Song of Solomon 2 · The Lantern

The Bride’s Admiration

The Bride

I am a havatstselet of the Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

The justified here begins to praise herself and says, "I am the flower of the field" because she was not spread abroad throughout the earth. For, behold, I am a flower to all men through faith in you.

It is necessary to understand that the valleys where the bride is a lily, as she is called, are comparable to these ravines. For in distinguishing herself in the midst of that which is called "hollow" by reason of actions or thoughts that are base, she who is adorned magnificently stands resplendent among them as a lily.

But, if it please you, receive also another reason for this matter, not to be despised, as I judge. For not without cause is the manifold spirit described by the Wise Man, except that beneath one rind of the letter it is accustomed to conceal frequently diverse understandings of wisdom.

The Bridegroom

Like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling among the daughters.

The Bride

Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. In his shade I delighted and sat, and his fruit was sweet to my palate.

He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me was love.

Bring me into the house of wine. The bridegroom stood outside, and was received by the bride; for he rested between her breasts. The neighboring maidens are not such as to deserve to have the bridegroom for a guest. To the multitude he speaks outside, in parables. How I fear that perhaps we many are the maidens! Bring me into the house of wine. Why do I remain so long outside?

The banqueting-house of the heavenly King, that is, His body which He built up for Himself as His house, and then also the kingdom of heaven.

Furthermore, this charity gives to the soul a fire. Hence, in the Canticle, "Set me as a seal on your heart... for stern as death is love," when it loves to such a degree that it is totally carried up to the supremely desirable, and sees prosperity as nothing, and adversity as nothing, since all things are like a single straw in a furnace.

Sustain me with raisin-cakes, spread me a bed with apples — for I am sick with love.

In the Greek, indeed, it reads: "Strengthen me with myrrhs"; and by naming "myrrh" a certain kind of tree, which the Latins, supposing it to be so called, rendered as "myrrha," they interpreted it as "perfumes." The sequence of the discourse, then, is of this sort: after the bride had heard the words from the mouth of the bridegroom himself, and had entered the chamber of the k…

The church proclaims in the Song of Songs, "I am wounded by love." So the holy people pray to be pierced by the fear of the Lord, so that by dying they may live, whereas earlier by living they were dying.

In this garden, there is much walking about, for if one is not happy to remain in the first, he goes to the second, and likewise with the others. And so man is compassed about with apples.

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.

This is indeed the description of a love-drama hastening toward the marriage of bridegroom and bride, and it runs its course, as it were, in rather more openly bodily terms of the body.

"His left hand under my head, and his right hand will embrace me." Let us be careful once more, however, not to get involved in corporeal ideas on hearing "left hand" and "right hand." Solomon, in fact, speaks of wisdom, which is a habit and not substance: "Length of life and years of existence are in her right hand, and in her left wealth and glory." Likewise regarding the "em…

When a worthy admission has come about together with a holy perception, then the soul is rapt in God, that is, in the beloved. Hence, in the Canticle: "His left hand is under my head and His right arm embraces me."

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field: do not rouse and do not awaken love until it pleases.

I have adjured you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the forces of the field. Of what does the bride adjure the daughters of Jerusalem? If you will raise up and awaken love. How long does love sleep in you, O daughters of Jerusalem, O maidens — love which does not sleep in me, because I am wounded with love?

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and the hinds of the field, etc. The daughters of Jerusalem signify souls burning with the desire for the heavenly homeland. The bridegroom adjures these souls not to awaken the bride resting in His love, neither presume to disturb her happily asleep from human disturbances.

Then, in this union, the power of the soul is recollected, and it becomes more unified, and enters in its intimate self, and consequently it rises up to its summit: for according to Augustine, the intimate self and the summit are the same.

The voice of my beloved! See, this one is coming, leaping upon the mountains, bounding upon the hills.

If you will raise up and awaken love, until the voice of my kinsman will. Behold, here he comes, leaping over the mountains. This the Church still speaks, exhorting the maidens to prepare themselves for the coming of the bridegroom — if indeed he will to come, and to grant them his converse.

"Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains and jumping across the hills." … Some things imply that the bridegroom is already present, whereas other things suggest that the bridegroom is being sought by the bride.

These therefore are the mountains and hills upon which the Church saw the heavenly Bridegroom leaping with wondrous eagerness, as he hastened to her embraces; and not only leaping, but also bounding over them.

My beloved is like a gazelle or a fawn of the deer. See, this one is standing behind our wall, gazing in through the windows, peering through the lattices.

When I consider the difficulties of investigating the meanings in these words that are set before us in the words of Scripture, I see that I suffer something like what happens to a man who advances to track down his prey with the sharp scent of a keen-nosed hound: where sometimes it is the custom that, when the hunter, intent upon the tracks, has thought himself to be near the…

Behold, he stands behind our wall, etc. For now the beloved remains in the vicinity of the bride, now leaping upon the hills on high, because the same Lord and Savior of ours, presents Himself to the more perfect at times, when He wills, even if through a glass and in enigma, and He always shows the invisible grace of His presence to all the elect.

