Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.128–2.140

And a little later he says again at the end: "And since they walked crookedly before me, I too will walk crookedly with them in fury." We have taken up these passages to prove from them how the sun is said to look askance, that is, to look crookedly. And it has become plain that he says those are looked at askance, and that he walks crookedly and perversely with those, who walk crookedly with him. But let us not leave undiscussed what the present passage also points out, that the sun seems to have a twofold power, one by which it lights, another by which it burns; but according to the things or materials subject to it, it either lights something with its light, or darkens and hardens something with its heat. According to this, then, perhaps God is also said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart, because the material of his heart was such that it received the presence of the Sun of righteousness not in the part by which he lights, but in that by which he burns and hardens; no doubt because he himself afflicted the life of the Hebrews with hard labours and wore them out with mud and brick. And his heart, according to what he was thinking, was surely muddy and slimy. And just as this visible sun dries and hardens the material of mud, so the Sun of righteousness, with these same rays by which he lit the people of Israel,

hardened the heart of Pharaoh, in which there were muddy thoughts, according to the very qualities of its movements. That these things are so, and that the servant of God is not writing an ordinary history, as it seems to men, but writes through the Holy Spirit, is shown also by this: where he relates that the children of Israel groaned, he does not say that they groaned from the mud, or from the brick, or from the straw, but from their works, he says. And again: "And their cry went up," he says, "to God." He did not say from the mud and brick, but again, from their works. For this reason he adds: "For the Lord heard their groaning," since he surely does not hear the groaning of those who do not cry to the Lord from their works. Although these things may seem said by way of digression, yet, prompted by the occasion of the passages, we judged that they should by no means be left out, especially since they bear some likeness to what this one says who has been darkened because the sun looked askance at her; for it is shown there that this happens where the cause of sins goes before, and that one is darkened or burned by the sun where the material of sin is present. But where there is no sin, the sun is said neither to burn nor to darken, as is said of the righteous man in the Psalms: "The sun shall not burn you by day, nor the moon by night." You see, then, that the sun never burns the saints, in whom there is no cause of sins. For, as we said, the sun has a twofold power: it lights the righteous, but sinners it does not light but burns, since they too hate the light because they do evil. For this reason our God is said to be a consuming fire, and also light in whom there is no darkness: light, no doubt, for the righteous, and he becomes fire for sinners, to consume in them whatever of corruptibility or frailty he finds in their soul.

That in many places of scripture both the sun and fire are spoken of, not this visible but that invisible and spiritual one, you yourself will find abundantly if you go through them. "My mother's sons fought in me; they set me as keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I did not keep." She who is dark because of her former sins but beautiful because of faith and her way of life still speaks, asserting that her mother's sons fought not against her but in her; and after this war which they waged in her, they appointed her keeper of vineyards, not of one vineyard but of many. She also declares that besides those vineyards which she was set to keep by her mother's sons, she had another vineyard of her own which she did not keep. This is the story of the drama set before us. But now let us inquire who is the mother of this bride whom she mentions, and who are her sons who fought in her and, the war being finished, handed over to her vineyards to keep, as though she could not have kept them unless they had fought; and why, having received the keeping of the other vineyards, she was unwilling or unable to keep her own vineyard. Paul, writing to the Galatians, says: "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, have you not heard the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. But the son of the slave woman was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through the promise. These things are allegorical. For these are the two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which corresponds to the present Jerusalem, and she is in slavery with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is the mother of us all." Paul says, then, that this is the heavenly Jerusalem and the mother of all of us who believe. Then he adds later and says: "Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free, with the freedom with which Christ has set us free." Paul plainly declares, then, that everyone who obtains freedom from Christ through faith is a child of the free woman; and he says that she is the Jerusalem above, which is free, which is the mother of us all. This bride too, then, is understood to be the daughter of this mother, in those who fought in her and appointed her keeper of the vineyards. Hence those who had such power as both to wage war in her and to appoint her keeper of vineyards seem to have been of no humble or contemptible rank. So we can take the apostles of Christ as the sons of the bride's mother, that is, sons of the heavenly Jerusalem, who first fought in this one who is gathered from the gentiles. And they fought in order to conquer in her the thoughts of unbelief and disobedience which she had before, and every height raising itself against the knowledge of Christ, as Paul says: "Destroying thoughts and every height raising itself against the knowledge of Christ." They fought, then, not against her but in her, that is, in her thoughts and heart, to destroy and drive out all unbelief, every vice, and all the doctrines which had grown into her while she was among the gentiles, through the false assertions of sophists. So the apostles of Christ had a great war, until they overthrew in her all the towers of falsehood and the walls of perverse doctrine, until they laid low the arguments of iniquity, and defeated the demons working and kindling these things in her heart.

