What is the context?
The wish that the beloved were like a brother imagines being able to greet and kiss him outside without being despised. It is a comparison about acknowledged closeness rather than a statement that the lovers are siblings.
She imagines bringing him into her mother’s house and giving spiced wine and pomegranate nectar. Family space and shared refreshment continue the language of welcome.
The embrace and the refrain about not awakening love return. The repetition places the desire for closeness beside the importance of its time.
The poem does not give a complete legal account of public affection or a rule that every family must enact this scene literally.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads the wish as a longing for closer communion with Christ and the refreshment as gifts used in His service. The human reading instead hears the woman longing to express affection freely. The spiritual application and the immediate wish can be distinguished without turning the comparison into an incest narrative.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.