Song of Solomon 4 · The Lantern

Solomon Admires His Bride

The Bridegroom

See, you are beautiful, my darling; see, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Mount Gilead.

But Christ, beholding his church, for whom he himself, as you find in the book of the prophet Zechariah, had put on filthy garments, now clothed in white raiment, seeing, that is, a soul pure and washed in the laver of regeneration, says, "Behold, you are fair, my love, behold you are fair, your eyes are like a dove's," in the likeness of which the Holy Spirit descended from he…

So they say that these eyes have fainted after the Lord's salvation, because of the holy coming of the incarnation, which they bore with such longing that it could allow them no rest. So they were right to faint, because they had no period of leisure.

If by the eyes the preachers of the Church are designated, because they show the way to the rest, then by the hair the peoples are fittingly signified, because they bestow adornment upon the same Church.

Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of them bearing twins, and not one among them bereaved.

"Your teeth are like a flock of ewes to be shorn." A sincere confession is a spiritual shearing! And further: "all of them big with twins," signifying the twofold grace, either that perfected by water and the Spirit, or that announced in the Old and in the New Testament.

The teeth of the church are those through whom she speaks. Of what sort are your teeth? "Like a flock of sheep that are shorn." Why "that are shorn"? Because they have laid aside the burdens of the world.

Where the words of Scripture signify things of creation, or the conduct of the Israelite people, there one should seek from another passage of Scripture what each thing signifies, and then derive its signification through words plainly signifying the truth of faith, or the uprightness of morals as well; as for example if it is said: The sheep bring forth twin offspring, one sho…

Like a thread of scarlet are your lips, and your speech is comely. Like a slice of pomegranate is your temple behind your veil.

Like the tower of David is your neck, built in courses; a thousand shields hang upon it, all the bucklers of the mighty men.

A thousand shields hang from it, etc. The thousand shields hanging from the tower of David are innumerable defenses of divine protection, by which the holy preachers are assisted by the Lord so that they cannot be overcome by enemies, and they also teach their listeners to be helped against the attacks of enemies, whether visible or invisible.

For we stretch out the neck when we wish to see farther ahead. Therefore the holy preachers are fittingly called eyes for one reason, teeth for another, cheeks for yet another, and the neck for still another.

"Thy neck is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armor of valiant men." This was said to the bride or mother Church, whose neck is like the tower of David. It is called the neck, whence the doctrine of truth goes forth. The neck serves us for two things, namely, for receiving food and for expressing words.

Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that pasture among the lilies.

And in the song of the bride, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, the neck, and breasts, are praised by the bridegroom. The bride is either the soul of man, which enters into marriage with Christ, or the church. The parts of the body are interpreted figuratively: if they are said of the soul, then they apply to its powers.

Those who are fed among the lilies, etc. The holy teachers are nourished by the pure and resplendent flowers of the divine Scriptures, and lest the milk of salvific doctrine, with which they feed the little ones, should lack, they always read in the writings of the Fathers what they ought to achieve, how they should teach, and they satisfy their hearts as though with vital sap,…

By the two breasts, two orders of preachers are designated: one in circumcision, the other in uncircumcision. They are fittingly called like two fawns of a doe, because they are children of the Synagogue and feed on the mountains of contemplation. They are called twins because they preach in harmony and think in harmony.

Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.

You are all beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you.

God the Word says to [the church], "You are all fair, my love, and there is no blemish in you," for guilt has been washed away. "Come here from Lebanon, my spouse, come here from Lebanon, from the beginning of faith you will pass through and pass on," because, renouncing the world, she passed through things temporal and passed on to Christ.

You are entirely beautiful, my friend, etc. You are beautiful not only in the distinguished members of the elect, which I have specifically enumerated, but also in those who seem small and fragile, and you shine with the beauty of virtues, and you are free from the stain of vices. For He has blessed all those who fear the Lord, small and great alike (Psalm 113).

That is reserved for you at the end of all things, when I shall take you, all glorious, to myself, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Do you not know that as long as you live in the body you are exiled from the light? With your beauty still incomplete how can you consider yourself fit to gaze on beauty in its totality?

With me from Lebanon, bride — with me from Lebanon you shall come. Look down from the summit of Amana, from the summit of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.

This teaches us the bride's place of origin, that she comes from the worship of idols. For Mount Lebanon is full of idols, whence you come, it says, hastening past through the law. Without knowing the law, you were taught the mystery of Christ.

Come from Lebanon, etc. Lebanon, if we follow the Hebrew etymology, is interpreted as whiteness; if the Greek, incense. Finally, above, where we read, To the hill of frankincense, some codices have, To the hill of Lebanon. However, both names evidently sound out the industry of virtue.

For Lebanon is interpreted as "whitening." What then is understood by Lebanon if not baptism, in which holy Church is washed with water and is whitened from the blackness of sins through the Holy Spirit whom she receives and through faith in Christ? Whence it is written: "You will sprinkle me, Lord, with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed" (Psalm 50:9).

You have taken my heart, my sister, bride; you have taken my heart with one of your eyes, with one bead of your necklaces.

