Commentary on the Song of Songs 7.1–7.11

1. "What will you see in the Shulammite? She comes like dances of the camps." For what, he says, do you expect to see in her who is at peace? Do not hope to behold some paltry and partial goods; for behold, "she comes like dances of the camps." The names seem somehow opposed to each other, for dances do not go with camps: the one belongs to festivals, the other to soldiers, and a festival is the opposite of war. But this bride, gathered together from many saints, is like camps because of her manly and noble spirit and her soldier's full armour, and she is a dance, carrying the divine hymnody in her mouth. The blessed David shows this, saying: "The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous." And again: "Bind the feast with thick boughs, up to the horns of the altar." And the camps the blessed Paul points out, saying: "[For the weapons of our warfare are] not fleshly, but powerful for God for the destruction of strongholds, as we overthrow reasonings and every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." And again: "Take up the full armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand." And like a general he supplies the soldiers with their weapons, and says: "Stand, then, having girded your [loins] with truth, and having put on the [breastplate] of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace; and in all things taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one; and receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." And that the saints [are likened] not only [to camps] but also to dances, let us hear from the Lord, who says: "Then the kingdom of heaven will be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." Fittingly, then, the bridegroom says: "What will you see in the Shulammite? She comes like dances of the camps." And he did not say "the camps of the dances," but "the dances of the camps." For dances arise from the camps, and the athletes of virtue, victorious in the camps, sing the song of victory …

Having said these things to the ministers, the bridegroom turns his speech to the bride, and says: "How beautiful your steps have become in sandals, daughter of Nadab!" Aquila said "of a ruler," and Symmachus "of a leader." Who else could this leader or ruler be but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit? He it is who says to her in the forty-fourth psalm: "Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty, for he is your Lord." And that the Holy Spirit also bears the title of leader, the blessed David teaches, saying: "[Restore] to me the joy of your salvation, and establish me with a leading Spirit." The bridegroom, then, first praises the steps of the bride, which are straight and travel the royal road, and shine finely in [sandals]. What the sandals are the blessed Paul taught us, saying: "[having shod] your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace." The prophet Isaiah too foresaw the beauty of these feet, and said: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace, of those who bring good news of good things!" Using the same words, the bridegroom in this writing says: "How beautiful your steps have become, daughter [of Nadab]!" …

And so that we may take some insight not only from the interpretation of the name but also from the name itself, come, let us ask who Nadab was. He was a son of Aaron; and having brought strange fire into the tabernacle of God, he met the end of his life. We find, then, that the bride of the Lord too, I mean the church, brought into the divine tabernacle not the fire of the law but the new [fire]. She received this fire from the bridegroom himself: "For I came to cast fire upon the world, and what do I wish, if it is already kindled?" Bringing this new fire into the divine tabernacle through the New Covenant, she cries out and says: "The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Fittingly, then, he calls her "daughter of Nadab," since with the new fire she has offered the sacrifice of men as a whole burnt offering. For even if they differ in intention in the change of the fire, yet one and the same deed was done by him and by her. We have said this for the present so as not to leave even the name without contemplation.

Again, then, the bridegroom goes through her members one by one, and offers each the fitting praise, and says: "The curves of your thighs are like necklaces, the work [of a craftsman's hands. 2. Your navel is a turned bowl, not lacking mixed wine; your belly is a heap of wheat, fenced about with lilies. 3. Your two breasts are] like two twin fawns of a gazelle. 4. [Your neck] is like an ivory tower; your eyes are like [pools in Heshbon], by the gates of the daughter of many; your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, looking toward [the face of Damascus. 5. Your head upon you is like] Carmel, and the braid of your head like purple; a king bound in the galleries." Previously the bridegroom praised the bride beginning from her upper parts; but now, making his start from the steps and the sandals, he has gone up as far as the braid of the head. After the sandals and the steps he admires not the thighs but the curves of the thighs, and says they are like necklaces made by a craftsman. For as those, he says, have the stones set in the gold with all harmony, so that those who see them admire not only the materials, the gold and the stones, but also the goldsmith's art, so each part of practical virtue has been adorned with rhythm and harmony. For figuratively he named practical virtue the thighs, since through them we make our journey [and do] … we wish. The bridegroom, then, admires the bride beginning from practical virtue, and goes up to contemplation, having done the opposite at the beginning; for there he began from contemplation and came to practice: "For your eyes," he said, "are doves," signifying by this the spiritual quality of the soul's sight. But here he admires practical virtue first, and very fittingly; for first we are enlightened, we open the closed eyes of the soul, we receive the divine light, and we are made firm in faith; and then we travel on to practical virtue. That is why the bridegroom, weaving his first encomium, began from the eyes, which were the first to receive healing. But now, since the bride's beauty has become perfect, he begins below, from practical virtue, and goes up to contemplation, praising the comeliness of the bride. First he praises the steps and the sandals, then the curves of the thighs, that is, each of the deeds done; and after the thighs the navel: "[Your] navel [is a turned bowl, not lacking] mixed wine."

