Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.8

8. "The voice of my kinsman." Being accustomed to his sacred words, she recognizes his voice, as the Lord too says in the holy Gospels: "My sheep [hear] my voice … a stranger they will not follow, because they do not know the voice of strangers." The bride, then, knows the voice of the bridegroom; she knows the difference between an adulterer and a bridegroom. The voices of adulterers and wolves and hirelings she loathes, but [the voice] of the [bridegroom] she longs for. That is why, as soon as she perceives his presence, she cries out, "The voice of my kinsman," and cannot bear to sit still, but rises, receives him with joy, looks about, and, seeing him, cries: "Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, [bounding] over the hills." 9. "My kinsman is like the gazelle or the fawn of deer upon the mountains of Bethel."

It is worth asking why she likens him to a gazelle and a fawn of deer, and what the mountains of Bethel are, what the leaps and what the bounds, and what the hills and mountains on which these take place. They say that the gazelle (dorkas) is named from its own keenness of sight, and has received this name from seeing sharply. They say too that deer … [eat] snakes and vipers and all other such creatures much as they eat grass, and take no harm from it. Since, then, Christ the Master is, according to his humanity, the rod that came forth from the root of Jesse, and the Spirit of God rested upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and … "the spirit of the fear of God will fill him," [she likens] him to a gazelle … and foreseeing what is to come. Again she says he resembles a fawn of deer, as the one who crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water, and [crushed] the heads of the dragon, and [slew] with the sword likewise the crooked serpent, and killed the dragon that is in the sea, and gave his own disciples authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy; … and as the one who committed no sin but took away the sins of the world, and [devoured them] like serpents … not only man but also Son of man … and not only a lion but also a lion's whelp: "For having lain down," it says, "he slept as a lion and as a whelp." It is likely that she also hints that, while still small in bodily age, he devoured the power of the devil as if it were serpents, and that as soon as he was born he drew the magi, the devil's interpreters, to worship.

According to the law, both the gazelle and the deer are among the clean animals; and the gazelle is placed before the deer, as bearing, through its keen sight, the type of faith. For "one who comes to God must first believe that he exists, and that he becomes the rewarder of those who seek him." Divine Scripture also calls [the saints] deer. Now the blessed David says in the seventeenth psalm: "God who girds me with power and has made my way blameless, who perfects my feet like a deer's." For my way, he says, became blameless because my feet were made like a deer's; for I was able to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy. And now in the twenty-eighth psalm he says: "The voice of the Lord that perfects the deer and lays bare [the thickets]" … he names the apostles, whose feet are beautiful as [they bring] good news … serpents, and the deceit of idols in the souls of men; through whom "in the temple of God everyone says glory." The blessed prophet Habakkuk says the like: "The Lord God is my strength, and he will set my feet like a deer's, and he sets me upon the heights, that I may conquer in his song."

But it is time to return to the passage before us: "Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My kinsman is like the gazelle or the fawn of deer upon the mountains of Bethel." Here the bride teaches the overthrow of the idols that the bridegroom brought about. For mountains and hills … the groves and precincts that were of old upon the mountains … [she] named [the places] of the demons; leaping and bounding upon these by the wisdom of his words and the power of his miracles, he prevailed over them and made them vanish altogether. Indeed Symmachus too, rendering this more clearly, says: "Behold, he comes stepping upon the mountains, leaping over the hills."

To these words the bride adds again: "Behold, he stands behind our wall, peering through the windows, looking in through the nets." She teaches that, having brought low every mountain and hill according to the prophecy of Isaiah, he comes to her who was formerly lowly and likened to a ravine, and fills her, and makes the crooked straight and the rough places into smooth ways; and he sets a wall around her, as round a city, so that she may not be besieged by enemies, and as round a vineyard, a garden, and a paradise, so that all who pass along the road may not pluck her fruit, nor the boar from the wood ravage her, nor the solitary wild beast feed on her, as on that former [vine] transplanted out of Egypt. She signifies, then, that having destroyed the precincts of the demons and the groves and temples of the so-called gods (this is what she hinted at by "upon the mountains of Bethel"; for Bethel is interpreted "house of God", and those who are not [gods] are called by the same name as the God over all) … under her. He has not yet entered her chamber, but standing outside the wall he peers through the windows; and by windows she means the senses. For through the windows of the senses both good things and their opposites flow into the soul, and flow out from it again. That is why the prophet Jeremiah says that "death has come up through the windows." "For whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart," and death enters through the windows. And whoever accepts an idle report receives death through the windows. But the bride now enjoys the beauty of the bridegroom through the windows. We must ask, then, how the bridegroom peers through the windows, that is, through our senses. When we meditate on the law of the Lord day and night and delight in the divine words, and attend to what is written with compunction and knowledge, we open our windows and receive the face of the bridegroom. And when others read the divine oracles or converse about God and we listen earnestly, again through the other windows the bridegroom shows us his own beauty.

