SuperLutheran on Nostr: *Others* 8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our ...

*Others*
8 We have a little sister,
and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

*She*
10 I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he let out the vineyard to keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
-Song of Solomon 8:8-12

The chorus of community sees that the husband and wife are righteous, wise, joyous and very much in love. Enough time has passed such that these two have become role models for every young person around them. So they ask about their sister - who is really a symbol for all children. What does one do knowing that a child will one day grow up to be assailed by the passions and yearnings of love? Even more importantly, what about when she *falls* in love and is spoken for?

Before the bride can answer, they offer an "if/then" set of solutions. If the sister is a virgin and attached to her virtue (being a "wall") they propose guarding her chastity with all their strength. Even if she is betrothed, then the fiance must not be permitted to ruin things. But if she is passionate and curious herself, open to passions or love (being a "door"), they recommend putting her in seclusion until the time is right.

The bride's answer comes from her own experience. She was a "wall," being a shy virgin who properly avoided fornication. We saw this with her proper behavior in the second chapter and all the references to living with her mother instead of wandering about. She dressed modestly, with her figure being guarded as towers were. So for the bride's advice, step one is to encourage that inner desire for modesty and chastity in the sister. Drastic control-freak measures are unnecessary. She cannot just be shut up in a room forever, and no one wants her rebelling out of resentment.

The second and more important piece of advice is in finding the right man. He has to be a man of peace - and by that of course she means *Shalom.* Not just comfort or an absence of conflict, but wholeness and everything going as it should. The bride says that the right man for any woman will be like her husband, someone who follows God's ways instead of letting his passions rule over him. The good man would seek the right things and sees the right things in the sister. Observing her modesty and righteousness, being brought up in the Lord, he would seek to marry her properly at the right time.

Then there is a point of contrast. The bride points to Solomon's marriages - with his thousand women and two hundred harem attendants - and says "no thank you." Her own marriage, described as a single little vineyard, is enough. Sure, Solomon has wealth and more pleasure than any man could ask for. But does he have the intimacy of single marriage, the joy of truly knowing and truly being known? It is as if she says "look upon Solomon my friends. Lucky stiff right? Well let Solomon have his life, but you don't need it nor want it, especially not for your little sister. Get her a godly man who wants her to be his one and only."

This is a bold thing for Solomon to write. In deep humility he expresses regret for his past actions. As an old man he has a pile of women and nothing to show for it but money and strife. He has "vineyards" (political marriages) yielding insane profits for Israel and strengthening his rule through them. He lived in obscene wealth during this time. But what is that compared to a single good marriage? Through the Shulammite's voice, he says to us that it does not compare. Given the chance to start over, he would give up all that he has to possess one godly marriage to one godly woman.