Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.115–2.127

First, then, in the book of Numbers it is written thus of the Ethiopian woman: "And Miriam spoke to Aaron, and they disparaged Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had taken as wife, and they said: Has the Lord spoken only to Moses? Has he not spoken to us too?" And again in the third book of Kingdoms it is written of the queen of Sheba, that she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, in this way: "The queen of Sheba heard the name of Solomon and the name of the Lord, and came to test him with parables; and she came to Jerusalem with very great power, and camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones; and she came in to Solomon and told him all the words that were in her heart. And Solomon declared to her all her words, and there was no word that the king passed over and did not declare to her. And the queen of Sheba saw all the prudence of Solomon, and the house he had built, and Solomon's food, and the seating of his servants, and the order of his ministers, and their clothing, and his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he offered in the house of the Lord, and she was amazed, and said to King Solomon: True is the report which I heard in my land about your word and your prudence; and I did not believe those who spoke to me until I came and my eyes saw; and behold, not even half of what was reported to me was told. For you have added good things beyond all the report I heard in my land. Blessed are your women, blessed are these servants of yours who stand before you always and hear all your prudence. Blessed be the Lord your God, who has given you the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel and willed to establish it for ever, he set you as king over them, to do judgment with justice and to judge them. And she gave Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and very many spices, and precious stones; never had such spices come, nor in such abundance, as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon." We have chosen to repeat this story somewhat at length and to insert it into our exposition, knowing that it fits the person of the church which came from the gentiles to Christ so well that the Lord himself made mention of this queen in the Gospels, saying that she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

He calls her queen of the South because Ethiopia lies in the southern regions and is placed, as it were, at the ends of the earth, at the extremity. We find that Josephus too mentions this queen in his History, adding also that after she returned from Solomon, King Cambyses, admiring her wisdom, which she had no doubt received from Solomon's wisdom, gave its name, he says, as Meroe. He relates that she held the kingdom not only of Ethiopia but also of Egypt. Let us add further what is contained in the sixty-seventh psalm concerning this same figure. It says there: "Scatter the nations that want wars; let ambassadors come from Egypt; Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand first to God. Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing psalms to the Lord." In the fourth place, in the prophet Zephaniah, it is written of this same figure thus: "Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, on the day of my resurrection, for a witness, that is, for a testimony; for my judgment is to the gatherings of the nations, to receive kings and to pour out upon them all the wrath of my indignation. In the fire of my zeal all the earth shall be consumed. For then I will turn to the peoples a tongue for its generation, that all may call on the name of the Lord and serve him under one yoke. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive those who are scattered, and they shall bring me sacrifice. On that day you shall not be put to shame, Sheba, for all your devices by which you acted impiously against me." And in Jeremiah it is written that certain princes of the people of Israel put Jeremiah into the pit of Malchiah the king's son, which was in the house of the prison, and let him down with ropes; and in the pit there was no water but mud, and he was in the mud. "And Abdimelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the pit, and spoke to the king and said: My lord king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, for they have put him in the pit, and he will die there of hunger, since there is no more bread in the city."

"And the king commanded Abdimelech the Ethiopian himself, saying: Take thirty men from here and bring him up out of the pit, so that he may not die there." In short, it was Abdimelech the Ethiopian who brought Jeremiah out of the pit. And shortly after: "The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: Go and say to Abdimelech: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I bring my words upon this city for evil and not for good, and I will save you on that day, and I will not give you into the hands of the men whom you fear. I will surely save you from their face, and you shall not fall by the sword, but your life shall be for safety, because you trusted in me, says the Lord." This is what could occur to us from the holy scriptures for the present, by which the mystery of the verse of the Song of Songs before us seems to me to be confirmed, where she says: "I am dark (or black) and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tent of Kedar and like the skins of Solomon." So Moses is found in Numbers to take a dark or black Ethiopian wife, for whom Miriam and Aaron disparage him and say indignantly: "Has the Lord spoken only to Moses? Has he not spoken to us too?" If you consider this carefully, the historical account is not even found to hold together. For what would seem to fit the matter, that, indignant because of the Ethiopian woman, they should say, "Has the Lord spoken only to Moses? Has he not spoken to us too?" For if this were the cause, they ought to have said: You should not, Moses, have taken an Ethiopian wife of the seed of Ham, but one of your own race and of the house of Levi. They say none of this, but say: "Has God spoken only to Moses? Has he not spoken to us too?" In this they seem to me to have understood what was done rather according to the mystery, and to have seen that Moses, that is, the spiritual law, was now passing over into the marriage and union of the church gathered from the gentiles; and that Miriam, who bore the figure of the abandoned synagogue, and Aaron, who held the image of the carnal priesthood, seeing that the kingdom had been taken from them and given to a nation producing its fruits, said: "Has God spoken only to Moses? Has he not spoken to us too?"