"My beloved is like a gazelle and a young stag" (Song 2:9). This depends on the preceding verse. For him whom she had just described as leaping and hastening, she consequently compares to a gazelle and a young stag. Aptly indeed, because this kind of animal is swift in running and agile in leaping. Moreover the discourse is about the Bridegroom, and the Word is the Bridegroom.

My beloved answered and said to me: “Rise up, my darling, my beautiful one, and come away.

What the sequence of the drama contains we have already described above; but now let us consider what either the Word of God is to be understood as saying to the soul that is worthy of it and suited to it, or what Christ is to be understood as saying to the Church.

It makes sense, therefore, for the bridegroom to call the bride, mature in virtue as she is, "dove," that is, spiritual and filled with the Holy Spirit.…The bridegroom encourages and consoles his church in its struggle with trials, "peeps through the windows and looks in through the netting," and urges her to stand fast and to fly to him.… He is saying, if you rest in the middl…

"Behold, my beloved speaks to me" (Song 2:10). See the advances of grace, and mark the degrees of divine condescension. Attend to the devotion and skill of the bride, with what vigilant eye she observes the advent of the bridegroom, and thereafter gazes upon all his movements more diligently.

For see, the winter is past; the rain has passed, it has gone.

The blossoms have appeared in the land; the time of pruning has arrived, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. Not without cause is a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, taken in the sacrifices: for they are of equal worth, and it is never said separately, a pair only of pigeons, but a pair of turtledoves, and two young pigeons. The dove is the Holy Spirit.

The flowers are said to have appeared on the earth, because when holy souls depart from their bodies, they are received in heaven. And because in this life, although it was winter, they did not grow sluggish from good work, as soon as they departed, they gloriously flourished in the land of the living.

Third, there is the production of prophets similar to the multiplication of flowers. It is said of them in the Canticle: "The flowers appear on the earth...

The fig tree has ripened its early figs, and the vines in blossom have given fragrance. Rise up, my darling, my beautiful one, and come away.

The fig tree has put forth its green figs; the vines flower, they have given their fragrance. If the vines already burst into flower, the time will come, and there will be grapes. Rise up, come, my love, my beautiful one, my dove. These things which we have expounded above, the bridegroom speaks not while the maidens hear, but while the bride alone hears.

The fig tree has produced its early fruit. They call the early and immature figs "grossi," which are unsuitable for eating and fall off even with a light touch if shaken.

On the Unbelief of the Jews, by Which They Filled Up the Measure of Their Fathers in Killing Christ. 1. "The fig tree has put forth its green figs" (Song 2:13). The present passage depends on what preceded.

The Bridegroom

My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the terrace, let me see your form, let me hear your voice — for your voice is sweet and your form is comely.”

According to the order of the drama set forth, the bridegroom, who leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills had come to the bride, looking upon her and gazing through the windows, now in the second place says to her: Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful one, my dove.

Show me your face, etc. You who in the hidden recesses of quiet, like a dove in the clefts of the rock, or in the hole of the wall, desire to be concealed, I pray that you come forth into the public sphere of action, and show your faith from your works, and declare to others also outwardly as an example what beauty you have within.

There follows: "My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollows of the wall, show me your face, let your voice sound in my ears." He loves and continues to speak words of love.

The Friends

Seize for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards — and our vineyards are in blossom.

The Bride

My beloved is mine and I am his, who pastures among the lilies.

Without any loss therefore, he passed by the guardians, and the Word mixed with the daughters of that heavenly city seeks, and by seeking it arouses love in himself, and where it seeks the Word, it recognizes.

As if she were saying: I hold firmly to the friendship of my beloved, because I feel his constant goodwill toward me. For while I have his kind intimacy, whatever I hear from barking enemies against him is grievous to me.

When a worthy admission has come about together with a holy perception, then the soul is rapt in God, that is, in the beloved. "My Lover belongs to me and I to Him; He browses among the lilies," for the soul already feels the union and is made one spirit with God. And this is the highest thing in the soul: it makes it abide in heaven.

Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a fawn of the deer upon the mountains of Bether.

For thus he says: "I to my brother, and his desire is towards me." He repeats this meaning in a different way three times in the Song of Songs.

In this verse, the Lord's resurrection is taught and foretold. Just as the apostles were afraid without him, terrorized by the treachery of the Jews, so also is the soul, which, in a certain sense, is naked and unarmed without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, terrorized by the treachery of demons.

Such are the three hierarchies which this Sun enlightens in a threefold manner. Hence, the sun, three times as much, burneth the mountains. These are the mountains of Bether, as explained in the Canticle: My lover, like a gazelle or a young stag, upon the mountains of Bether. And it is upon those very mountains that this Sun is sending out its first illuminations.

Song of Solomon2

The Bride’s Admiration

The Bride

The Bridegroom

The Bride

The Bridegroom

The Friends

The Bride