“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.”
The beloved declares that her beloved is like a seal upon her heart and upon her arm, that love is strong as death and its fury is fierce as the grave, that the coals of love are coals of fire with a mighty flame, establishing love's power as absolute and beyond mortal constraint. The image of the lover as a seal upon the beloved's heart establishes that he is inscribed in her innermost being and that his mark is permanent and indelible. The comparison of love to death and the grave establishes love as having the same finality and inevitability as mortality, suggesting that erotic love is a fundamental human force that exceeds individual will. The assertion that the coals of love are coals of fire establishes that authentic love is not gentle or mild but burning and all-consuming. This verse theologically suggests that authentic love has the power of a fundamental force of creation and that it encompasses both gentleness (the seal) and fierce intensity (the flame).
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