Great Sermons: The First Homily from the Song of Solomon (Origen)

You are listening to Great Sermons from Church History, a chronicle of some of the greatest preaching from twenty centuries of Christ's Church. 2 Timothy 4, 1 and 2 says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Reading today's sermon from Church History, here's Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

The following is a sermon delivered by Origen in the 3rd century. It is entitled, The First Homily, taken from his Commentary and Sermons on the Song of Solomon. It was translated by R. P. Lawson and published in Ancient Christian Writers No. 26 in 1957.

The text is Song of Solomon chapter 1, verses 1 through 12. The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. The Bride says, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Your anointing oils are fragrant.

Your name is oil poured out, therefore virgins love you. Draw me after you, let us run. The King has brought me into his chambers. The others reply, We will exult and rejoice in you. We will extol your love more than wine.

Rightly do they love you. The Bride says, I am very dark but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kadar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me.

My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon.

For why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions? And the Groom replies, If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds' tents.

I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. The others reply, We will make for you ornaments of gold studded with silver.

And the Bride says, While the King was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. 1. As we have learned from Moses that some places are not merely holy, but holy of holies, and that certain days are not sabbaths simply, but are sabbaths of sabbaths.

So now we are taught further by the pen of Solomon that there are songs which are not merely songs, but songs of songs. Blessed too is he who enters holy places, but far more blessed the man who enters the holy of holies.

Blessed is he who observes the sabbaths, but more blessed is he who keeps sabbaths of sabbaths. Blessed likewise is he who understands songs and sings them. Of course nobody sings except on festival days.

But much more blessed is he who sings the songs of songs. And as the man who enters holy places still needs much to make him able to enter the holy of holies, and as he who keeps the sabbath which was ordained by God for the people still requires many things before he can keep the sabbath of sabbaths.

So also it is hard to find a man competent to scale the heights of the songs of songs even though he has traversed all the songs in scripture. You must come out of Egypt, and when the land of Egypt lies behind you, you must cross the Red Sea if you are to sing the first song, saying, Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified.

But though you have uttered this first song, you are still a long way from the song of songs. Pursue your spiritual journey through the wilderness until you come to the well which the kings dug, so that there you may sing the second song.

After that, come to the threshold of the holy land, that standing on the bank of the Jordan you may sing the song of Moses, saying, Hear, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth give ear to the words of my mouth.

Again, you must fight under Joshua and possess the holy land as your inheritance, and a bee must prophesy for you and judge you. Deborah, you understand, means bee, in order that you may take that song also on your lips which is found in the book of Judges.

Mount up, thence, to the book of Kings, and come to the song of David, when he fled out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul, and said, The Lord is my stay and my strength and my refuge and my Savior.

You must go on next to Isaiah, so that with him you may say, I will sing to the beloved the song of my vineyard. And when you have been through all the songs, then set your course for greater heights, so that as a fair soul with her spouse, you may sing this song of songs too.

I am not sure how many persons are concerned in it, but as far as God has shown me in answer to your prayers, I seem to find four characters, the husband and the bride, along with the bride her maidens, and with the bridegroom a band of intimate companions.

Some things are spoken by the bride, others by the bridegroom. Sometimes too the maidens speak, so also do the bridegroom's friends. It is fitting indeed that at a wedding the bride should be accompanied by a bevy of maidens and the bridegroom by a company of youths.

You must not look without for the meaning of these. You must look no further than those who are saved by the preaching of the gospel. By the bridegroom understand Christ and by the bride the church without spot or wrinkle of whom it is written that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the maidens who are with the bride, you must recognize those who, although they are faithful, do not come under the foregoing description, yet are regarded nonetheless as having in some sense obtained salvation.

In short, they are the souls of believers. And in the men with the bridegroom, you must see the angels and those who have come unto the perfect man. We have thus four groups, the two individuals, the bridegroom and the bride, the two choirs answering each other, the bride singing with her maidens and the bridegroom with his companions.

When you have grasped this, listen to the song of songs and make haste to understand it and to join with the bride in saying what she says so that you may hear also what she heard. And if you are unable to join the bride in her words, then so that you may hear the things that are said to her, make haste at least to join the bridegroom's companions.