And he not only peers through the windows but also looks out from the nets; for he does not abandon his bride when she is hunted by the treacherous demons and surrounded with nets, but rescues her "from the snare of the hunters and from a troubling word." And in the very temptations he looks out through the nets, and comforts her when she is besieged, and raises up her spirit. This one can find in both the Old and the New Scripture done by the God of all, and the pious receiving every consolation from the God of all. He allowed Sarah to be seized by Pharaoh, but he peered through the nets, comforted the patriarch Abraham, and, tearing the nets apart, gave him back his prey safe and sound. She was caught again by Abimelech, and again he peers through the nets, and saved not only the prey but the hunter too. This he did also for Isaac; for he suffered over Rebecca what his father had suffered over Sarah. This he did also for Jacob: when [Laban] was eager to kill him, he appears again through the nets, and encourages Jacob and frightens Laban. And when again he feared his brother's coming, he appears, drives out the fear, and puts courage in him. And with Joseph, sold into slavery and made a slave, he was with him in his master's house and present with him in the prison, and everywhere, peering through the nets, he went on comforting him. And, to pass over the saints in between and avoid lengthening the discourse, so he comforted the most wise Daniel when he was handed over to the lions, and peering out of the nets made him take courage; so he went down with those blessed youths into that fearful furnace; so he bade the holy apostles, thrown into prison by the Jews, take courage and preach the word of godliness with boldness; so afterwards, when the blessed Paul was shut up in Jerusalem and expecting death, he put courage into him, saying: "Take courage, Paul; for as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome." Hinting at this, the bride too says:

10. "My kinsman answers and says to me: Arise, come, my companion, my beautiful one, my dove." The bridegroom bears witness to the bride's beauty; and he calls her not simply beautiful but "my beautiful one," teaching that her beauty pleases him greatly. He also addresses her as dove, hinting by this name at the spiritual grace … the manifold gifts of the Spirit. The bride, then, having received the spiritual exhortation, … silvered wings, by which to the bridegroom … [11. "For behold, the winter has passed,] the rain has gone, it has gone its way. 12. The flowers have appeared in the land; the time of pruning has come; [the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land]. 13. [The fig tree] has put forth its unripe figs; …" In these words, if you please, [we may hear] also the Lord's words in the Gospel. For seeing a great crowd [coming] to him, he says to the holy apostles: "The harvest is great, but the [workers are few] … the reaper receives wages and gathers fruit for [eternal life] … [one] is the sower," he says, "and another the reaper … I have sent you to reap." From this, then, let us understand: "Behold, the winter has passed." For he calls the time before his coming winter, and the time after his coming spring, and the height of summer the age that is awaited. That is why he himself says, "The winter and the rain have passed": the threats of the law and the severe punishments of sins. "And it has gone its way": for the shadow gives way to the body, the tutor to the wise teacher. "For the flowers have appeared in the land." We must attend to the precision of the words. He did not say "the fruits" but "flowers"; for the perfection of good things is granted to the worthy in the age to come. Here, as the blessed Paul says, "Now I see as in a mirror, in a riddle, but then face to face." Moreover, "The time of pruning has come," or, as Symmachus and Aquila have it, "of trimming." For after the coming of Christ the Master all the nations have received this cleansing. That is why the Lord says: "I am the true vine, you are the branches; my Father is the vinedresser. [Every branch in me that does not bear] fruit he takes away; and every branch that bears fruit he cleanses, that it may bear more fruit." That is why he says: "And the time of pruning has come."

Moreover, "The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land." Again, by the voice of the turtledove he means the teaching of the all-holy Spirit. So too the blessed David in [the eighty-third psalm]. For having said: "How lovely are your dwellings, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God," he teaches the cause of the rejoicing too, saying: "For the sparrow has found itself a house, and the turtledove a nest for herself, where she will lay her young"; and pointing [to the place] he adds: "your altars, O Lord of hosts." And he teaches us that the young are those who have received rebirth through the washing, and their nest and brood the divine altars, at which they are nourished and fed and grow their feathers and little by little attain perfection. Their mother, as it were, who bears them is the grace of the Holy Spirit, figuratively named turtledove because of the creature's chastity and love of solitude, and because it builds its nests in thick-leaved trees. The bridegroom therefore says that "the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land, and the fig tree has put forth its unripe figs," that is, the early fruit of faith, through which the other fruit too, I mean that of deeds, becomes lasting, and does not drop off but ripens and becomes most sweet. "And the vines are in blossom; they have given their fragrance." The vines, he says (figuratively so called), have blossomed and give off their fragrance.

13b. "Arise, then, come, my companion, 14. you in the shelter of the rock, near the outer wall." He calls her into the shelter of the rock, so that she may not become black again. By rock he means the pious faith, the true confession. For when the Lord [said] to the disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" the blessed Peter said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." He answered, saying: "Amen, amen, I say to you, you are Peter, and on this rock [I will build] my church, and the gates of Hades will not [prevail against it]." … of the present life. That is why the blessed Paul too … carrying." He wants her to look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen: "For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal." That is why he urges her to come near the outer wall, all but saying to her: "Put to death your members that are on the earth"; practise freedom from the flesh while in the body; show freedom from passion amid the passions; go outside the present city and its walls. For if you do not come near the outer wall itself, you will not enjoy communion with me; if you do not cry out with Paul, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh" (for "no one serving as a soldier entangles himself in the affairs of life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him"); if you do not come to stand in the ground between the present things and [the things to come] (which is [signified] by "the outer wall"), our marriage will not take place. When you have come there, I beg you, "show me your face": you have a pure mind, for none of the cares of life [lies] upon it. There "I wish to hear your voice"; for there it too will be pure, freed from all unseemliness. "Then your voice will be sweet to me, and your face lovely"; for my own beauty [is seen] in you, and [you speak] with a voice adorned with my words.

Having said these things to the bride, the bridegroom commands his own servants: [15. "Catch us the little foxes that ruin] the vineyards." Some of the interpreters … but it makes no difference whether the meaning is this or that. By foxes he means those who have a crafty mind and ravage the [vines] of the Lord, … those that have only just begun to blossom. That is why he says: "And our vines are in blossom." By [the foxes] he hints at the heretics who make war on the souls of the church and try, deceitfully and craftily, to steal away those not yet made firm in the faith. For by the persuasiveness of their words and the snares and tangles of their syllogisms they deceive the simpler sort and ruin the vines. That is why he commands those who have received the gift of teaching to catch and hunt them with the refutations of the truth, and to free the blossoming vines from the harm they do.

Hearing these words, the bride at once says: 16. "My kinsman is mine, and I am his." For as he honoured me above all, so I prefer him above all, and I cannot bear to be joined to another. … having been loved and counted worthy of so much, not to repay the one who loved her with the like, as far as she can. Like this is what the blessed Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." Such again is what he said: "But whatever things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count all things to be refuse, that I may gain Christ." Such too is: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Such is: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or famine, or persecution, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" and what follows. Such too is: "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Like these is what the bride says: "My kinsman is mine, and I am his." And she indicates who he is, and what he is always doing, and where, and when, and until when: "He who shepherds," she says, "among the lilies; 17. until the day breathes and the shadows are moved."

We must observe that the bridegroom first named himself a lily, speaking according to his humanity: "I am the flower of the plain, the lily of the valleys"; secondly the bride herself: "For as a lily," he says, "among thorns, so is my companion among the daughters"; and here she has named the pasture itself lilies: "He who shepherds," she says, "among the lilies." For the food offered to the sheep, she says, is itself full of fragrance. This is to be understood according to the Seventy; but Symmachus says: "those who shepherd flowers," so that clearly the shepherds themselves … of the one who shepherds the flowers, … flowers, which he called lilies. "Until the day breathes, and the shadows are moved." By shadows she means human affairs. That is why the blessed David says: "Like a shadow when it declines I have been taken away"; and again: "My days pass away like a shadow"; and the noble Job: "For the life of man upon the earth is a shadow." For nothing of the seeming pleasures of the present life is lasting, or firm, or stable, or enduring, or as it were substantial: not wealth, not glory, not power, not health of body, not good looks, nor anything else of the kind; but they are shadowy … the bridegroom [shepherds] us, until the scorching heat of the day passes and the dew of salvation breathes, and the shadows are moved, and the things to come appear, which are enduring and have a permanent existence.

And since the perfected souls wedded to the bridegroom are as one to him, they answer him in the singular and say: "My kinsman is mine, and I am his"; that is, My beloved is seen by me according to the image, and I live for him and not for myself, according to the great Apostle. "He who shepherds among the lilies"; that is, he who, through his holy commandments, governs, among the teaching souls that are not choked by the cares of life, the rational sheep, who are those taught by them. "Until the day breathes and the shadows are moved"; that is, until the all-bright and shadowless day of the age to come arrives, and all present things, which are the shadows of the things to come, [pass away]; on which day the good shepherd will bring his own flock to rest in the eternal dwellings. ["Turn back, my kinsman, be like the gazelle or the fawn of deer upon the mountains of the hollows."] Here she turns the bridegroom back, likened to the animals mentioned before, to step upon the mountains that are in the hollows, wishing all to enjoy his company. By "mountains of the hollows" she here addresses those who live in the midst of people who are hollow and lowly in mind; and she asks that these too may enjoy the presence of the bridegroom, which he did, having heard the bride's supplications. The bride, then, being left alone, [is distressed], and says: