If you Google “do not awaken love until it pleases”, you’ll quickly find that this phrase is used to encourage singles to not rush into relationships, everything from “ don’t have sex before marriage” to “don’t become too emotionally invested too soon,” to “don’t hang photos of hot guys in your locker.” Basically, this verse is widely used to support modern ideas of physical and emotional purity. I have a quibble not with Elliot’s interpretation per se, but the evangelical culture’s interpretation traditions at large. Lovely! Chapters two and three include the phrase as well. There she who was in labor gave you birth. Let’s look at chapter 8 to provide context, and also because it is really beautiful and we can all do with a bit of love poetry on a Monday:Īnd into the chamber of the one who bore me.ģ O that his left hand were under my head,Ĥ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,ĥ Who is this coming up from the wilderness The phrase “Do not awake/arouse love until it pleases” is repeated a few times in Song of Solomon, so it must be important. quoted from Song of Solomon: “I charge you, o daughters of Jerusalem, that ye not stir up, nor awake love until it please.” He interpreted this to mean that no one, man or woman, should be agitated about the choice of a mate but should be “asleep” as it were in the will of God, until it should please Him to “awake” him. It provides a foundation for the book, as if to say, “Look, it’s right here in the Bible–totally legit!” Starting out with a selection of well-chosen Bible verses is par for the course in Christian books, and marriage books in particular.

This chapter is about half commentary and half quotes, which I found a nice way to include the reader in the formation of her convictions–it comes across as inviting instead of preachy, as if she were saying, here, let’s read this together. Elliot starts this chapter with a bit of biography: as a young woman, she decides to keep a spiritual journal and in it she notes verses and hymns that made an impression on her.

Passion and purity