What Does Song of Solomon 8:7 Mean?
Many waters cannot quench love, and rivers cannot wash over it; if a man gives all the wealth of his house for love, they would utterly despise him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.THE KEY
Love is a flame no flood can extinguish and no fortune can purchase.
THE MEANING
Love is present as a flame that overwhelming pressure cannot put out. Everything held in your house still cannot equal it, and trying to price it ends in contempt.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that love can be secured by wealth or erased by whatever overwhelms it.
THE ROOT
לְכַבּוֹת
lekhabot from kabah
GROWS FROM
כבה
To extinguish, or to go out.
In Hebrew, “quench” is lekhabot (לְכַבּוֹת), from kabah (כבה), the verb for a flame going out. Elsewhere it describes lamp and altar fire, so the line pictures love as a flame that water cannot extinguish.
ALSO GROWS
tikbeh: Goes out; is extinguished.
תִּכְבֶּה
This root describes the lamp of God going out; here, the same extinguishing image frames love as a flame.
lo tikbeh: Shall never go out.
לֹא תִכְבֶּה
The root describes the altar fire that remains burning, echoing the image of love that cannot be put out.
THE PATTERN
Love endures what would overwhelm it and cannot be measured by what surrounds it.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they were in his eyes like a few days, for the love he had for her.Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus the Anointed One, our Lord.Love never falls; whether there are prophecies, they shall be made idle; whether there are tongues, they shall come to rest; whether there is knowledge, it shall be made idle.THE THREAD
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is hard as Sheol; its sparks are sparks of fire, a flame of the LORD.This verse uses the same Hebrew word for love, ahavah (אַהֲבָה), and names that love as a vehement flame. Verse 7 asks what can extinguish the flame and answers with the image of waters: even a flood cannot put it out.
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