So when they have driven from her all the thoughts of her former unbelief, they do not leave her idle, lest perhaps through idleness the old things creep back and what was driven out return; but they give her work to do and entrust to her the keeping of the vineyards. Let us take the vineyards to be each of the volumes of the law and the prophets. For each of them was like a full field which the Lord has blessed. These, then, these brave men entrust to her after the victory of the war to keep and guard; for they do not leave her idle, as we said. We can also take the writings of the evangelists and the letters of the apostles themselves likewise as vineyards, which they handed over to her who is gathered from the gentiles, for whom they also fought, to be kept and cultivated. As for her saying that she did not keep her own vineyard, we can call that the learning in which each was trained before faith; which, no doubt, on believing in Christ, one leaves and abandons, and counts as loss for Christ's sake the things that seemed gain to him. So Paul too glories that the observances of the law and all the glory of the Jewish way of life were to him as dung, so that he might be found in Christ not having his own righteousness, which is from the law, but the righteousness which is from God. Just as Paul, then, having received faith in Christ, did not keep his own vineyard, namely the observances of Jewish tradition; and perhaps he did not keep it because, though it had been planted by God as a true vine, it was turned into bitterness as a foreign vine, and their vineyard was now the vine of Sodom, their branch from Gomorrah, the cluster of bitterness in them, the fury of dragons their wine, and the incurable fury of asps; so too among the gentiles there were very many doctrines of this kind, which she says were overcome after those wars that were fought by the teachers for faith and the knowledge of Christ. I think it would certainly be counted as a fault if anyone kept vineyards of this kind and went on cultivating a field planted with poisonous and harmful teachings. And do not be surprised if she who is gathered from the dispersion of the nations, and is now being prepared as a bride for Christ, seems once to have been liable to these faults.

Remember how the first woman was deceived and fell into transgression, and is said to be saved in no other way than through the bearing of children, at least of those who continue in faith and charity with holiness. Now what is written of Adam and Eve the Apostle declares thus: "This is a great mystery in Christ and in the church"; who so loved her that he gave himself for her when she herself was still ungodly, as he himself said: "For while we were still ungodly, at the right time Christ died for us." And again: "For while we were still unbelievers, Christ died for us." It is no wonder, then, if she who was deceived and fell into transgression, who was ungodly at that time and a sinner, is said to have cultivated at the time when she was still ungodly such a vineyard as she ought to leave and by no means keep at all. And if it pleases us to follow the third place of explanation as well, let us refer these things to each soul which, turned to God and coming to faith, no doubt suffers battles of thoughts and the struggles of demons trying to call it back to the allurements of its former life or to the error of unbelief. But so that this may not happen, and so that the demons may not again have such power against it, divine Providence has seen to it that to all little ones, and to those who cannot fight for themselves against the wiles of the devil and the battles of the demons, being still infants and nurslings in Christ, angels are given as champions and defenders, who have been appointed by God as guardians and stewards of those who, being of weak age, cannot fight for themselves, as we said. And so that they may do this with greater confidence, it is granted them always to see the face of the Father who is in heaven. And I think these are the little ones whom Christ commanded to come to him and would not let be hindered, and of whom he said that they always see the face of the Father. Nor should it seem contradictory to you if this soul that strives toward God calls them her mother's sons. For if the mother of souls is the heavenly Jerusalem, and the angels are likewise called heavenly, it will seem in no way discordant if those who, like herself, are heavenly are called by her her mother's sons. Above all, it will seem fitting and appropriate that those who have one Father, God, should also have one Jerusalem as mother of all.

