Song of Solomon 8:6

That we may fully know that this is true you have in the Canticles to the soul, now fully perfect, what I wish the Lord Jesus may say to you, "Put me as a seal upon your arm." May peace glow in your heart, Christ in your works, and may there be formed in you wisdom and justice and redemption.

And since you are worthy to be compared not now with humans but with heavenly beings, whose life you are living on earth, receive from the Lord the precepts you are to observe: "Set me as a signet upon your heart, and as a seal upon your arm." [Thus] clearer proofs of your prudence and actions may be set forth, in which Christ the figure of God may shine, who, equaling fully the nature of the Father, has expressed the whole which he took of the Father's Godhead. Whence also the apostle Paul says that we are sealed in the Spirit; since we have in the Son the image of the Father, and in the Spirit the seal of the Son. Let us then, sealed by this Trinity, take more diligent heed, lest either levity of character or the deceit of any unfaithfulness unseal the pledge which we have received in our hearts.

A person is disposed to the influx of the gift of fortitude through the inextinguishable fire of charity. Whence in the Song of Songs: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is strong as death, jealousy …

Such love divides, puts to sleep, and lifts up. It divides, since it cuts away from any other love because of the single love for the Spouse; it puts to sleep and appeases all the powers and imposes silence; it lifts up, since it leads …

Fortitude is comparable to the power of fire. Hence the author of the Canticle, speaking of fortitude, says: "For love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell. The lamps thereof are fire and flames."

Furthermore, this charity gives to the soul a fire. Hence, in the Canticle, "Set me as a seal on your heart... for stern as death is love," when it loves to such a degree that it is totally carried up to the supremely desirable, and …

Hidden as in a vase, in this name of Jesus, you, my soul, possess a salutary remedy against which no spiritual illness will be proof. Carry it always close to your heart, always in your hand, and so ensure that all your affections, all your …

Christian, learn from Christ how you ought to love Christ. Learn a love that is tender, wise, strong; love with tenderness, not passion, wisdom, not foolishness, and strength, lest you become weary and turn away from the love of the Lord. As it is written: …

In the heart are thoughts, and in the arm are works. Upon the heart therefore and upon the arm of the Bride, the beloved is placed as a seal; because in the holy soul how much he is loved by her is shown both in …

Concerning the love of which it is rightly said through Solomon: Love is strong as death, because indeed just as death kills the body, so the love of eternal life slays attachment to bodily things. For whomever it has perfectly absorbed, it renders outwardly insensible to earthly desires.

"Set me as a seal upon your heart," etc. Place me as a seal upon your heart, by thought; upon your arm, by action, so that charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith (I Tim. I) may be within, and …

For love is as strong as death, etc. This love, or jealousy, can rightly be understood both in our Lord Redeemer and in His chosen ones: for the love by which He loved us was as strong as death, because it was so great that …

"Stern as death is love." Love is compared with the sternness of death, for, doubtless, once it comes, it summons the mind completely away from the love of the world. Accordingly, abbots must be such that they may perfectly love God and their neighbor; they …

Set me - These are undoubtedly the words of the bride. Let thy heart be constantly set upon me. He seems to allude to the engraven tablets which are frequently worn upon the breast, and to the signet on a man's arm or hand, which they prized at a more than ordinary rate, and which are continually in their sight.

(1.) "Let me have a place in thy heart, an interest in thy love." This is that which all those desire above any thing that know how much their happiness is bound up in the love of Christ. (2.) "Let me never lose the room I have in thy heart; let thy love to me be ensured, as that deed which is sealed up not to be robbed.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm,....

Set me as a seal upon thine heart - It was customary in the Levant and other places to make impressions of various kinds upon the arms, the breast, and other parts. I have seen these often: some slight punctures are made, and the place rubbed over with a sort of blue powder that, getting between the cuticle and cutis, is never discharged; it continues in all its distinctness throughout life. The figures of young women are frequently thus impressed on the arms and on the breasts.

But the Holy Ghost (Eph 1:13, 14). As in So 8:5, she was "leaning" on Him, that is, her arm on His arm, her head on His bosom; so she prays now that before they part, her impression may be engraven both on His heart and His arm, answering to His love and His power (Ps 77:15; see Ge 38:18; Isa 62:3). love is strong as death-- (Ac 21:13;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