Flee, he says, from the lions' dens, flee from the pride of devils, that when you have been consecrated to me, I may be able to say unto you, "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck." What he says is something like this—I do not reject marriage: you have a second eye, the left, which I have…

In one of your eyes, etc. We have already said that in the eyes of the Church, either her spiritual senses or those who are able to see and demonstrate her spiritualities, the teachers are understood: furthermore, in the hair, the multitude of people, who, although they cannot reach the height of that discourse in which the Lord says: If you want to be perfect, go, sell what yo…

It is not the intellect that can go in there, but the heart. Hence again in the Canticle: "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride; you have ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes"—for the heart reaches down into the depths of Christ—"with one hair of thy neck"—for the hair refers to the height of mental thoughts.

How beautiful are your loves, my sister, bride! How much better are your loves than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than all spices!

Christ, then, feeds his church with these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, he rightly says to her, "How comely are your breasts, my sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of your garments is above all spices.

And the scent of your ointments, etc. The scent of the Church's spiritual ointments is the fame of the gifts; of which it is written: Their voice has gone out unto all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Psalm XVIII).

What we said above concerning the breasts of the bridegroom, we consider can also be understood here when he speaks of the bride. 'And the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.' By ointments, indeed, are understood those very virtues which arise from charity.

Your lips drip liquid honey, bride; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

"Your lips distill a honeycomb, bride; honey and milk are under your tongue." Here it refers to the teachers of the church, offering religious teaching and, as it were, carrying honeycomb of bees on its lips, and distilling drops of honey, containing not only honey but also milk, and providing to each the appropriate nourishment, both suited to the infants and adapted to the ma…

The preachers of the Church are rightly said to be the lips of the bride, because through them she speaks to the peoples, and through them the little ones are instructed in the faith, since through them the hidden things of divine Scripture, as if secrets of the heart, are made manifest. Now in a honeycomb, the honey lies hidden and the wax is seen.

Sacred Scripture is a tongue, hence: "Sweetmeats and milk are under your tongue." This tongue enjoys the taste of food, wherefore these same Scriptures are compared to loaves of bread that nourish and are pleasant to the taste.

A locked garden is my sister, bride; a locked spring, a sealed fountain.

But that the Church is one, the Holy Spirit declares in the Song of Songs, saying, in the person of Christ, "My dove, my undefiled, is one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her." Concerning which also He says again, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring sealed up, a well of living water." But if the spouse of Christ, which…

He so departed from the abode of the womb that the virginal door did not open, and what is sung in the Canticle of Canticles was fulfilled: "My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up."

For the soul is a paradise in which Scripture is planted, and it has marvelous aspects of sweetness and beauty. Hence in the Canticle: My sister, my spouse is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up. Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates.

Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruit, henna with nard —

In order that we may know the plants that the Word cultivates in believers, the Song calls the trees he planted "pomegranates." These issue from the bride's mouth. The pomegranate is difficult for a thief to grasp because of its thorny branches, and its fruit is surrounded and protected by a rind bitter and harsh to the taste.

Your branches are a paradise of pomegranates, etc. Because the early Church, which was at Jerusalem, produced many people for God from water and the Spirit, it is rightly said that the sacred garden, assisted by the irrigation of the divine fountain, emitted a paradise, not of any kind of trees, but of pomegranates with the fruits of apples.

nard and saffron, cane and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices —

The place of his burial was a garden.… What is he going to say who was buried in the garden? "I gather my myrrh, and my spices"; and again, "Myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices." These were the tokens of his burial, and in the Gospels it is said, "The women came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared," and "there also came Nicodemus, bringing a mixture of myrrh…

Cyprus with nard, nard and saffron. Cyprus in Egypt is an aromatic tree, with leaves like those of the jujube, and a seed whiter than coriander. This is cooked in oil and then pressed; this called Cyprus, a royal ointment is prepared from it. The best is in Egypt, the second in Ascalon of Judea, the third on the island of Cyprus.

For what is designated by these diverse species of spices, if not the fragrance and progress of holy virtues, which is found in the saints? From these species, indeed, royal ointments are prepared; from these, healings of bodies are obtained.

a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

Now who is the "fountain sealed," or who is signified by the "wellspring of living water"? It is the Savior himself, of whom it is written: "For with you is the fountain of life."

[This garden] also contains "a spring" and "a well of water alive and babbling from Lebanon." It contains not only the gospel teaching that flows openly but also the "well" of the law, which is "a well of water alive" that also holds hidden streams that babble, emit a sound and flow from Lebanon.

Rightly in the sendings forth, she is described as a fountain of gardens and a well of living waters. For what is designated by the fountain and the well, if not Holy Scripture? Which so generates the water of wisdom that it both always refreshes those who drink and yet does not cease to flow.

The Bride

Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Breathe upon my garden — let its spices flow. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choice fruit.

Arise, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out (Canticles iv. 16). As Joseph was delighted with these spices, he is designated the King's son by God; as the Virgin Mary was anointed with them, she conceived the Word: then new secrets, and new truth, and a new kingdom, and also great and inexplicable mysteries, are made manif…

By exalting the kingdom of the north above all kingdoms of the world, therefore, Almighty God commands what is [now] the kingdom of the Romans to arise.

For what is designated by the North wind, which constricts with cold and makes things numb, if not the unclean spirit, who, while he possesses all the reprobate, makes them numb to good work?

Song of Solomon4

Solomon Admires His Bride

The Bridegroom

The Bride