As for her saying, "My own vineyard I did not keep," she seems to judge that those institutions and habits and purpose in which she was trained while living according to the old man were praiseworthily not kept by her, from the time when with the help of the angels she fought and conquered, and drove the old man with his deeds entirely away from her, and was appointed by them keeper of the vineyards, that is, of the divine meanings and doctrines, from which she can drink wine that gladdens her heart. "Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie at noon, lest perhaps I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions." The bride still speaks these words too, but to the bridegroom, no longer to the daughters of Jerusalem. So from the beginning, where she says, "Let him kiss me," up to this point, "over the flocks of your companions," all that has been said are the words of the bride. But first her speech was addressed to God, secondly to the bridegroom, thirdly to the young maidens; standing between them and the bridegroom, and, as the form of this drama has it, having become a kind of chorus leader, she directs her words now to him, now also in reply to the daughters of Jerusalem. So now she makes these last speeches of hers to the bridegroom, asking him where he pastures at noon and where he settles his flock, fearing that while she seeks him she may stumble into those places where the bridegroom's companions keep their flocks settled at noon. It is shown by this that this bridegroom is also a shepherd. Above we had learned that he is also a king, no doubt because he rules men; a shepherd because he pastures sheep; and a bridegroom because he has a bride who reigns with him, according to what is written: "The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing." This, for the present, is what the order of the drama itself contains, which is as it were the historical one. But now let us seek the mystical understanding; and if we must anticipate a little what is to be related later, so that it may be clear what kind of disposition these companions have, let us recall what is written: that there are sixty queens, but of all these one is the dove and one the perfect one, and the sharer of the kingdom; the rest, who are called the eighty concubines, are lower; and the young maidens, of whom there is no number, are placed after the rank of the concubines.

All these are the differences among those who, believing in Christ, are united to him with different dispositions. For example, the Apostle says that the whole church is, by a certain figure, the body of Christ; and in this body he declares there are different members, some eyes, some hands, others feet, and that each is fitted into the members of this body according to the merits of his works and pursuits. In keeping with this pattern these things too are to be understood: we must think that some souls in this bridal drama, which are united to the bridegroom with a more magnificent and more illustrious disposition, are held by him in the place and affection of queens; others, whose honour in progress and virtues is no doubt lower, are counted in the place of concubines; and others again in the place of young maidens, who seem to be placed outside the court indeed, yet not outside the royal city; and after all these mentioned above, those souls which are called sheep. But if we look more attentively, perhaps we shall find still others lower than all these and the last of all: namely those who are counted in the flocks of his companions. For they too are said to have certain flocks, into which the bride does not wish to stumble; and for this reason she asks the bridegroom to tell her where he pastures, where he rests at noon, lest, she says, I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions. It is asked, then, whether these companions who are said to have certain flocks do this serving the bridegroom and acting under him as under a chief shepherd, since they are called his companions; or whether they have something of their own and set apart, not in accord with the bridegroom's mind, since the bride shrinks from them and fears lest she stumble into the companions' flocks while she seeks her bridegroom. And as for her saying, "Lest I become," not "veiled" but "as one veiled," consider whether she hints by this that there is some woman or women among the companions who are like brides, themselves having bridal dress, and are veiled, and, as the Apostle says, have a veil and authority over their heads. And to make the explanation of this saying clearer, let us again follow what is said in the order of the drama.

The bride asks her bridegroom himself to show her the place of his retreat and rest, since, impatient with love, she longs to hear the bridegroom even at noon, especially at that time when the light is brighter and the splendour of the day full and pure, so that she may stand by him as he pastures or refreshes his sheep. And she earnestly wishes to learn the way by which she should go to him, lest, if she is not taught the windings of this road, she stumble into the flocks of the companions and seem like one of those women who come veiled to his companions, who have no care for modesty and are not afraid to run about everywhere and be seen by many. "But I," she says, "who wish to be seen by no one else but you alone, long to know by what road I may come to you, so that it may be secret, so that no one may be between us, so that no stranger or alien witness may meet me." And perhaps for this reason she asks about those places in which the bridegroom pastures his sheep, and shows him her modesty, because of which she does not wish to stumble into the companions' flocks; so that he may separate his sheep from the companions and pasture them apart; so that the bride may not only not be seen by others, but may enjoy more secretly the hidden and ineffable mysteries of the bridegroom. Now let us look at each point. And first see whether we can say that the Lord, whose portion was Jacob and the lot of his inheritance Israel, is to be understood as the bridegroom, and his companions as those angels according to whose number, when the Most High divided the nations and scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number, as it says, of the angels of God; and these perhaps are the flocks of the bridegroom's companions, namely all the nations, which are set like flocks under angel shepherds; while the bridegroom's flock are said to be those of whom he himself said in the Gospel: "My sheep hear my voice."

For see and attend carefully: he said "my sheep," as if there were other sheep that are not his, just as he said elsewhere: "For you are not of my sheep." Each of these things will seem fittingly applicable to this hidden mystery. If these things are so, the bride fittingly wanted the flock of each of the companions to be understood as his bride, whom she called veiled. But since she was certain that she was above all of them, she does not wish to seem like any of them, knowing that she ought to surpass those brides of the companions, whom the bride calls as it were veiled, by as much as her bridegroom excelled the companions. She will also seem to have had reason for asking for this further cause: since she knows that it is the care of the good shepherd to seek the best pastures for the sheep and to find green and shady groves for rest in the noonday heat. This the bridegroom's companions do not know how to do, nor do they have so much knowledge or concern in choosing pastures; and therefore she says: "Tell me where you pasture, where you lie at noon," desiring, namely, that time when light is poured more abundantly on the world, when the day is purer and the light clearer and more brilliant. Then, she says, tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie at noon, lest I become as one veiled over the flocks of your companions. The bride has now called the bridegroom by a new name. For knowing that he is the son of charity, or rather that he is himself the charity that is from God, she gave him this name as it were: "you whom my soul has loved." And yet she did not say "whom I have loved" but "whom my soul has loved," knowing that the bridegroom is to be loved not with just any love but with all the soul, all the strength and all the heart.

"Where you pasture," she says, "and where you lie." I think that the prophet too, placed under the same shepherd, speaks of this place which the bride now longs to learn and hear from the bridegroom himself, when he says: "The Lord rules me," or, as we read in other copies, "The Lord pastures me, and I shall lack nothing." And since he knew that other shepherds, through sloth or unskilfulness, settle their flocks in drier places, he said of this best shepherd, the Lord: "In a green place, there he has settled me; beside the water of refreshment he has brought me up," showing that this shepherd provides his sheep not only with abundant water but with water that is wholesome, pure, and refreshing in every way. But since from this state, in which he lived as a sheep under a shepherd, he turned to rational and higher things and advanced, and obtained this through conversion, he adds and says: "He has converted my soul; he has led me on the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." Then, since he had advanced so far as to walk in the ways of righteousness, and righteousness no doubt has unrighteousness fighting against it, and whoever walks the path of righteousness must have battles with adversaries, turning to faith and hope he says of them: "For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." After this, as if giving thanks to the one who had trained him in the pastoral disciplines, he says: "Your rod and your staff," by which I seem to have been trained for the office of a shepherd, "they have comforted me." Then, when he sees himself carried from the pastoral pastures to rational food and mystical secrets, he adds and continues: "You have prepared a table before me against those who afflict me. You have anointed my head with oil, and your cup that inebriates, how excellent it is! And your mercy will follow me all the days of my life, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days." That first, then, namely the pastoral instruction, was for those at the beginning, that being settled in a green place he might be brought up beside the water of refreshment. But the things that follow are sought by those advancing to perfection. And since we have set out to speak of pastures and greenness, it seems fitting also to confirm what we have said from the Gospels.