THIS is the prayer of one who has the present enjoyment of fellowship with Christ. But being apprehensive lest this communion should be interrupted, she avails herself of the opportunity now afforded her to plead for a something which shall be as the abiding token of a covenant between her and her Beloved when His visible Presence shall be withdrawn. You will notice that this is not the cry of a soul that is longing for fellowship, for that cry is—"Tell me O You whom my soul loves, where You feed." It is not even the cry of the soul that has some fellowship and needs more, for then it would say, "Oh that You were as my brother!" Nor is it the cry of a soul that has had fellowship but has lost it, for that is, "Saw You Him, whom my soul loves?" And she goes "about the streets and in the broad ways" saying, "I will seek Him." But this is the prayer of the spouse when she has been coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon His bosom. The thought strikes her, that He who has sustained her is about to go from her, to depart and leave her for a season, because it is expedient and more useful for her, and she prays that since He is no more on the earth, but has entered into the ivory palaces where her God dwells, that He would be pleased to make a covenant with her never to forget her, and that He would give her some sign and mark by which she might be assured that she is very near to His heart, and still written upon His arm. I take it to be the prayer of the Church at the present day, now that Christ is before the Father's Throne; the Bridegroom is not with us; He has left us; He has gone to prepare a place for us, and He is coming again.

TAKEN in its most natural sense, this is certainly true of creature love. It is a mighty, all-constraining, irresistible passion. Even the love of friendship occasionally has proved itself to be "strong as death." "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend." There have been those who were willing to sacrifice their lives for their friends. Filial affection has sometimes proven to be more than a match for the terrors of the grave. Some pleasing instances are on record worthy to be written among the golden deeds of manhood in which brothers and sisters have seemed to contend with each other who should die first, if perchance a brother's precious life might, by such a sacrifice, be preserved. What a mighty instinct of love glows in the mother's heart! You recollect that famous story of the mother whose child was taken from her by a Jesuit missionary to be trained separate and apart from its parents—how she swam through rivers and passed through what seemed to be impenetrable forests, guided only by the midnight star—till she arrived at the place where her offspring was—braving death in a thousand shapes from wild beasts and venomous serpents, from floods and jungles, from fierce men and relentless persecutors, might she but reach her child! Have there not been instances where, in the stormy blasts of winter, a mother has wrapped her garments about her infant and, exposing herself to the fury of the elements, has sacrificed her own life that the little one might live? Love has, indeed, often proved itself to be strong as death! When merely the common passion which burns in the breast of ordinary men and women towards each other, it has asserted its strength in a fond devotion which reckoned no consequences, spared itself no pain and fixed no limit to endurance, not counting life, itself, too dear to be parted with on so high a service.

TAKEN in its most natural sense, this is certainly true of creature love. It is a mighty, all-constraining, irresistible passion. Even the love of friendship occasionally has proved itself to be "strong as death." "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend." There have been those who were willing to sacrifice their lives for their friends. Filial affection has sometimes proven to be more than a match for the terrors of the grave.

THIS is the prayer of one who has the present enjoyment of fellowship with Christ. But being apprehensive lest this communion should be interrupted, she avails herself of the opportunity now afforded her to plead for a something which shall be as the abiding token of a covenant between her and her Beloved when His visible Presence shall be withdrawn. You will notice that this is not the cry of a soul that is longing for fellowship, for that cry is—"Tell me O You whom my soul loves, where You feed."

For love is of God, and God is love.

The bride says this as she clings to his arm and rests her head upon his bosom. Compare Joh 13:23; Joh 21:20. This brief dialogue corresponds to the longer one Cant. 4:7–5:1, on the day of their espousals. Allegorical interpreters find a fulfillment of this in the close of the present dispensation, the restoration of Israel to the land of promise, and the manifestation of Messiah to His ancient people there, or His Second Advent to the Church. The Targum makes Son 8:6 a prayer of Israel restored to the holy land that they may never again be carried into captivity, and Son 8:7 the Lord’s answering assurance that Israel henceforth is safe. Compare Isa 65:24; Isa 62:3-4. Son 8:6 The key-note of the poem. It forms the Old Testament counterpart to Paul’s panegyric 1Co 13:1-13 under the New. (a) Love is here regarded as an universal power, an elemental principle of all true being, alone able to cope with the two eternal foes of God and man, Death and his kingdom. “For strong as death is love, Tenacious as Sheol is jealousy.” “Jealousy” is here another term for “love,” expressing the inexorable force and ardor of this affection, which can neither yield nor share possession of its object, and is identified in the mind of the sacred writer with divine or true life. (b) He goes on to describe it as an all-pervading Fire, kindled by the Eternal One, and partaking of His essence: “Its brands are brands of fire, A lightning-flash from Jah.” Compare Deu 4:24. (c) This divine principle is next represented as overcoming in its might all opposing agencies whatsoever, symbolized by water. (d) From all which it follows that love, even as a human affection, must be reverenced, and dealt with so as not to be bought by aught of different nature; the attempt to do this awakening only scorn.