Commentary on the Song of Songs 6.1–6.12

1. "My kinsman has gone down into his garden, to the bowls of spice, to shepherd in the gardens and to gather lilies." We must ask why she speaks both of one garden and of many: "For he has gone down into his garden, to shepherd in the gardens." For the church is one, according to the blessed Paul: "For I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." And again: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church." But the blessed Paul also calls them many, doing so not according to the spiritual but according to the local division: "For Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through men, to the churches of Galatia." And writing to the Corinthians he says: "Let your women keep silent in the churches." That is why the bride says: "My kinsman has gone down into his garden, to the bowls of spice, to shepherd in the gardens and to gather lilies"; for he shepherds all the churches, and rejoices in the bowls of spice, those who have acquired his fragrance, and gathers those who have imitated the bride's beauty and become lilies, and joins them to the bride. To these words the bride adds:

2. "I am my kinsman's, and my kinsman is mine, he who shepherds among the lilies." For I hang upon him, and I have dedicated myself to him. For he has honoured me above the whole inhabited world, and joined me to himself, and renewed me when I had grown old, and … and filled me with fragrance. That is why I say: "I am my kinsman's, and my kinsman is mine, he who shepherds among the lilies," or "he who shepherds the flowers," according to Symmachus; for he both shepherds those who have become lilies and shepherds the worthy among lilies; and nothing is more fragrant than the divine Scriptures.

Having heard the bride's words, and pitying her as she longed for him, imagined him night and day, talked about him and recounted his beauty, the bridegroom appears to her, saying: 3. "You are beautiful, my companion, as good pleasure, lovely as Jerusalem, an amazement, as [armies] set in array." And he makes her name the thing that came about for her sake. "For since the Lord took pleasure in his land, and turned back the captivity of Jacob, and forgave the iniquities of his people, and covered all their sins," he fittingly calls her good pleasure. And as she named him "desire" above, taking the name from her own feeling (for, desiring him continually, she calls him desire), so he too, having taken pleasure in her and wished to betroth her and join her to himself, names her good pleasure. For you are beautiful, he says, as one in whom I have taken pleasure and whom I have loved; and you are not only beautiful but also lovely, and not simply lovely, but lovely as Jerusalem, not this one below but the one above, of which the blessed Paul says: "But the Jerusalem above is free; she is the mother of us all." You are like her, my companion; for … heavenly things, and walking in the flesh you do not wage war according to the flesh, and you press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call, and seek the things above, where I am seated at the right hand of God. That is why "you are lovely as Jerusalem," and not simply lovely, but causing amazement in those who see you; for those who behold your order are astonished. For nothing in you is disorderly, nothing undefined or undiscerning, but all is ordered and judged. And you know exactly the order of things: you have been taught to prefer the bridegroom above all, and after him those who are near him. To these words he adds:

4. "Turn your eyes away from before me, for they have given me wings." What he says is this: The beauty of your eyes, and the contemplation of your power of sight, and the keenness of your mind have drawn me to love of you; but do not gaze at me beyond measure, lest you draw harm from it. For I am unattainable and incomprehensible, surpassing all comprehension, not only human but angelic as well; and if you wish to overstep the limits and busy yourself with what lies beyond your power, not only will you find nothing, but you will also darken your eye and make it duller. For such is the nature of light: as it illuminates the eye, so it punishes its greed with harm. "Turn away, then, your eyes from before me": do not search into things too hard for you, and do not seek things too strong for you; think on what has been commanded you. To these words he again adds the earlier praises, and says:

5–7. "Your hair is like flocks of goats that have appeared from Gilead. Your teeth are like flocks of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and there is none barren among them. Like a scarlet thread are your lips, and your speech is lovely. Like the rind of a pomegranate is your cheek, apart from your silence." Since we have interpreted these words above, we think it superfluous to interpret them twice; for even if someone forgets the interpretation, he can run back to that place and find the explanation. But it was not idly or at random that he offered the bride the same praises twice; he was reminding her of her own beauty and urging her to keep it intact and to admit no blemish. For see, he says, what I have made you in place of what you were, what loveliness I have graciously given you, how great a beauty I have bestowed on you: keep it unharmed for me to the end; for whenever I am with you I examine your members and inquire carefully whether any harm has come upon them. The bridegroom says these things to them too, urging the bride to remain in her beauty.