Indeed, though so many and such magnificent works of faith and patience are related of Moses himself, he was never raised by God with such praises as now, when he married the Ethiopian woman. Now it is said of him that "Moses was a very meek man, above all men who are on the earth." Now too the Lord says this of him: "If there is a prophet among you, I will speak to him in visions or in dreams; not so with my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house. Mouth to mouth I will speak to him, in form and not in riddles, and he has seen the glory of the Lord. And why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" All this Moses was found worthy to hear from the Lord because of his marriage to the Ethiopian woman. But we have treated these matters more fully on the book of Numbers; whoever thinks them worth knowing, let him look them up there. For now let it suffice to show from these things that she is the black and beautiful one, the Ethiopian woman, whom Moses, that is, the spiritual law, which is without doubt the Word of God and Christ, takes into marriage with himself, though the daughters of Jerusalem, that is, that people with its priests, criticize and disparage. Let us also look at what we brought forward from the third book of Kingdoms about the queen of Sheba, who herself is also an Ethiopian. To her the Lord bears witness in the Gospels that on the day of judgment she will come with the men of the unbelieving generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and he adds, "Something greater than Solomon is here," teaching by this that the truth is greater than the figures of the truth. So she came; or rather, according to her figure, the church came from the gentiles to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon, the true Peaceable One, our Lord Jesus Christ.

She too came, first testing him with riddles and questions that had seemed insoluble to her before, and she is set free by him concerning the knowledge of the Word of God and the creatures of the world, or the immortality of the soul and the judgment to come, which with her and her teachers, the gentile philosophers, always remained uncertain or doubtful. So she came to Jerusalem, that is, to the vision of peace, with a multitude and great power; for she came not with one nation only, as the synagogue formerly had only the Hebrews, but with the nations of the whole world, bringing gifts worthy of Christ: the sweetness of spices, that is, good works, which go up to God as a sweet fragrance. She came full of gold too, no doubt of the meanings and rational disciplines which she had gathered before faith from general and school learning. She also brought precious stone, which we can take to be the ornaments of conduct. With this array, then, she goes in to the peaceable king, Christ, and opens her heart to him, namely in confession and repentance for her former sins; and she told him all that was in her heart. For this reason Christ too, who is our peace, declared to her all her words, and there is no word which the king passed over and did not declare to her. Then, when the time of his passion was now drawing near, he speaks to her thus, that is, to his chosen disciples: "I will no longer call you servants but friends, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father." Thus is fulfilled what was said, that there was no word which the peaceable Lord did not declare to the queen of Sheba, that is, to the church gathered from the gentiles. And if you look at the state of the church and consider its arrangements and orders, then you will see how the queen marvelled at all the prudence of Solomon. And ask at the same time why it did not say "all the wisdom" but "all the prudence" of Solomon: since learned men want prudence to be understood of human affairs and wisdom of divine. For this reason perhaps the church for the present marvels at Christ's prudence, while she is on earth and lives among men. But when that which is perfect has come, and she has been taken from earth to heaven, then she will see all his wisdom, when she will see each thing no longer through likeness or in riddles but face to face.

She also saw the house which he built, no doubt the mysteries of his incarnation; for this is the house which wisdom built for herself. She also saw Solomon's food: I think it is that of which he said: "My food is that they do the will of him who sent me and accomplish his work." She also saw the seating of his servants: I think it means the order of the church, which is held in the seats of the episcopate or the presbyterate. She also saw the arrangements, or stations, of his ministers: it seems to me it refers to the order of deacons, who stand at the divine ministry. She also saw his clothing: I believe it is that with which he clothes those of whom it is said: "All of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." And his cupbearers, I think, are said to be the teachers, who mix the Word of God and doctrine for the peoples like wine, to gladden the hearts of the hearers. She also saw his burnt offerings: no doubt the mysteries of prayers and supplications. So when she saw all these things in the house of the peaceable king, that is, of Christ, this black and beautiful one was amazed and said to him: "True is the report which I heard in my land about your word and your prudence." For because of your word, which I recognized to be the true word, I came to you. For all the words that were spoken to me and that I heard while I was in my own land, namely from the teachers and philosophers of this world, were not true. This alone is the true word, which is in you. But perhaps it will seem we must ask how this queen says to the king, "I did not believe what was told me about you," since surely she would not have come to Christ unless she had believed.

But see whether we can resolve the question in this way. "I did not believe," she says, "those who spoke to me." For I did not direct my faith toward those who spoke about you, but toward you; that is, I believed not men but you, God. Through them I heard, but I came to you and believed you, with whom my eyes have seen far more than was announced to me. For indeed, when this black and beautiful one has reached the heavenly Jerusalem and entered the vision of peace, she will behold far more and more magnificent things than are now announced to her. For now she sees as in a mirror and in a riddle, but then she will see face to face, when she attains the things which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man. And then she will see that not even half of them is what she heard while placed in this land of hers. Blessed, then, are the wives of Solomon, no doubt the souls who become sharers in the Word of God and his peace. Blessed are his servants who stand before him always. Not those who sometimes stand and sometimes do not, but those who always and without ceasing stand before the Word of God are truly blessed. Such was that Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to him, to whom the Lord himself bore witness, saying to Martha: "Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her." This black and beautiful one says further: "Blessed is he who willed to set you on the throne of Israel." For truly, because the Lord loved Israel and willed it to stand for ever, he set you as king over it. Whom? Without doubt the Peaceable One; for Christ is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the fence. And after all this, it says, the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold. This number, 120, is consecrated to the life of the men who lived in the days of Noah, to whom this span of life is granted, during which they are invited to repentance.

And this same number of years was also the span of Moses' life. So the church offers Christ in the form and weight of gold not only the multitude of her perceptions and understandings, but indicates that her perceptions are consecrated to the law of God by this number, which contains the years of Moses' life. She also offers sweet spices, such and so great as had never come. Understand by this either prayers or works of mercy. For never had she prayed so rightly as now, when she has come to Christ, nor worked so devoutly as when she learned not to do her righteousness before men but before the Father who sees in secret and will reward openly. But it is a great matter to pursue all these things together in passages that belong elsewhere, which seem to have been taken up for the sake of testimony. Let these things suffice from the third book of Kingdoms. Let us look at some of the things we brought forward from the sixty-seventh psalm, where it says: "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand first to God." For if you look at how salvation came to the gentiles from Israel's trespass, and how their fall gave the nations a way to enter, you will see how the hand of Ethiopia, that is, the people of the gentiles, comes before and goes ahead to God of those to whom the oracles of God were first entrusted, and how in this is fulfilled "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand first to God"; and this black one becomes beautiful, even if the daughters of Jerusalem are unwilling, even if they envy and criticize. The testimony of the prophet which we cited, where the Lord receives also those who come from the places beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, and they will bring sacrifices to God, I think should be taken in a similar sense. For it seems to me that he is said to be beyond the rivers of Ethiopia who has been darkened by excessive and overflowing sins, and stained with the black dye of wickedness has been made black and dark; and yet the Lord does not reject even these, but all who offer to God the sacrifices of a contrite spirit and a humbled heart, turned to him by way of confession and repentance, are not rejected by him. For so our peaceable Lord says: "Him who comes to me I will not cast out." It may also seem to be said of those who are placed beyond the rivers of Ethiopia that they too will come to God bringing sacrifices, who, after the fullness of the gentiles has come in, which is compared to the rivers of Ethiopia, will come themselves too, and then all Israel will be saved; and they are said to be beyond the rivers of Ethiopia as those who are further off and later than these stretches in which runs and

overflows the salvation of the gentiles. And so perhaps what is said seems to be fulfilled: "On that day you shall not be put to shame, all Israel, for all your devices by which you acted impiously against me." It remains to explain that testimony which we took from Jeremiah, where Abdimelech, likewise an Ethiopian, a eunuch, when he heard that Jeremiah had been put into the pit by the princes of the people, brings him out of it. And I think it does not seem unfitting if we say that the one whom the princes of Israel condemned and put into the pit of death, this foreigner, a man of an obscure and lowly nation, that is, the people of the gentiles, brings out of the pit of death, believing in his resurrection from the dead; and by his faith he calls back and brings back from the underworld the one whom they had handed over to death. And this Ethiopian is said to be a eunuch, I believe because he made himself a eunuch for the kingdom of God, or also because he does not have the seed of wickedness in himself. He is also the king's servant, because a wise servant rules over foolish masters. And Abdimelech is interpreted 'servant of kings'. And therefore the Lord, leaving the people of Israel for their sins, directs his words to the Ethiopian, and sends the prophet to him, and says to him: "Behold, I bring my words upon this city for evil and not for good; and I will save you on that day, and I will not give you into the hands of men, but I will surely save you." And the cause of his salvation is this, that he brought the prophet out of the pit; that is, by his faith, by which he believes that Christ rose from the dead, he seems to have brought him out of the pit. This dark, or black, and beautiful one has, then, very many testimonies in which she may act freely and say with confidence to the daughters of Jerusalem: I am dark indeed, or black, like the tents of Kedar, but beautiful like the skins of Solomon.

I do not remember anything written specifically about the skins of Solomon. But I think it can be referred to his glory, of which the Saviour says: "Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these." Yet we find the word "skins" itself frequently used of the tabernacle of witness, as when it says: "And you shall make skins of goats' hair for a covering over the tabernacle of witness; you shall make eleven skins. The length of one skin shall be thirty cubits and the breadth four cubits; the eleven skins shall have the same measure. And you shall join five skins together and the other six together, and you shall fold the sixth skin double at the front of the tabernacle. And you shall make fifty loops on the edge of one skin and fifty loops on the edge of the other skin, by which they are joined one to the other. And you shall make fifty clasps of bronze and join the skins with them, and it shall be one whole. And you shall fold what remains over of the skins, half of one skin, at the front of the tabernacle, and with the other half that remains you shall cover the back of the tabernacle, a cubit on this side and a cubit on that, from what is over in the length of the skins, and the tabernacle shall be covered on the sides on this side and on that." I think, then, that it is these skins that are mentioned in the Song of Songs, and that they are said to be Solomon's, who is taken to be the peaceable Christ. His, then, is the tabernacle and what belongs to the tabernacle; and especially if we consider that tabernacle which is called the true tabernacle, which God pitched and not man, and of which it says: "For Jesus did not enter a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true ones." If, then, the bride compares her beauty to the skins of Solomon, she undoubtedly means the glory and beauty of those skins which cover the tabernacle that God pitched and not man. But if she compared her blackness, for which the daughters of Jerusalem seemed to reproach her, to the skins of Solomon, the skins are to be taken as those of this tabernacle which is called a copy of the true tabernacle; as though they too were black, being woven of goats' hair, and yet provided use and adornment for the divine tabernacle. As for the fact that it seems to be one person speaking, and she compared herself to many tents of Kedar in blackness or to Solomon's skins, this must be taken thus: there seems to be one person, yet the churches spread through the world are countless, and the gatherings and multitudes of peoples immense; just as the kingdom of heaven is called one, yet many dwellings are said to be in it with the Father. It can also be said of each soul which after very many sins turns to repentance, that it is black because of its sins but beautiful because of repentance and the fruits of repentance.

Indeed, of this very one who now says, "I am black and beautiful," because she did not remain in this blackness to the end, the daughters of Jerusalem themselves say afterwards: "Who is this who comes up made white, leaning on her kinsman?" "Do not look at me, for I have been darkened, because the sun has looked askance at me." Darkened, or blackened: if the exposition we wove above about the Ethiopian woman whom Moses took in marriage, or about the queen of Sheba of the Ethiopians who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, seems to us fittingly applied, then this one who is dark or black and beautiful now rightly seems to make amends for her blackness or darkness and to give reasons to those who reproach her, as one who is not so by nature nor was so created by the Creator, but suffered this from what befell her. It is, she says, because the sun looked askance at me. In this she shows that the discourse is not about the blackness of the body, which the sun indeed usually darkens and blackens when it looks on it rather than when it looks askance. So they say that among the whole nation of the Ethiopians there is a certain natural blackness from the succession of carnal seed, because in those regions the sun burns with fiercer rays, and bodies once scorched and darkened remain so by succession of an inborn defect. But the blackness of the soul is of the opposite order. For it is burned not by the sun's look but by its looking askance, and it is acquired not by being born but by neglect; and so, just as it is taken on by sloth, it is driven off and repelled by diligence. Indeed, as I said above, this very one who is now said to be black is recorded at the end of this Song to come up made white, leaning on her kinsman.

She became black, then, because she went down; but if she begins to come up and lean on her kinsman and cling to him and never be separated from him, she will be made white and shining, and, having cast off all blackness, she will be radiant, surrounded by the light of the true light. So now she says to the daughters of Jerusalem, making amends for her blackness: Do not think, daughters of Jerusalem, that this blackness which you see in my face is natural; but know that it was caused by the sun looking askance at me. For the Sun of righteousness, since he did not find me standing upright, did not himself direct the straight rays of his light on me. For I am the people of the gentiles, who formerly did not look to the Sun of righteousness nor stand before the Lord; and therefore he did not look at me but looked askance, and did not stand by me but passed by. That this is so, you too who are called Israel will now soon know by experience and will say: For just as once, when I did not believe, you were taken up and obtained mercy, and the Sun of righteousness looked upon you, but looked askance at me and spurned me as disobedient and unbelieving; so now, since you have become unbelieving and disobedient, I hope to be looked upon by the Sun of righteousness and to obtain mercy. And that this looking askance of the sun is mutual between us, and that I was first looked askance at for my disobedience while you were looked upon, but now to you there has come not only the sun's looking askance but even a certain blindness, though in part, I will produce for you a magnificent witness, one who shared the heavenly secret, Paul, who says: "For just as you (no doubt speaking of the gentiles) once did not believe God but now have obtained mercy because of their unbelief, so these too have now not believed in the mercy shown to you, so that they too may obtain mercy." And again elsewhere he says: "For a blindness has come in part upon Israel, until the fullness of the gentiles came in."

This, then, is the source of this blackness in me which you reproach, that the sun looked askance at me because of my unbelief and disobedience. But when I stand upright before him and am not crooked in anything, nor turn aside to the right or to the left, but make straight paths for my feet, walking toward the Sun of righteousness in all his ordinances blamelessly, then he too will look on me straight, and there will be no crookedness, nor any cause for looking askance; and then my light and my splendour will be restored to me, and this blackness which you now reproach will be driven so far from me that I shall even be found worthy to be called the light of the world. So this visible sun darkens and burns those bodies over which it stands at the highest point, but those that are far away and placed further from this alignment it keeps in their whiteness, and does not burn them at all but lights them. But the spiritual sun, who is the Sun of righteousness, in whose wings healing is said to be, on the contrary lights up those whom he finds upright in heart and standing in line with his splendour, and surrounds them with all brightness; but those who walk crookedly with him he too necessarily does not so much look upon as look askance at, crookedly, their own inconstancy and instability bringing this about. For how can those who are perverse receive what is straight? It is as if you applied a perfectly straight rule to a crooked piece of wood: the crookedness of the material will indeed seem to be shown up by the rule, yet it is not the rule that gave the wood the cause of its crookedness. And therefore we must hasten to the straight ways and stand in the paths of the virtues, lest the Sun of righteousness, walking straight, should find us standing crooked and perverse, look askance at us, and we be made black. For as far as we are incapable of his light, so far shall we give place to darkness and blackness. For this is the very sun who is also the true light, enlightening every man coming into this world, who was in this world, and the world was made through him. For the world was not made through this visible light, since it too is a part of the world, but through that true light; and if we walk perversely toward that light, we are said to be looked at askance. For it too walks perversely with us when we walk perversely, as is written in the curses of Leviticus: "And if you walk perversely with me," it says, "and will not obey me, I will add seven plagues to you." And shortly after: "And if," it says, "you are not corrected, but walk perversely with me, I too will walk perversely with you"; or, as we read in other copies: "If you walk crookedly with me, I too will walk crookedly with you."