And if they also are beyond you, then be with the maidens who stay in the bride's retinue and share her pleasures. These are the characters in this book, which is at once a drama and a marriage song. And it is from this book that the heathen appropriated the epithalamium.

And here is the source of this type of poem, for it is obviously a marriage song that we have in the song of songs. The bride prays first, and even as she prays, for with is heard. She sees the bridegroom present.

She sees the maidens gathered in her train. Then the bridegroom answers her, and after he has spoken, while he is still suffering for her salvation, the companions reply that until the bridegroom reclined at his table and rise from his passion, they are going to make the bride some ornaments.

The Bride’s Prayer and the Bridegroom’s Anointing

Number two, we must consider now the actual words with which the bride first voices her prayer. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Their meaning is, how long is my bridegroom going to send me kisses by Moses and kisses by the prophets?

It is his own mouth that I desire now to touch. Let him come, let him come down himself. So she beseeches the bridegroom's father, saying, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And because she is such that the prophetic word, while thou art yet speaking, I will say, lo, here am I, can be fulfilled upon her.

Therefore the bridegroom's father listens to the bride and sends his son. She seeing him, for whose coming she prayed, leaves off her prayer and says to him directly, thy breasts are better than wine, and the odor of thy perfumes better than all spices.

Christ, the bridegroom, therefore, whom the father has sent, comes anointed to the bride, and it is said to him, thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

If the bridegroom has touched me, I too become of a good odor. I too am anointed with perfumes, and his perfumes are so imparted to me that I can say with the apostles, we are the good fragrance of Christ in every place.

But we, although we hear these things, still stink of the sins and vices concerning which the penitent speaks through the prophet, saying, My sores are putrefied and corrupted because of my foolishness.

Sin has a putrid smell, virtue exhales sweet fragrances. Look up examples of them in the book of Exodus. You will find there stacty, onyx, galbanum, and so on. Now these are to make incense. In addition, various perfumes, among them nard and stacty, are taken for the work of the perfumer.

And God, who made heaven and earth, speaks to Moses, saying, I have filled them with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, that they may make the things that belong to the perfumer's art. And God teaches the perfumers.

If these words are not to be spiritually understood, are they not mere tales? If they conceal no hidden mystery, are they not unworthy of God? He therefore, who can discern the spiritual sense of Scripture, or, if he cannot, yet desires to do so, must strive his utmost to live not after flesh and blood, so that he may become worthy of spiritual mysteries, and, if I may speak more boldly, of spiritual desire and love, if such indeed there be.

And as one sort of food is carnal, and another is spiritual, and as there is one drink for the flesh and another for the spirit, so there is a love of the flesh which comes from Satan, and there is also another love belonging to the spirit, which has its origin in God, and nobody can be possessed by the two loves.

If you are a lover of the flesh, you do not acquire the love of the spirit. If you have despised all bodily things—I do not mean flesh and blood, but money and property and the very earth and heaven, for these will all pass away—if you have set all these at naught, and your soul is not attached to any of them, neither are you held back by any love of sinful practices, then you can acquire spiritual love.

We have put this here because the opportunity arose to say something about spiritual love, and it is for us to follow Solomon's injunction, and still more, his who spoke through Solomon concerning wisdom, saying, Love her, and she will keep thee safe.

Enfold her, and she will exalt thee. Render her honor, that she may embrace thee. For there is a certain spiritual embrace, and oh, that the bridegroom's more perfect embrace may enfold my bride! Then I too shall be able to say what is written in this same book.

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me. 3. Let him kiss me, therefore, with the kisses of his mouth. The Scriptures are wont to use the form of command, rather than that of wish.

We have, for instance, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, instead of, Oh, that it may be hallowed. And in the passage before us, we read, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, rather than, Oh, that he would kiss me.

Then she sees the bridegroom. Fragrant with sweet oils he comes, and he could not otherwise approach the bride, nor was it fitting for the father to send his son to the marriage in any otherwise. He has anointed him with divers' perfumes.

He has made him the Christ, who comes breathing sweet fragrance, and hears the bride declare, Thy breasts are better than wine. The divine Word, rightly, has different names for the same thing, according to the context.

When a victim is offered in the law, and the Word wants to show exactly what is meant, it says, The little breast that is set apart. But when someone reclines with Jesus and enjoys full fellowship of thought with him, then the expression is, Not little breast, but bosom.

And again, when the bride speaks to the bridegroom, because it is a marriage song that is beginning, the word used is not little breast, as in the sacrifice, not bosom, as in the case of the disciple John, but breasts, Thy breasts are better than wine.

Be you of one mind with the bridegroom, like the bride, and you will know that thoughts of this kind do inebriate and make the spirit glad. Wherefore, as the inebriating chalice of the Lord, how surpassing good it is, so are the breasts of the bridegroom better than any wine.

For thy breasts are better than wine. This is how, in the midst of her prayer, she addresses herself to her spouse, And the fragrance of thy perfumes is above all spices. Not with one perfume only does he come anointed, but with all.

And if he will condescend to make my soul his bride too, and come to her, how fair must she then be to draw him down from heaven to herself, to cause him to come down to earth, that he may visit his beloved one?

With what beauty must she be adorned? With what love must she burn, that he may say to her the things which he said to the perfect bride, about thy neck, thine eyes, thy cheeks, thy hands, thy body, thy shoulders, thy feet?

God permitting, we will think about these questions and consider why the bride's members are thus differentiated and a special mead of praise accorded to each part. Thus, when we have thought it out, we may try to have our own souls spoken to in the same way.

Thy breasts, then, are better than wine. If you have seen the bridegroom, you will know that what is spoken here is true. Thy breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of thy perfumes is above all spices.

Many people have had spices. The Queen of the South brought spices to Solomon, and many others possessed them. But no matter what any man had, his treasures could not be compared with the fragrance of Christ, of which the bride says here, the fragrance of thy perfumes is above all spices.

I think myself that Moses had spices too, and Aaron, and each one of the prophets. But if I have once seen Christ, and have perceived the sweetness of his perfumes by their smell, forthwith I give my judgment in these words, the fragrance of thy perfumes is above all spices.

The Name of Jesus Poured Forth and the Virgins Who Love Him

4. Thy name is as perfume poured forth. These words foretell a mystery. Even so comes the name of Jesus to the world, and is as perfume poured forth when it is proclaimed. In the Gospel, moreover, a woman took an alabaster vessel containing precious ointment of pure spikenard, and poured it on Jesus' head, and another on his feet.

Note carefully which of the two women poured the perfume on the Savior's head. The sinner poured it on his feet, and she who is not called a sinner poured it on his head. Notice, I say, and you will find, that in this Gospel lesson the evangelists have written mysteries, and not just tales and stories, and so the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

We must take what the sinner brought with reference to the feet, and what the woman who was not a sinner brought with reference to the head. Small wonder that the house was filled with fragrance, since with this fragrance all the world is filled.

The same passage speaks of Simon the leper and his house. I think the leper is the prince of this world, and that the leper is called Simon. His house, it is that at Christ's coming, is filled with sweet perfume, when a sinful woman repents, and a holy one anoints the head of Jesus with sweet perfumes.

Thy name is as perfume poured forth, as perfume when it is applied, scatters its fragrance far and wide. So is the name of Jesus poured forth. In every land his name is named. Throughout all the world my Lord is preached, for his name is as perfume poured forth.

We hear the name of Moses now, though formerly it was not heard beyond the confines of Judea. For none of the Greeks makes mention of it, neither do we find anything written about him or about the others anywhere in pagan literature.

But straight away, when Jesus shone upon the world, he led forth the law and the prophets along with himself, and the words, thy name is as perfume poured forth, is indeed fulfilled. Number five, therefore have the virgins loved thee, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

The mention of pouring forth, which is made here, is apt. As the bride says the words, thy name is as perfume poured forth, she sees the maidens. When she made her petition to the bridegroom's father, and while she was talking directly to the spouse himself, the maidens were not present.

But a band of virgins appears, even as she is praying, and praising them she says, therefore have the virgins loved thee, and have drawn thee. And the maidens answer, we will run after thee in the fragrance of thy perfumes.

How fine a touch it is that the attendants of the bride do not as yet have the bride's own confidence. The bride does not follow behind, she walks side by side with the bridegroom. She takes his right hand, and in his right hand her own hand is held.

But the handmaidens follow after him. There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and young maidens without number. One is my dove, my perfect one, she is the only one of her mother. She that conceived her hath no other one.

After thee, therefore, we will run into the fragrance of thy perfumes. It was entirely appropriate that these words, we will run into the fragrance of thy perfumes, were used of lovers. They accord with, I have finished the course, and, they that run in the race all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize, which prize is Christ.

And these maidens who, as we know, are standing without because their love is only just beginning, are like the friend of the bridegroom who standeth and heareth him and rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice.

The maidens undergo a like experience. When the bridegroom enters, they remain without. But when the bride, the fair, the perfect one who is without spot or wrinkle, has entered the bridegroom's chamber, the secret place of the king, she comes back to the maidens and telling them the things that she alone has seen, she says, the king brought me into his chamber.

She does not say he brought us, using the plural, into his chamber. The others remain without. The bride alone is brought into the chamber that she may see there dark and hidden treasures and may take back word to the damsels.

The king brought me into his chamber. Further, when the bride has gone into the bridegroom's chamber and is seeing there the riches of her spouse, the maidens, the goodly company of those who are learning to be brides, sing together joyfully while they await her coming, saying, we will be glad and rejoice with thee.

They are glad because of the bride's perfection, for there is here no envy in respect of virtues. This love is pure. This love is free from fault. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will love thy breasts.

She who is greater is already enjoying the milk of those breasts. And she says in her joy, thy breasts are above wine. But these, because they are young maidens only, defer their joy and gladness. Their love also they defer and say, we will be glad and rejoice in thee.

We will love, not we love, but we will love thy breasts more than wine. Then they say to the bridegroom, equity has loved thee. They praise the bride by calling her equity as denoting the sum of her characteristic virtues.

Equity has loved thee. Number six, the bride then makes the maidens this reply, I am black and beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. We learn now that daughters of Jerusalem is what the maidens are.

As the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon, look not at me for that I am blackened, for the sun has looked down on me. Beautiful indeed is the bride, and I can find out in what manner she is so.

But the question is, in what way is she black? And how, if she lacks whiteness, is she fair? She has repented of her sins. Beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed. That is the reason she is hymned as beautiful.

She is called black, however, because she has not yet been purged of every stain of sin. She has not yet been washed unto salvation. Nevertheless, she does not stay dark-hued. She is becoming white. When therefore she arises towards greater things and begins to mount from lowly things to lofty, they say concerning her, who is this that cometh up, having been washed white?

And in order that the mystery may be more clearly expressed, they do not say, leaning upon her nephew's arm, as we read in most versions, that is to say, episterizomony, but epistethizomony, that is, leaning upon his breast.

And it is significant that the expression used concerning the bride's soul and the bridegroom word is lying upon his breast, because there is the seat of our heart. Forsaking carnal things, therefore, we must perceive those of the spirit and understand that it is much better to love after this manner than to refrain from love.

She cometh up, then leaning on her nephew's breast, and of her, who at the canticle's beginning was set down as black, it is sung at the end of the marriage song, who is this that cometh up, having been washed white?

We understand, then, why the bride is black and beautiful at one and the same time. But if you do not likewise practice penitence, take heed lest your soul be described as black and ugly, and you be hideous with a double foulness, black by reason of your past sins, and ugly because you are continuing in the same vices.

If you have repented, however, your soul will indeed be black because of your old sins, but your penitence will give it something of what I may call an Ethiopian beauty. And having once made mention of an Ethiopian, I want to summon a scriptural witness about this too.

Aaron and Mary murmur against Moses because Moses has an Ethiopian wife. Moses weds an Ethiopian wife because his law has passed over to the Ethiopian woman of our song. Let the Aaron of the Jewish priesthood murmur, and let the Mary of their synagogue murmur too.