8–9. "There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and maidens without number. One is my dove, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, the chosen one of her who bore her. Daughters saw her and will call her blessed; queens too, and concubines, and they will praise her." We have been taught that there are many different orders of the pious; and teaching this the Lord said: "There are many dwellings with my Father." And in the distribution of the talents: not all received five talents each, but one five, another two, another one, each according to his ability. And in the parable of the sower he says: "But some fell on the good ground and bore fruit, thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold"; and he calls all of it good ground, not only that which produced a hundred but also that which produced sixty and that which produced thirty. For thirty is a number of the praiseworthy, since it has three decades united in the triad; sixty has a double blessing, for thirty doubled produces sixty; and a hundred is most perfect, being freed from the left hand and having the beginning of the right, and completed in ten decades; those skilled in these matters call it a square. Yet even though a hundred is perfect, sixty and thirty too are among the praiseworthy; for the Lord called them all good ground.

Let us understand, then, that the bride is the souls made perfect in all philosophy and virtue, which endure the labours of virtue solely out of love for the bridegroom and choose to do and to suffer everything. Such was the blessed Paul, who says: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." For he teaches us by these words that he longs for Christ not for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but that he would choose to fall from the kingdom and fall into Gehenna while loving Christ rather than reign deprived of that love. Such souls, then, those held by longing for the bridegroom alone, fill up the company of the bride. But there are some who, like hirelings, endure to bear the sweat of virtue out of desire for the good things to come; these, I think, are here named queens, as desiring the kingdom and choosing to bear the labours of godliness for its sake. There are others who have not yet been counted worthy of freedom, but are still willing to be slaves, and fulfil the divine laws out of fear of Gehenna; these … and the bridegroom is present with such people too, becoming all things to all. And there are still others who live in sloth, neither held by love for the bridegroom, nor drawn by longing for the kingdom, nor pricked by the dart of Gehenna, managing their own affairs rather carelessly; they hold the faith unmoved, and keep the doctrines of godliness intact, and turn away from all heretical and foreign teaching, but they live rather carelessly, at times taking care of themselves, at times again wallowing in sloth, at times sinning, at times … [the bride]groom here calls maidens. And since such people are more numerous than both the queens and the concubines, he says: "And maidens without number"; not only because they cannot be counted for their multitude, he says, but also because they are unworthy of being counted. For even the hairs of the worthy are numbered by the Father. Nevertheless, the bridegroom is with these too at times, wishing to draw them away from sloth, guiding them toward what is perfect, and contriving their salvation from every side.

Let us ask why he said sixty queens and eighty concubines. The number sixty has six decades; the decade signifies perfection, and six contains the number of the making of the world, for in six days the God of all made the whole creation. So the souls that are perfected in virtue in this world and desire the kingdom he has named sixty queens. For the bride lives above this world, is outside it, flies above it, belongs wholly to the bridegroom, and pictures him continually; but these, living in this world, pursue the perfection of virtue as far as possible, aiming to obtain the kingdom. And those who fulfil the [divine laws] out of fear of the judgment … the divine Scripture calls the time of the judgment the eighth. For the blessed David, recounting in the Psalms the things concerning the judgment, entitled the psalm "For the eighth," and says at the beginning: "Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath." And a little after: "For in death there is no one who remembers you; and in Hades who will confess you?" teaching that at the time of the judgment no room for repentance will be given to those who have sinned and not repented. Since, then, they followed the divine laws for fear of these things, and neither out of longing for the kingdom nor out of love for the bridegroom, they are fittingly said to be eighty; for the number eight signifies the eighth day, and ten perfection.

But he says the bride is better than these, than both the sixty and the eighty: "For one is my dove, my perfect one," again calling her spiritual, and one. For above the sixty and the eighty, she is the only one of her mother; and she has as mother … "And she is the chosen one of her who bore her." For those too were born of her; but she has preferred this one above them all and holds her as a chosen daughter. That is why "daughters saw her and will call her blessed," that is, the maidens; and not only they, but queens and concubines too will praise her. For she has surpassed them, since she pursues the highest philosophy neither for reward nor for fear of punishment, but out of longing for the bridegroom. May it be granted to us, helped by divine grace, to attain to the perfection of the bride; or, if we lack the strength, at least to be among the queens; and if we fail of these too, not to be far from the concubines; and if we prove unworthy even of these, at least to be kept among the maidens and not to be wholly deprived of communion with the bridegroom, but to enjoy his loveliness by his grace; for to him be the glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

… Believing him who said: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened," we shall ask … for the present the clarity of the remaining words of the Song of Songs, and we shall cry out, saying: "Unveil my eyes, and I will perceive the wonders of your law." For he himself gives a word to those who proclaim the good news with great power. He himself said: "Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it." And he often grants a share of grace even to the unworthy, for the benefit of the many. We are confident, then, that he will grant us too, for the present, the revelation of the depth of the text, not because of our worth but because of the benefit of those who will read or hear the interpretation.

10. "Who is this who looks out like the dawn, [beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun, an amazement as armies set in array]?" In the preceding passages the bridegroom described the bride's beauty in words, praising each member separately, and then offering a common praise; and, as when an encomium is composed according to the rules of the art, he made the comparison too, setting the bride beside the maidens, the concubines and the queens, and [showing her] better by a great measure. He said that she had such comeliness that she is not envied even by those compared with her; for, admitting their defeat, they call her blessed and thrice blessed. Here the bridegroom's ministers, having been taught by him the bride's comeliness, her good order and her seemliness, and having been urged to learn about her more exactly, cry out in their great joy (for her beauty of soul was still hidden in the veil of the body): "Who is this who looks out like the dawn?" For her light was so far seen only in part, veiled together with this corruptible body. And as the dawn is the boundary between night and day, and proclaims the end of the one and the beginning of the other, and signifies the coming of the day, so in the present life the souls made perfect in godliness and in all wisdom, which the divine Scripture calls church and bride, send out certain brief flashes from their own virtue. "But when," according to the blessed Paul, "this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality," all their light is laid bare. Foreseeing this, the bridegroom's ministers not only liken her to the dawn but also say that she is beautiful as the chosen moon, and as the sun, which causes amazement to those who dare to gaze at it. They have added "chosen," not only signifying her difference from the stars, but also indicating the perfection of the moon itself; that is, like a moon that is full and bright all over, not crescent, not half, nor gibbous, but a perfect full moon, having nothing incomplete and showing its whole circle illumined. Thus, then, "she is beautiful as the chosen moon." Those skilled in these matters say that the moon receives its light from the sun's rays, and takes only a little light when a small part of it faces the sun; but when, standing directly opposite, it beholds the whole sun, it receives the impression of its whole disc like a mirror, is wholly illumined, and leaves no part of its body unlit. So too the church of Christ, the assembly of souls perfected in virtue, "beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face," according to the blessed Paul, "is transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord the Spirit"; and it becomes wholly luminous, so as to resemble the moon, and the chosen moon, that is, the full moon. And it resembles not only the moon but also the sun, and the sun that causes amazement to those who see it.

I do not think this expression is set down idly; for nothing is said at random by the divine Spirit. But since life is night, according to the blessed Paul ("For the night is far gone, and the day is at hand"), the church is necessarily like a moon in the night, illuminating the travellers and showing them the straight way. And she is also like the dawn, since the time after the Lord's coming is like a dawn, signifying the future state as the coming of a day: "For as the dawn," he says, "we shall find him ready." But when the great and manifest day of the Lord arrives, according to the word of the prophet, of which the blessed Paul says that "the day is at hand," then she will no longer shine as the moon but as the sun, causing amazement not only to unbelieving men but also to the maidens, the concubines, the queens, and the bodiless powers themselves. And the Lord himself is witness, saying: "Then the righteous will shine like the sun." And the blessed Paul says: "There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory." So the bride of Christ looks out like the dawn, for her beauty is known in part at present; "and she is beautiful as the chosen moon," filled with the Lord's light and illuminating the world with her rays. That is why the Lord in the holy Gospels said to his holy disciples: "You are the light of the world"; and showing what kind of light, he adds: "So let your light shine before men, that, knowing your good works, they may glorify your Father in heaven." Not only is the bride …

[11. "I went down into the garden of nuts …"] … hard and resistant, but the edible part stored as it were in a chamber, hidden and not brought out … So too is the present life, having bitter pains and griefs, having labours and sweat, yet not barren nor fruitless, but having its fruit [hidden]. That is why the blessed Paul says: "Your life is hidden with [Christ in God. When Christ appears,] our life, then we too shall live in him." … human life. And why did you go down, O bride? … she has called the present things [the torrent]; for the torrent is not ever-flowing, but runs in winter and in [summer] dries up. Such are the pleasures of life: in the present, like a torrent, glory flows, and wealth, and royal power, and luxury, and the other things of life; but when the life to come appears, they wane, and cease, and stop, like a torrent. "So I went down," she says, "into the garden of nuts, to see the produce of the torrent," and wishing to learn "whether the pomegranates had blossomed." For life has some people who are figuratively called vines, and some pomegranates, according to the different achievements of virtue. Some bring forth love and cherish concord, united in mind like the seeds of the pomegranate; others cultivate wine worthy of the fathers' winepresses, attending to contemplation … For the blessed Paul too became to the weak as weak, that he might [win] the weak, and to those without law as without law, not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ, that he might win those without law. "I went down, then," she says, "into the garden of nuts," taking care for the produce of the torrent and for the fruits of the vine and the pomegranate. I do not spare myself for you, even there, but "I will give you my breasts," that is, the streams of my teaching. For you make your own what is done to them, and say: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me."

To these words she adds: 12. "My soul did not know; it set me as the chariots of Aminadab." Symmachus interpreted this more clearly, saying: "My soul put me at a loss because of the chariots of the leading people." For in doing these things, she says, I am at a loss and in astonishment, because I procured salvation for them, but they attacked me, obeying the devil who commands them, becoming as it were his chariots and driven by him; for Aminadab is interpreted "of a leading people" or "of a ruling people." And this can be understood exactly from Aquila and Symmachus and the fifth edition. The bride, then, that is, the choir of those made perfect in virtue, says: We take every care for the unbelievers, but some of them, becoming as it were chariots of the ruler of this age, who is now at work in the sons of disobedience, according to the blessed Paul, have attacked me, returning evil for good. And this can clearly be found both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the letters of the blessed Paul. For in preaching the word of godliness they persuaded some to believe, but from the unbelievers they endured countless forms of death; and the blessed Paul is witness, saying: "In labours more abundantly, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more abundantly, in deaths often; five times I received forty stripes less one; a night and a day I have spent in the deep; in journeys often, … in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers," and what follows. When the bride has said these things, the bridegroom's ministers answer and say to her:

13. "Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, and we will look upon you." Aquila interpreted this more clearly: "Return," he says, "return, you who are at peace." As the writing names our peaceable Lord Solomon, so it names his bride "she who is at peace," as having obtained peace from him and been freed from her former war. The bridegroom's ministers, then, seeing her [fleeing] from the chariots, say: "Return, you who are at peace; return, return, and we will look upon you"; that is: Do not fear your persecutors, but hold fast to the teaching; bring forward the preaching of the teaching even when you are not called. For if you persevere in preaching, we shall see your kingdom. Like this are the words spoken by the Lord to the blessed Paul. For he too, weary and distressed by his many trials, says: "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 that it might depart from me." He answers him, saying: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." And this is what the bridegroom's ministers say here too: "Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, and we will look upon you." To them the bridegroom says: