellously increased and multiplied; so that she herself stood amazed to see her children come from far, flying to her as a cloud, most swiftly, and in such flocks, as if a whole flight of doves, driven by some hawk or tempest, should scour into the columbary, and rush into the windows. Isa 60:8
Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Son 8:10-12
10I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers;
Then I became in his eyes as one who finds peace.
11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
He entrusted the vineyard to caretakers.
Each one was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
12My very own vineyard is at my disposal;
The thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
And two hundred are for those who take care of its fruit.
Son 8:10-14 She has eyes only for him (if it is Solomon, even in the midst of his harem she will patiently wait for him because she knew she was his favorite). The monogamous implications of Son 2:16; Son 6:3; and Son 7:10 make it hard for me to think it is Solomon. I still favour the northern first love theory of Song of Songs! Even Solomon cannot buy his love (i.e., vineyard).
Son 8:10
NASBas one who finds peace
NKJVas one who found peace
NRSV, TEVas one who brings peace
NJBI have found true peace
The phrase is another euphemism for sexual activity. The focus seems to be on her bringing fulfilment to the longing lover.
Son 8:8-9 may refer to her earlier life, while Son 8:10 describes her current life.
The Hebrew term peace (shalom, BDB 1022) has a wide semantical field. It can be metaphorical for maturity (my breasts were like towers) or favour or contentment. The ambiguity of poetry and the fluidity of terminology makes for great multi-level imagery! See Special Topic: Peace (shalom) .
Son 8:11 Baal-hamon If this is a geographical location, it is unknown. It may have symbolic meaning (i.e., master/lord/owner of wealth, BDB 128). If so, it is connected to Son 8:7, lines 3-4.
When Son 8:11-12 are taken together they are similar to Son 8:7, in that:
1. Solomon’s vineyard had many who came in and out and worked it
2. She wants to be the only worker (exclusivity, cf. Son 2:16; Son 6:3; Son 7:10)
Son 8:12 If this is the woman’s reaction to the attempt to be married for money or status, then it relates directly to Son 8:7; Son 8:11! She controls her own sexuality! She cannot be bought!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
I am a wall. The Shulamite thus replies: I stand firm against all the blandishments of Solomon. I am not a door admitting any one.
his eyes: i.e. her shepherd lover’s, or the brother’s who last spoke (not Solomon’s. Solomon is mentioned in the next verse).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a wall: Son 8:9
my: Son 4:5, Son 7:3, Son 7:4, Son 7:7, Son 7:8, Eze 16:7
then: Gen 6:8, Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8, Pro 3:4, Isa 60:10, Luk 1:30, Eph 1:6, Eph 1:8, 1Ti 1:16
favour: Heb. peace, Rom 5:1-10
Reciprocal: Est 2:15 – Esther Son 8:8 – she hath
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Son 8:10. I am a wall, &c. The ancient church, says Mr. Scott, seems here thankfully to reflect on her privileges; she was, before the coming of the Messiah, as a wall built on the precious foundation, a part of the glorious temple that was to be erected; and the lively oracles and ordinances which she enjoyed were her security, as well as the sustenance and comfort of her children: and she was thus distinguished, because then (even when this difference originated,) she was in his eyes as one that found favour, and peace with him. Bishop Patrick, however, considers these as the words of the little sister, in answer to those of Christ, I am such a wall. I am no longer of a low and despicable stature, nor unfit for his love: but from this time forth I shall be acceptable unto him, and find such favour with him, as to enjoy all the happiness which he imparts to those that are most dear unto him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:10 {g} I [am] a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
(g) The Church promises fidelity and constancy.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
She had proved to be like a wall rather than a door. Consequently she had become a great delight to Solomon.