Bible Commentaries

As the lily among thorns, so [is] my ^a love among the daughters.

(a) Thus Christ prefers his Church above all other things.

^b As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so [is] my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit [was] sweet to my taste.

(b) The spouse testifies her great desire toward her husband, but her strength fails her, and therefore she desires to be comforted, and felt it.

^c I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not, nor awake [my] love, till he please.

(c) Christ charges them who have to do in the Church as it were by a solemn oath, that they trouble not the quietness of it.

^d The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

(d) This is spoken of Christ who took on our nature to come to help his Church.

My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he ^e standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, gazing himself through the ^f lattice.

(e) For as his divinity was hidden under the cloak of our flesh.

(f) So that we cannot have full knowledge of him in this life.

For, lo, the ^g winter is past, the rain is over [and] gone;

(g) That is, sin and error is driven back by the coming of Christ, who is here described by the springtime, when all things flourish.

O my dove, [that art] in the ^h clefts of the rock, in the secret [places] of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet [is] thy voice, and thy countenance [is] comely.

(h) You who are ashamed of your sins, come and show yourself to me.

Take for us the foxes, the ⁱ little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines [have] tender grapes.

(i) Suppress the heretics while they are young, that is, when they begin to show their malice, and destroy the vine of the Lord.

Until the day shall break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a ^k roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

(k) The church desires Christ to be most ready to help her in all dangers.