I have found there too this good shepherd discoursing about the pastures of the sheep, where, besides professing himself the shepherd, he also says that he is the door, and says: "I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and find pasture." Him too the bride now questions, to hear and learn from him in what pastures he drives his sheep, or in what pleasant places he spends the noonday heat; calling "noon" those secret places of the heart in which the soul obtains from the Word of God a clearer light of knowledge. For this is the time when the sun holds the highest point of its circuit. Whenever, then, Christ, the Sun of righteousness, reveals to his church the lofty and sublime secrets of his powers, he will seem to teach her the pleasant pastures and noonday resting places. For when she still has the beginnings of learning and receives from him, so to speak, the first rudiments of knowledge, then the prophet says: "And he will help her early in the morning." But now, since she is already seeking more perfect things and longs for higher things, she asks for the noonday light of knowledge. Hence I think that also of Abraham, after many instructions in which God, appearing to him, trained him in each matter and taught him, it is afterwards related that God was seen by him at the oak of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent at noon. "And looking up with his eyes," it says, "he saw, and behold, three men stood over him." If we believe that these things were written by the Holy Spirit, I do not think it pleased the divine Spirit for nothing that even the time and hour of the vision should be committed to the pages of scripture, unless the reason of that hour and time contributed something to the knowledge of the children of Abraham, by whom, just as the works of Abraham are to be done, so too these visitations are to be hoped for. For whoever can say, "The night is far gone, the day is at hand; let us walk honestly as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in strife and jealousy," and has passed beyond all these things, will seem to have gone beyond this time in which the night is far gone and the day at hand, and to hasten not to the beginning of the day but to noon, so that he too may come to the grace of Abraham.

For if the light of the mind that is in him and the purity of his heart are clear and bright, he will seem to have the noonday time in himself; and through this purity of heart, as if placed at noon, he will see God, sitting at the oak of Mamre, which is interpreted 'at the vision'. He, then, sits at the vision at noon, who calls one to see God. Hence he is said to sit not inside the tent but outside, at the door of the tent. For the mind of one who is far from bodily thoughts and far from carnal desires is outside, placed outside the body; and therefore God visits the one placed outside all these things. Of the same mystery is the fact that Joseph, when he had received his brothers in Egypt, feeds them at noon, and at noon they bow down to him with gifts. For this reason, I think, of the things which the Jews committed against the Saviour, none of the evangelists was willing to write "noon", because these things were done at noon; though the sixth hour surely indicates nothing other than noonday, yet no one named noon. But Matthew said thus: "From the sixth hour darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour." And Luke: "It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour, the sun failing." And Mark: "And when the sixth hour had come, darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour." Hence it appears that in the visitation of Abraham and in the patriarchs' banquet with Joseph there was no need for this time to be indicated by the name of the sixth number, but that it be called noon. For the bride, who was already foreshadowed in them, wanted to learn where the bridegroom pastures and where he lies, and therefore she names noon. But the evangelists in what they narrated sought not the noonday time but the number of the sixth hour, namely to narrate the sacrifice of his offering, which was offered on the day of the Passover for the redemption of man, who was formed by God on the sixth day, after the earth had brought forth the living creature according to its kind, four-footed beasts and creeping things and beasts of the earth.