Moses cares nothing for their murmuring. He loves his Ethiopian woman, concerning whom it is said elsewhere through the prophet, from the ends of the rivers of Ethiopia shall they bring offerings. And again, Ethiopia shall get her hands in first with God.

It is well said that she shall get in first, for as in the gospel the woman with the issue of blood received attention before the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, so also has Ethiopia been healed while Israel is still sick.

By their offense, salvation has been affected for the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous. I am black and beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. Address yourself to the daughters of Jerusalem, you member of the church, and say, The bridegroom loves me more and holds me dearer than you, who are the many daughters of Jerusalem.

You stand without, and watch the bride enter the chamber. Let no one doubt that the black one is beautiful, for all she is called black. For we exist in order that we may acknowledge God, that we may tell forth songs of a song, that we may be those who have come from the borders of Ethiopia, from the ends of the earth, to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon.

And when the Savior's voice is heard, thundering out the words, The Queen of the South shall come to judgment and shall condemn the men of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And behold, a greater than Solomon is here. You must understand what is said in a mystical sense. The Queen of the South, who comes from the ends of the earth, is the church, and the men of this generation whom she condemns are the Jews who are given over to flesh and blood.

She comes from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom, not of that Solomon about whom we read in the Old Testament, but of him who is said in the gospel to be greater than Solomon. I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, black as the tents of cedar, beautiful as the curtains of Solomon.

The very names accord with the bride's comeliness. The Hebrews say that cedar is the word for darkness. I am black, therefore as the tents of cedar, as the Ethiopians, as Ethiopian tents, and beautiful as the curtains of Solomon, which he prepared as adornments of the tabernacle at the time when he built the temple with the utmost care and toil.

Solomon was rich indeed, and no one surpassed him in any branch of wisdom. I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of cedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not at me, for that I am blackened.

She apologizes for her blackness, and being turned to better things through penitence, she tells the daughters of Jerusalem that she is black indeed, but beautiful for the reason which we gave above, and says, Look not at me, for that I am blackened.

Do not be surprised, she says, that I am of a forbidding hue. The sun has looked down on me. With full radiance his bright light has shone on me, and I am darkened by his heat. I have not indeed received his light into myself, as it were fitting that I should, and as the sun's own dignity required.

By their offense salvation has been effected for the Gentiles, and again, through the unbelief of the Gentiles is the knowledge of Israel. You find both of these texts in the Apostle. Number seven. The sons of my mother have fought against me.

We must consider in what sense the bride says the sons of my mother have fought against me and at what time her brothers launched this attack. You have only to look at Paul, the persecutor of the church, to see how a son of her mother fought against her.

The persecutors of the church have repented, and her opponents have turned to their sister's banners and have preached the faith which they formerly sought to destroy. For seeing this, the bride now sings, they have contended against me, they have made me the keeper in the vineyards, my vineyard I have not kept.

I the church, the spotless one, she says, have been appointed keeper of many vineyards by my mother's sons, who once had fought against me, harassed by the responsibility and care involved in guarding many vineyards I have not kept my own.

Apply these words to Paul or any other of the saints who care for the salvation of all men, and you will see how he guards others' vine plantations while not guarding his own, how he himself bears loss in some respects so that he may gain others, and how, though he was free as to all, he made himself the servant of all, that he might gain all, being made weak to the weak, a Jew to the Jews, as subject to the law, to those who are also subject, and so forth, how in a word he can say, my vineyard I have not kept.

The bride then beholds the bridegroom, and he, as soon as she has seen him, goes away. He does this frequently throughout the song, and that is something nobody can understand who has not suffered it himself.

God is my witness that I have often perceived the bridegroom drawing near me and being most intensely present with me. Then suddenly he is withdrawn, and I could not find him. Though I sought to do so, I longed therefore for him to come again, and sometimes he does so.

Then when he has appeared, and I lay hold of him, he slips away once more, and when he has so slipped away, my search for him begins anew. So does he act with me repeatedly, until, in truth, I hold him and go up, leaning on my nephew's arm.

Seeking the Bridegroom at Midday

8. Tell me, thou whom my soul has loved, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday. I am not asking about other times. I ask not where thou feedest in the evening, or at daybreak, or when the sun goes down.

I ask about the full daytime, when the light is brightest, and thou dwells in the splendor of your majesty. Tell me, thou whom my soul has loved, where thou liest in the midday. Observe attentively where else you have read about midday.

In the story of Joseph, his brethren feast at noon. At noon the angels were entertained by Abraham, and there are other instances besides. You will find, if you look into it, that Holy Scripture never uses any word haphazard and without purpose.

Who among us do you think is worthy to attain the midday and to see where the bridegroom feeds and where he lies at noon? Tell me, thou whom my soul has loved, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday.

For unless thou tell me, I shall begin to be a vagrant, driven to and fro, while I am looking for thee. I shall begin to run after other people's flocks, and because these other people make me feel ashamed, I shall begin to cover my face and my mouth.

I am the beautiful bride in sooth, and I show not my naked face to any save thee only, whom I kissed tenderly but now. Tell me, thou whom my soul has loved, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I have to go veiled beside the flocks of thy companions.

That I suffer not these things, that I may not need to go veiled nor hide my face, that mixing with others I run not the risk of beginning to love also them whom I know not. Tell me, therefore, where I may seek and find you in the midday, lest I have to go veiled beside the flocks of your companions.

Knowing Yourself as the Bride of the King

9. After these words, the bridegroom warns her, saying, Either know yourself, that you are the bride of the king, and beautiful, and made beautiful by me, because I have presented to myself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or understand that if you have not known yourself nor grasped your dignity, you must endure the things that follow.

What may these be? If thou have not known thyself, O fair one among women, go forth in the steps of the flocks and feed, not the flocks of sheep nor of lambs, but the goats. He will set the sheep on the right hand and the goats upon the left.

Assuredly, the scripture says, if you have not known yourself, O fair one among women, go forth in the steps of the flocks and feed your goats among the shepherds' tents. In the steps of the flocks, he says, will you find yourself at the last, not among the sheep, but among the goats, and when you dwell with them, you cannot be with me, that is, with the good shepherd.

Christ and the Church Compared to Pharaoh’s Chariots

10. To my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots have I likened thee. If thou would understand, O bride, how you must know yourself, think what it is to which I have compared thee. Then, when you have recognized your likeness, you will see that you are such as must not be disgraced.

What then is the meaning of these words? To my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots have I likened thee. I myself know that the bridegroom is likened to a horseman in the words of the prophet.

Thy riding is salvation. So you are compared to my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots. As different is the company of horsemen that belongs to me, who is the Lord, and drowns the Pharaoh and his generals, his riders, and his horsemen in the waves, as different, I tell you, is my cavalry from Pharaoh's horses, as you, the bride, art better than all daughters, and you, the soul, belongs to the church, are better than all souls that are not the church.

To my company of horsemen among Pharaoh's chariots have I likened thee. He next describes the beauty of the bride in terms of spiritual love. Your cheeks are as the turtle doves. He praises her face and is kindled to admiration by her rosy cheeks.

A woman's beauty is considered to reside supremely in her cheeks. So let us, likewise, take the cheeks as revealing the beauty of the soul. By lips and tongue, however, let the intelligence be represented to us.

Your neck is as a necklace. Your neck, that is to say, even when adorned, is of itself as much an ornament as is the little necklace, called hormiscus, that virgins are wont to wear. After these things, the spouse takes his repose.

He has reposed as a lion, and as a lion's whelp he has slept, so that in due course he may hear who shall arouse him. While he reposes, his companions the angels appear to the bride, and comfort her with these words.

We cannot make thee golden ornaments. We are not so rich as is thy spouse, who gives you a necklace of gold. We will make you likenesses of gold, for gold we have not got. Yet this also is matter for rejoicing, if we make likenesses of gold, if we make studs of silver.

We will make you likenesses of gold with studs of silver, but not for always, only until the spouse arises from his rest. For when he has arisen, he himself will make you gold and silver. He will himself adorn your mind and your understanding, and you shall be rich indeed.