8:1 The woman’s wish that her man could be her brother sounds most peculiar to modern ears, as though she had a strange desire for incest. The reader must, however, bear two things in mind. First, brother and sister were common terms of endearment between lovers in the ancient Near East, as is indicated by the frequent use of the terms in the Egyptian love poetry. Second, she is not wishing that she could make love to him in public, but she is wishing that she could be more public about her affection