Canticles 1:4
I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sponsa Nigra sum, sed formosa, filiæ Jerusalem, sicut tabernacula Cedar, sicut pelles Salomonis.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from Canticles 1:5
- Μέλαινά εἰμι καὶ καλή, θυγατέρες Ἰσραήλ, ὡς σκηνώματα Κηδάρ, ὡς δέρρις Σαλωμών.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Canticles 1:5
- שְׁחוֹרָ֤ה אֲנִי֙ וְֽנָאוָ֔ה בְּנ֖וֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם כְּאָהֳלֵ֣י קֵדָ֔ר כִּירִיע֖וֹת שְׁלֹמֹֽה
Haydock's commentary
On verses 3 to 4
To, &c., is in the Septuagint; but not in Hebrew or Complutensian. (Calmet)
Grace must draw, and then people will run, John vi. 44., and xii. 32., and Philippians iii. 12. (St. Ambrose) (Bossuet)
Rooms. Where there is abundance of wine and ointments. The extraordinary favours of heaven are not granted to all, Matthew xiii. 11. (Calmet)
Righteous. The apostles, and faithful souls, (Haydock) and all who form a right judgment of things, (Menochius) having their thoughts, works, and actions composed. (Tirinus)
Black. Or brown, ver. 5. (Haydock)
The Egyptians were of a less fair complexion, and she had been exposed to the sun, ver. 5. (Calmet)
The synagogue gloried in her advantages; but the Gentiles being chosen by Christ, obtain the palm. (Theodoret)
Though outwardly afflicted, the Church is inwardly fair. (Worthington)
Cedar. Or of the Arabs, who dwelt in tents, made of black goat's hair. (Calmet)
The tents of the eastern kings were equal in magnificence to our palaces. (Bernier, Valle, &c.)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine On Christian Doctrine, The Second Rule of Tichonius
45. The second rule is about the twofold division of the body of the Lord ; but this indeed is not a suitable name, for that is really no part of the body of Christ which will not be with Him in eternity. We ought, therefore, to say that the rule is about the true and the mixed body of the Lord, or the true and the counterfeit, or some such name; because, not to speak of eternity, hypocrites cannot even now be said to be in Him, although they seem to be in His Church. And hence this rule might be designated thus: Concerning the mixed Church . Now this rule requires the reader to be on his guard when Scripture, although it has now come to address or speak of a different set of persons, seems to be addressing or speaking of the same persons as before, just as if both sets constituted one body in consequence of their being for the time united in a common participation of the sacraments. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
1. “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy father’s house, and the king shall desire thy beauty.” In this forty-fourth psalm God speaks to the human soul that, following the example of Abraham, it should go out from its own land and from its kindred, and should leave the Chaldeans, that is the demons, and should dwell in the country of the living, for which elsewhere the prophet sighs: “I think to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.” But it is not enough for you to go out from your own land unless you forget your people and your father’s house; unless you scorn the flesh and cling to the bridegroom in a close embrace. …
St Ambrose On the Holy Spirit, Chapter X. Being about to prove that the will, the calling, and the commandment of the Trinity is one, St. Ambrose shows that the Spirit called the Church exactly as the Father and the Son did, and proves this by the selection of SS. Paul and Barnabas, and especially by the mission of St. Peter to Cornelius. And by the way he points out how in the Apostle's vision the calling of the Gentiles was shadowed forth, who having been before like wild beasts, now by the operation of the Spirit lay aside that wildness. Then having quoted other passages in support of this view, he shows that in the case of Jeremiah cast into a pit by Jews, and rescued by Abdemelech, is a type of the slighting of the Holy Spirit by the Jews, and of His being honoured by the Gentiles
112. In which account is a very beautiful figure, that is to say, that we, sinners of the Gentiles, black beforehand through our transgressions, and aforetime fruitless, raised from the depth the word of prophecy which the Jews had thrust down, as it were, into the mire of their mind and carnality. And therefore it is written: “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God.” In which is signified the appearance of holy Church, who says in the Song of Songs: “I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem;” black through sin, comely through grace; black by natural condition, comely through redemption, or certainly, black with the dust of her labours. So she is black while fighting, is comely when she is crowned with the ornaments of victory.
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).