Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.1–3.11

1. "On my bed in the nights I sought him whom my soul loved. I sought him, and did not find him. I called him, and he did not hearken to me." 2. "[I will rise now] and go about in the city, in the markets and in the broad streets, and I will seek him whom my soul loved." I sought him, and did not find him; I called him, and he did not hearken to me.

The God of all often trains the souls of the pious by allowing them to fall into various temptations; sometimes he grants deliverance to those who ask for it, and sometimes he defers the gift, contriving benefit for his devoted followers on every side. Such is the saying in David: "How long, O Lord, will you forget me, to the end? How long will you turn your face away from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, with pains in my heart day and night? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?" For, as is likely, he had often made supplication and asked for deliverance from his troubles and had not obtained his request; therefore, distraught as one who has failed, and in anguish, he uses such words. The blessed Paul too says: "So that I might not be too elated by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me, so that I might not be too elated. Concerning this I three times besought the Lord, and he said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul asks, and does not obtain; for not receiving his request was the more profitable. Therefore, taught what he did not know, he accepts with pleasure not receiving what he had asked, and cries out, saying: "Most gladly, then, will I rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." And the great Elijah, terrified by Jezebel's threats, runs away into the desert, but seeks his helper; and the wise trainer and judge of the contests of the pious, having left him for a little while to be exercised by fear, appears to him and, as though he did not know, asks the reason for his flight, not mocking him, but teaching him the purpose of the flight and training him to be forgiving, since he was clothed with human nature and assailed by its passions.

But it is time to run back to the passage before us. Here the bride, the bridegroom having been parted from her for a little while, seeks him on her bed, and that not by day but by night; but she does not find him resting there. And this not only seeking but also calling. She rises, then, and goes about the city, the markets, the broad streets; for longing compelled her, and the [force] of love did not allow her to stay at home. And she inquires of them, saying:

3–4. "The watchmen who go about in the city found me. Have you seen him whom my soul loved? It was but a little while after I passed from them, until I found him whom my soul loved." … his beneficence according to his activity and his immutability according to his essence. … flame; and she meets also the guards of the city … But what he is in his essence, he who is beneficent and immutable, I was not able to find. For even if on this account I called him Good and Truth, he did not hearken to me, since he is beyond these too; for his name is above every name. And I, as I said, have not yet been able to find my beloved; but the holy angels found me, the watchmen who go about in the city. They found me by cleansing me through practice and enlightening me through contemplation, me who had perished through vice and ignorance and had once become a disciple of the spirits of wickedness, and for that reason was not found by these good angels for discipleship. They keep, for praise or for reproof on the fearful day of judgment, both the open and the hidden movements, every thought and every deed; and thereupon, in that none of these … making their way of life in me as in a city. When these had come upon me, then, I said to them: "Have you seen him whom my soul loved?" That is: Have you, who dance about him as ministering spirits, seen what nature he has, him whom I longed to comprehend but could not, so that you may teach me this too? But since the bridegroom is incomprehensible in his essence even to the holy angels, and for this reason they gave me no answer to my question, teaching me by their silence that he is not comprehensible even to them, since they are created and he uncreated, I passed on from them too, searching for the one I longed for. "And it was but a little while after I passed from them, until I found him whom my soul loved: I held him fast." That is, passing for a short while in mind beyond all that is created, even the angelic nature itself, so that I might find the uncreated one, my beloved, I held him fast as my benefactor by faith alone, having gone through all beings and been assured by experience itself that the cause of all is beyond all beings and is seen according to essence in no nature, whether sensible or intelligible, being beyond essence. So, then, I passed through all beings, seeking to bring home to myself the bridegroom whom I most long for. "And I did not let him go, until I brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me." That is, I did not cease seeking my lover until I brought him to dwell in the mind, which is the house of the wisdom of God, the cause of all, like a mother, being able to receive it through the likeness, and again its chamber, as having its hidden treasures stored up within itself through the image; which wisdom conceived me, since before the foundation of the world it had its supremely good will toward me; that is why for my sake it brought into being human nature altogether, and the universe too. "On my bed in the nights I sought him whom my soul loved; I sought him, and did not find him." And having passed these by for a little, she says that she has found him, and not …

5. "I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and by the strengths of the field, if you rouse and awaken love, until it please." These words are clear from what was interpreted at the beginning of this discourse; for she puts this oath to them twice, wishing to instil in them a warm love for the bridegroom. When the bride has said this, and has received unspeakable beauty from the bridegroom's embrace, the divine powers say in amazement:

6. "Who is this coming up from the desert, like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and [frankincense, from all the powders of the perfumer]?" For seeing the bridegroom going up into heaven after his victory over the devil and the destruction of death, they marvel and say: "Who is this King of glory?" And they learn that "the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle" … they ask: "Who is this King of glory?" And they hear that "the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." So here too, marvelling at the bride's beauty, they say: "Who is this coming up from the desert?" [By the desert] they mean human nature, because of its former impiety. That is why Isaiah cries: "Be glad, thirsty desert; let the desert be glad and blossom like a lily." And as here they are amazed that such beauty has sprung up from the desert, so in the prophecy of Isaiah they marvel on seeing the bridegroom, and say: "Who is this who comes from Edom, the redness of his garments from Bosor?" Edom signifies the earth, and Bosor the flesh. And in amazement at his beauty they cry: "This one is beautiful in his robe, [coming] with force and strength. Why are your garments red, as from a trodden winepress, full, trampled down?" And they say: "In … body … shines." They have called his body his robe; and his beauty is forceful, overpowering all who see it. So here they are amazed not only that the bride is beautiful but that she comes up from the desert, that is, rises from the depth to the height and walks from lowly things to things on high.

"And she is like," he says, "a column of smoke perfumed." The construction is obscure; for the Seventy, keeping close to the Hebrew tongue, did not make the sense clear; but Aquila and Symmachus showed us the meaning by saying: "Like a likeness of smoke from incense." The smoke of incense often imitates a column too, taking shape as it were in the air. And fittingly they say that she resembles the smoke of incense, she who, according to the blessed Paul, has presented her members as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, and continually offers the sacrifice of praise, and has put to death her members that are on the earth, and has been buried with Christ, and has brought herself to God as a whole burnt offering. They teach also to what kind of incense smoke they have likened her; for they say "myrrh and frankincense." Frankincense is assigned to God under the Mosaic law, but myrrh is an ointment for dead bodies. By these names, then, those who marvel at the bride's beauty [indicate] that she is fragrant and likened to the vapour of incense because she worships both the humanity and the divinity, and, believing in the death, also confesses the existence before the ages. "From all the powders of the perfumer," then, they marvel at her myrrh and frankincense. For she has the other virtues too, gathering them as from a perfumer, the divine Scripture; but her special ones are the myrrh and the frankincense, that is, theology and the economy. Having thus marvelled at the bride's beauty, they describe to her the bridegroom's wealth, and say:

7–8. "Behold the bed of Solomon; sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel. All holding swords, trained for war; each man's sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the nights." Before everything else we must ask why he calls the bridegroom Solomon … and this can be found in the Chronicles; for God says to David, when he wished to build the temple: "Behold, a son is born to you; he shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about, for Solomon is his name; and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be a son to me and I will be a father to him, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever." It is plain that Solomon died without living a long time, and that his throne came to an end. He therefore calls our peaceable Lord Solomon, of whom the blessed Paul says: "For he is our peace, who has made both one and broken down the dividing wall of the partition." That is why the blessed David entitles the seventy-first psalm "For Solomon," but narrates in it the achievements of our Saviour. "For he will judge," it says, "the poor of the people, and save the sons of the needy, and humble the false accuser; and he will continue as long as the sun, and before the moon, for generations of generations." But Solomon neither continued as long as the sun nor [was] before the moon for generations of generations. These things fit Jesus Christ, who sprang from Solomon according to the [flesh]; who, existing before the ages, "came down like rain upon a fleece, and like drops falling upon the earth." By the fleece he here means the Virgin. For as rain falls noiselessly upon a fleece, so that saving birth took place while all men were unaware of it. To these words he adds: "In his days righteousness will spring up, and abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away. And he will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the inhabited world," and all that follows, holding to the same sense; for now is not the time to interpret the psalm. It was not Solomon who held dominion to the ends of the inhabited world, but Jesus Christ, who sprang from Solomon according to his humanity, and is called Solomon because he is peaceable and gentle and the giver of peace.

Since, then, we have learned who Solomon is, let us take up the interpretation. "Behold the bed of Solomon." Let us understand the bridegroom's bed as the divine Scriptures. For in them the bride, reclining as it were with the bridegroom and receiving the seeds of teaching, conceives, and is with child, and is in labour, and brings forth spiritual benefit, so as to cry out with the prophet: "Because of the fear of you, O Lord, we conceived in the womb, and were in labour, and brought forth; we have wrought the spirit of your salvation upon the earth." "Sixty," he says, "mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel. All holding swords, trained for war; each man's sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the nights." I think the number sixty is placed here not for the sake of this quantity, but that by this name the saints who were distinguished in the Old [Testament] are indicated. For they say that ten is a perfect number, and six fits those under the law: "For six days," it says, "you shall work." So they say that those made perfect in the law stand around the bed, tracing their descent from Israel and mighty beyond all, and [carrying swords in their hands] and other swords upon their thighs. "Because of fear," he says, "in the nights." Symmachus made this clearer by saying, "because of terrors of the night." These mighty men, he says, attend his bed, guarding the bride against the attacks of the enemies. They carry two swords, one on the thigh and the other in the hand: the word that refutes, and the hidden and mystical word; the refuting one ready to hand, and the mystical one within, in a storeroom, in the sheath.

9–10. "King Solomon made himself a litter from the wood of Lebanon. Its pillars he made of silver, and its back of gold, [its seat of purple]; its interior paved with stones, love from the daughters of Jerusalem." Here again let us understand the litter as the holy apostles, who carried the name of the Lord before nations and kings and the sons of Israel; for Christ says this of the blessed Paul to Ananias: "Go, for this man is a chosen vessel to me, to carry my name before nations and kings and the sons of Israel." And the divine Paul himself cries: "Since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me?" The blessed Habakkuk names them horses too: "For you will mount," he says, "upon your horses, and your riding is salvation." And again: "You made your horses go into the sea, troubling many waters." By the sea he means the nations, which were thrown into turmoil when the apostles preached; that is why the unbelievers said of them: "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them." Those, then, whom Habakkuk named horses … we find. "So King Solomon made himself a litter from the wood [of Lebanon]." … Jerusalem and the multitude of the Jews the divine Scripture often calls [Lebanon]; and we showed this at the beginning of this discourse from the [prophetic] writings. Since, then, the blessed apostles traced their descent from them, he fittingly says that the litter was made of the wood of Lebanon. "Its pillars," he says, "he made of silver." We find them named pillars too; for the blessed Paul, writing to the Galatians, says: "Peter and James and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the nations and they to the circumcision." They say also that its back is of gold. This signifies the preaching of the gospel, on which the divine Word rests. "Its seat of purple": for to those who are ruled … to be ruled as by a king. "And its interior paved with stones": for the divine oracles resemble pearls and precious stones, according to the prophet who said: "The judgments of the Lord are true, justified altogether, more to be desired than gold and much precious stone." And again: "Behold, I have longed for your commandments above gold and topaz." And "the kingdom of heaven," according to the Lord's word, "is like a merchant seeking fine pearls." And elsewhere he says: "Do not throw your pearls before swine." Such is the litter of the king … [Jeru]salem to go out to behold the bridegroom, to see …

11. "Go out and see Solomon, daughters of Zion, in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, and on the day of the gladness of his heart." They indicate (to present the interpretation briefly and clearly, avoiding length): "O daughters of Jerusalem and Zion." Again, the blessed Paul taught us [that] Zion [is] the heavenly one, saying: "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal gathering, and to the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven." "You, then," they say, "O daughters of Zion and Jerusalem, go out and see"; for it is impossible for us to see unless we have gone out of the affairs of this life. See the king crowned with love; for he so loved the world that, being in the form of God, he did not count being equal with God a thing to be seized, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. He so loved the world that he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and … the crown set before him, and they say … like a lamb before its shearer, dumb; and he redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us. That is why he says: "Greater love than this no one can show, that one lay down his life for his friends." So, then, his mother crowned him. By his mother he means Judaea, according to his humanity, which gave him this crown unwillingly. For she crowned him with the thorns in order to dishonour him; but he through the thorns received the crown of love. For he bore the dishonour willingly, and went to his passion of his own will; that is why he called that day the day of his wedding and the day of the gladness of his heart. For on that day the communion of the marriage took place. "For after supper," it says, "having taken bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take, eat of it, all of you; for this is my body, broken for you for the forgiveness of sins; do this in remembrance of me." Those, then, who eat the bridegroom's members and drink his blood obtain communion in his marriage. That is why the bridegroom's ministers urge the daughters of Zion and Jerusalem: Go out and see the crown of his love, with which Judaea, who bore him, adorned him against her own intent, and crowned him on the day of his wedding. When they had said these things, the bridegroom, speaking again with the bride, says: