Song of Solomon 8:2

The bride thinks with delight of the close familiar intercourse she would in that case have had with him.

who would instruct me The verb here may be either 3rd pers. sing. fem. as the A.V. takes it, or 2nd pers. sing. masc. as the Vulgate and Targum take it. In the latter case the translation would be, -thou wilt instruct me," or as R.V. margin, -that thou mightest instruct me." If we adopt the former view, the meaning must be that the Shulammite's mother would instruct her how to play a maiden's part to her betrothed lover; if the latter, that her lover would be able to impart to her his wisdom. But in both cases the wish that he had been her brother must be understood to have been given up, or lost sight of; and in the latter it may be doubted whether this exaltation of the wisdom of the beloved is an Eastern trait at all, unless the instruction is instruction in agriculture, as Oettli suggests, comparing Isaiah 28:23-28 and ch. Song of Solomon 7:12. That is surely too prosaic. But in ch. Song of Solomon 3:4 the clause "until I had brought him into my mother's house" is followed by the words, "and into the chamber of her that conceived me," and the LXX and the Syriac actually have these words here in place of who would instruct me. This reading would keep the whole clause in harmony with the wish in Song of Solomon 8:1, and probably should be accepted.

of the juice of my pomegranate Rather, my new pomegranate wine. Âsîsis the juice of grapes or other fruit, trodden out in the wine-press and fermented quickly; cp. Isaiah 49:26, "As with "âsîsthey shall be drunk with their own blood"; Joel 1:5; Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13. Tristram (Nat. Hist. p. 388) says of the pomegranate, "The juice was and still is expressed for a cooling drink, or sherbet, and sometimes also fermented into a light wine. It is now commonly used in the East with sugar or spices, and then strained before being fermented. The wine of the pomegranate does not keep long and is very light."