Let us set beside this, if you please, what was said by the God of all through the prophet Ezekiel about the navel of Judaea. For, exposing her licentiousness and publishing her great impiety, as we went through in the first discourse, he says to the prophet: "Testify to Jerusalem her iniquities, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord to Jerusalem: Your root and your birth are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel was not cut." To her, then, he says, "Your navel was not cut"; but to this one, "[Your navel is a turned bowl, not lacking] mixed wine." For the one born out of Egypt did not cut her navel, but drew from Egypt, as through a root, the wickedness of impious teaching. But this one not only cut her navel, but so deepened the cut that … and she has the mixed wine of gladness continually, and the delight that springs up in her from godliness never fails her. Moreover, "Your belly is a heap of wheat, fenced about with lilies." That is, the storerooms of your soul are full of hidden mysteries, of which only the fragrance is known to those who are still imperfect and infants. "For it is fenced about," he says, "with lilies," so that by the fence we may understand what is hidden, and by the lilies the fragrance that flows out from there everywhere. "And your two breasts are like two twin fawns of a gazelle." For the streams of your teaching, bringing forth new waters, teach keenness of sight and spiritual contemplation; for … the gazelle is named from its keen sight, and the fawn from the word "new" … "And your neck is like an ivory tower." For it has been freed from being black and has become white, having received my yoke; and it is fearsome to enemies like a tower, and longed for by friends as shining.

"And your eyes are like pools in Heshbon, by the gates of the daughter of many." Aquila, rendering this, put "reckoning" instead of "Heshbon." The bridegroom teaches, then, that the sight of pious souls is pools, receiving the divine streams and continually overflowing, since they receive their streams from many gates, that is, mouths (for figuratively he named the mouths gates). For from the great Moses, and from Joshua the son of Nun, and from Samuel the prophet, and from David the prophet and king, and from Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Ezekiel, and from the twelve prophets, and from the divine Gospels, and from the holy apostles, and from the teachers who came after them, they receive the streams of benefit. That is why the bridegroom says: "Your eyes are like pools in Heshbon, by the gates of the daughter of many." For the contemplations of your soul and the multitude of your pious reasonings [are like pools], since you receive the streams of teaching from many mouths. "And your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, looking toward the face of Damascus." The nose of Judaea, because of its disobedience and unruliness, received a ring, like a bridle, as a goring bull does, namely the threat of the law, since "Israel ran wild like a heifer stung by the gadfly." But the bride's "nose," he says, "is like the tower [of Lebanon, looking toward the face] of Damascus"; for it is high and lofty, and perceives the fragrance from above, and is bound to the bridegroom's ointment, and cries: "We will run after you, toward the fragrance of your ointments." That is why it is likened to a tower set upon Lebanon and looking toward the face of Damascus. For since the devil, who disguises himself as an angel of light, according to the blessed Paul, disguises himself also as spiritual ointment, of necessity the bride's nose [watches toward] Damascus, lest she be deceived and leave the true ointment and follow the false and deceiving one. And the divine Scripture often uses Damascus for the nations and for the impiety that then prevailed. Indeed the blessed Isaiah too, prophesying about the birth of the Lord and saying in the person of the Spirit, "I went in to the prophetess," that is, to the virgin, "and she conceived in the womb and bore a son," continues, saying: "And [the Lord] said …" … blossoming with the blood of Christ; for a king clothed in purple does not shine as the teacher of godliness does, weaving the proclamation of the knowledge of God and offering it to the nurslings of the truth.

6–7. "How beautiful you have become, and how sweet, O love, in [your delights]! This stature of yours is like a palm tree, and your breasts like clusters." For you have become beautiful, not having been beautiful before; and … all unpleasantness, having held love for him [above] all things together … That is why "you have become beautiful and sweet"; and moreover "your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts like clusters." For you have not only beauty but also a height like a palm tree's. "And your breasts …" … lofty, and reaching to the vaults of heaven, … and you condescend to the weak, and hold out your breasts and the nipples of your teaching to those who need teaching; for the palm too has its clusters hanging downward. This the Holy Spirit also says through the blessed David: "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree." Having heard the praises, then, the bride, given wings by the many encomia and kindled with love, says:

8–9. "I said: I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of its heights; and now your breasts shall be like clusters of the vine, and the fragrance of your nose like apples, 9. and your throat like good wine, going to my kinsman for uprightness, sufficing for my lips and teeth." One may learn exactly from this how the bride longs for the bridegroom, aims at the ascent, and pictures the height, and, according to the blessed Paul, "does not consider that she has laid hold, but presses on so that she may lay hold; and forgetting what lies behind, she stretches out to what lies ahead." We must ask how the bridegroom is both a palm tree and a vine, and how he does not have the fruit of the palm but bears the clusters of the vine. Aquila's rendering will guide us to the hidden meaning; for instead of "I will take hold of its heights" he put "I will take hold of its spathes"; and the spathes are the fruit of male palms; they produce the fruit for the females. The bride, then, hastens to receive from the bridegroom the beginnings of pious offspring, and says: "I said: I will go up to the palm tree and take hold of its heights," or, as Aquila has it, "its spathes." "And now your breasts shall be like clusters of the vine." For you are the true vine, from which the saving wine, once cultivated, is pressed in the spiritual winepresses, from which the cup that makes drunk, how excellent it is, is filled. "And the fragrance of your nose" resembles the fragrance of the apple. For the very organ of your sense of smell sends out to me a fragrance like apples. What we said about apples at the beginning of the book is sufficient. "And your throat is like good wine, going to my kinsman for uprightness, sufficing for my lips and teeth." For the teaching offered from your throat [surpasses] every fragrant wine and every gladness, as you wish to set straight the souls that have believed in you; and it is sufficient and enough for me, so that some things I … and others I guard and keep, putting my teeth around them as a wall. With these words agree also those of the blessed Paul: "For I heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." That is why the bride too says: "sufficing for my lips [and teeth]."

To these words she adds: 10. "I am my kinsman's, and his turning is toward me." For I have dedicated myself to him, and I have loathed every alien communion, Jewish or heretical; for he too has preferred me above all others and has his turning toward me. For though formerly he had nowhere to lay his head, he has now found where to lay his head; and though he has many concubines and queens and maidens, he prefers me above them all. But I cannot bear to enjoy his holy communion alone.

11–13. "Come, my kinsman, let us go out into the field, let us lodge in the villages. 12. Let us rise early to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine has blossomed, whether the blossom has appeared, whether the pomegranates have blossomed. There I will give you my breasts. 13. The mandrakes have given fragrance, and at our doors are all fruits, new with old, which my mother gave me; my kinsman, I have kept them for you." The bride urges the bridegroom to take thought also for the souls that are still paltry and lowly, which she figuratively calls field and villages, as lowly and small. For she does not say, Let us go out into the city, but "Let us go out into the field, let us lodge in the villages, let us rise early to the vineyards, let us see whether the vine has blossomed." Let us visit, she says, those who have just received the preaching; "whether the blossom has appeared": let us see these too, who are better, who have put forth not only leaves but the blossom itself; "whether the pomegranates have blossomed": whether, she says, there has come about in some a beginning of love. For we must go about … For by doing this I will serve you: "There," she says, "I will give you my breasts." For you make your own what is done to them, and say: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least, you did it to me." "The mandrakes have given fragrance." The mandrake is known to induce sleep, as the sons of the physicians say. Since, then, we have been commanded "to put to death the members that are on the earth," not so that we may hand over the members themselves to death but so that we may render them dead to evil activities, she fittingly … says: "The mandrakes have given fragrance," that is, men have begun to sleep to their sins; and as those who have drunk mandrake do not feel the movements of the body, so those who … are eager to put the passions to sleep … "and my teeth," so that some things I bring forward and others I guard … "but also at our doors are all fruits." For those who have received our teaching bear fruit of every kind. "And I have kept for you, my kinsman, new with old, all that my mother gave me." For the commandments of the Old Covenant and the precepts of the New Covenant, which I received from my mother, the grace of the Spirit, these I have kept for you, and I have guarded the deposit inviolate. Like this is what the blessed Paul wrote to Timothy: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day." And again what was said by the Lord in the Gospel: "Every scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a man who brings out of his treasure new and old."