Song of Solomon 2 · The Lantern

I am the rose of Sharon, and the 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.

And since it is not the proud or arrogant, but rather the humble, who do not know how to presume of themselves, that are fit for martyrdom, he adds that he is also the lily of the valleys, that is, the crown of the humble, designating by the eminence of this flower the special glory of their future exaltation.

As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

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

These are the words of the same bride to the same persons, except that perhaps the apostles of Christ may also be reckoned among those to whom these things are addressed. Now what she says—"Set charity in order within me"—has this sense.

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, comfort me with apples: for I am faint 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 charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the does of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, until it pleases him.

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! look, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

We have already followed out the historical sense; but now we must consider how Christ, in coming to the Church, leaps upon the mountains and bounds over the hills. For "bounding" rather than "passing over" belongs more properly to the sense of the passage before us. Isaac, indeed, as he walked and advanced, kept growing greater, until he became very great.

"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.

She sees him therefore leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills, according to the imprecation of David who says: "All the mountains that are round about him," that is, round about Gilboa, "let the Lord visit; but from Gilboa let him pass by" (2 Sam 1:21).

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young deer: look, he stands behind our wall, he looks forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice.

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…

My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. And indeed, all who know well how to explore the natures of these animals discover many things in them that most fittingly apply to the beloved of the Church, that is, the Lord and Savior.

"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 spoke, and said to me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

These are the matters which, as we indicated above, seemed to us to present the greatest difficulty both in setting the order straight and in opening up their meaning. And this, I think, our present renewed investigation of the words will have rendered clearer. But the spiritual interpretation in these passages is not held to be so laborious and difficult.

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…

Hear then the words which he speaks, how they are not of one who is indignant, but of one who loves. There follows: "Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one." Happy the conscience that merits to hear these things of itself!

For, look, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

But from the fig tree learn a parable: for when its branch has now become tender and puts forth leaves, know that summer is near; so also you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, at the door. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

For now the winter is past, etc. This is what the Apostle says: The night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light (Rom. XIII).

Furthermore, the winter time, which he signifies has passed, seems to me to designate that period when the Lord Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, because they had conspired against him, wishing to kill him.

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, 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 puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair 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.

O my dove, who are in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice; for sweet is your voice, and your countenance is beautiful.

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.

Because your voice is sweet, etc. Indeed, the voice of that soul is sweet to the Lord, which knows how either to announce the words of the Lord to neighbors or to resound praises to the Lord Himself sweetly with the prophet, How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth (Psalm 119)!

"My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollows of the wall" (Song 2:14). Not only in the clefts of the rock does the dove find a safe refuge; she finds it also in the hollows of the wall.

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that plunder the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

According to the order of the drama the speaker has changed, for now the bridegroom no longer speaks to the bride, but to the companions, and to them he says that they should catch the little foxes that lie in wait for the vineyards, where they have first put forth their buds, and do not allow them to reach the flower.

[Those] who spoil the church of God, as the "little foxes do the vineyard," we exhort you to avoid, lest you lay traps for your own souls. "For he that walks with wise men shall be wise, but he that walks with the foolish shall be known."

I am present to my promise. "Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards: for our vineyard has flourished" (Song 2:15). Foxes are temptations. It is necessary that temptations come. For who will be crowned, unless he has competed lawfully? (2 Tim 2:5.) Or how will they compete, if there is no one to attack them?

My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feeds 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 breaks, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young 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.

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