Song of Solomon 8:8
New International Version
We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

New Living Translation
We have a little sister too young to have breasts. What will we do for our sister if someone asks to marry her?

English Standard Version
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?

Berean Standard Bible
We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

King James Bible
We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

New King James Version
We have a little sister, And she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister In the day when she is spoken for?

New American Standard Bible
“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?

NASB 1995
“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?

NASB 1977
“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?

Legacy Standard Bible
“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?

Amplified Bible
“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 [in marriage]?

Christian Standard Bible
Our sister is young; she has no breasts. What will we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Our sister is young; she has no breasts. What will we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

American Standard Version
We have a little sister, And she hath no breasts: What shall we do for our sister In the day when she shall be spoken for?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
We have a little sister and she has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day in which she is spoken for?

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Our sister is little, and has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister, in the day wherein she shall be spoken for?

Contemporary English Version
We have a little sister whose breasts are not yet formed. If someone asks to marry her, what should we do?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?

English Revised Version
We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What will we do for our sister on the day she becomes engaged?

Good News Translation
We have a young sister, and her breasts are still small. What will we do for her when a young man comes courting?

International Standard Version
We have a little sister, and she has not yet reached maturity. What will we do for our sister to prepare her for her engagement?

JPS Tanakh 1917
We have a little sister, And she hath no breasts; What shall we do for our sister In the day when she shall be spoken for?

Literal Standard Version
We have a little sister, and she does not have breasts, | What do we do for our sister, | In the day that it is told of her?

Majority Standard Bible
We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

New American Bible
“We have a little sister; she has no breasts as yet. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

NET Bible
We have a little sister, and as yet she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?

New Revised Standard Version
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?

New Heart English Bible
We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is to be spoken for?

Webster's Bible Translation
We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

World English Bible
We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is to be spoken for?

Young's Literal Translation
We have a little sister, and breasts she hath not, What do we do for our sister, In the day that it is told of her?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Longing for Her Beloved
7Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned. 8We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for? 9If she is a wall, we will build a tower of silver upon her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.…

Cross References
Ezekiel 16:7
I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

Song of Solomon 8:9
If she is a wall, we will build a tower of silver upon her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.


Treasury of Scripture

We have a little sister, and she has no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

a little

Ezekiel 16:46,55,56,61
And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters…

Ezekiel 23:33
Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

John 10:16
And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

she hath

Song of Solomon 8:10
I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

Song of Solomon 4:5
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

Song of Solomon 7:3
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

in the day

Luke 19:44
And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

1 Peter 2:12
Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

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Song of Solomon 8
1. The love of the church to Christ
6. The vehemence of love
8. The calling of the Gentiles
14. the church prays for Christ's coming














(8) We have a little sister.--Commentators are almost all at one in the feeling that the poem properly ends with Song of Solomon 8:7. Those who construct the poem on the plan of a drama can find no proper place for what follows (unless as a meaningless epilogue), and the want of cohesion with the main body of the work is so evident that many scholars have rejected it as a later addition; others have tried to find a place for it by re-arranging the whole poem. But if the various sections are, as above explained, only a succession of different presentments of the same story of courtship and marriage, made without any regard to order, but simply as they occurred to the memory of the poet, this conclusion presents no difficulty, either from its position or its meaning. With a view to artistic form, we might wish it away or in some other part of the poem; but the author had no regard to artistic form, or not the same conception of it as we have.

A little sister . . .--The recollection is carried back to the childhood of the bride. Her brothers are supposed to be debating how to deal with her when an offer of marriage should be made for her.

In the day when she shall be spoken for?--i.e., asked in marriage (comp. 1Samuel 25:29). At present she is unmarriageable.

Verse 8. - We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? The term "little" refers, of course, to her tender age, as in 2 Kings 5:2, the "little maid;" and in Genesis 44:20, "a child of his old age, a little one," referring to Benjamin. "She hath no breasts" is equivalent to saying she is not yet mature, of marriageable age (see Ezekiel 16:7). The question which the bride asks of King Solomon refers to the promise which he is supposed to have made, and which he is virtually pledging himself to fulfil by this visit to the country home of his queen. "What shall be done for the advantage of my little sister? Let us consult together" (cf. Genesis 27:37; 1 Samuel 10:2; Isaiah 5:4). "The day when she shall be spoken for" is the day when she shall attract the attention of a suitor. It must necessarily be difficult to find satisfactory interpretations forevery detail in such a poem of human love as this. It might be sufficient to see in this reference to the younger sister the general idea of love's expansion. Those who are themselves the objects of it, being full of exquisite happiness, desire to call others into the same joy. This is true both of the individual and of the Church. What shall be done for others? That is the question which is awakened in every heart where true love is at work. There is no need to explain the language further. But the allegorists have been very ingenious in attempting to find meanings forevery allusion of the poem. Who is the little sister? What is her virginity? What is the day in which she shall be spoken for? Some have said that the little sister represents the firstfruits of the Jews and Gentiles received into the Christian Church immediately after the time of our Lord's ascension, as Beza and others. Some, again, take it to mean the whole body of Jews and Gentiles yet to be converted. Others would see in it those that are weak in faith, the beginners in Christian life. And, again, it has been regarded as pointing to the "daughter of Zion" at the time of the first beginnings of her conversion to the heavenly Solomon, which is the view of Hengstenberg and others. There is no end to such fancies. The broad general meaning is all that we can rest upon. The bride naturally thinks of her sister. It is a lovely incident in a perfectly idyllic poem. The visit to the home is quite in harmony with the fresh, pure, and simple life which reveals itself in all the utterances of the bride, and is honoured by the devoted attention of the splendid monarch. It is a real touch of nature when the young bride, in her family life once more, asks what shall become of her sister. It is an exquisite type of that sisterly solicitude with which all true Christians will care for the souls around them. Delitzsch thinks that the question which is asked by the bride is answered by her brothers, as they were the actual guardians of the little sister (see Genesis 21:50, 55; 34:6-8). But there is no necessity to introduce any new interlocutors at this point. The words are certainly addressed to Solomon. It is quite natural that he should reply to them in a royal style, with the pluralis majestatis which suits the corresponding position of the bride as a suppliant for her sister.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
We have a little
קְטַנָּ֔ה (qə·ṭan·nāh)
Adjective - feminine singular
Strong's 6996: Small, young, unimportant

sister,
אָח֥וֹת (’ā·ḥō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 269: Sister -- a sister

and her breasts
וְשָׁדַ֖יִם (wə·šā·ḏa·yim)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - md
Strong's 7699: The breast of a, woman, animal

are not yet grown.
אֵ֣ין (’ên)
Adverb
Strong's 369: A non-entity, a negative particle

What
מַֽה־ (mah-)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

shall we do
נַּעֲשֶׂה֙ (na·‘ă·śeh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - first person common plural
Strong's 6213: To do, make

for our sister
לַאֲחֹתֵ֔נוּ (la·’ă·ḥō·ṯê·nū)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular construct | first person common plural
Strong's 269: Sister -- a sister

on the day
בַּיּ֖וֹם (bay·yō·wm)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

she is spoken for?
שֶׁיְּדֻבַּר־ (še·yə·ḏub·bar-)
Pronoun - relative | Verb - Pual - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1696: To arrange, to speak, to subdue


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OT Poetry: Song of Solomon 8:8 We have a little sister (Song Songs SS So Can)
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