Canticles 3:6
Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?
Open Canticles 3:6 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Chorus Quæ est ista quæ ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhæ, et thuris, et universi pulveris pigmentarii ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Τίς αὕτη ἡ ἀναβαίνουσα ἀπὸ τῆς ἐρήμου, ὡς στελέχη καπνοῦ τεθυμιαμένη σμύρναν καὶ λίβανον ἀπὸ πάντων κονιορτῶν μυρεψοῦ;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- מִ֣י זֹ֗את עֹלָה֙ מִן הַמִּדְבָּ֔ר כְּתִֽימֲר֖וֹת עָשָׁ֑ן מְקֻטֶּ֤רֶת מוֹר֙ וּלְבוֹנָ֔ה מִכֹּ֖ל אַבְקַ֥ת רוֹכֵֽל
Haydock's commentary
Who. The female companions of the spouse, (Calmet) or the bridegroom's friends, (Menochius) admire her at a distance, chap. vi. 9., and viii. 5. (Calmet)
The converted Gentiles change the desert of the world into a paradise, by their good works, which ascend like a perfume. (St. Gregory) They admire their own conversion, and proclaim that we must fight for heaven, (Worthington) and adore Christ, the God-man; imitating all his virtues, (Haydock) and preaching his gospel. (Menochius)
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 Ambrose Concerning Virgins, Chapter V. St. Ambrose, speaking of tears, explains David's saying, “Every night wash l my couch with my tears,” and goes on to speak of Christ bearing our griefs and infirmities. Everything should be referred to His honour, and we ought to rejoice with spiritual joy, but not after a worldly fashion
21. And who can now fail to understand that the holy prophet said for our instruction: “Every night will I wash my couch and water my bed with my tears”? For if you take it literally for his bed, he shows that such abundance of tears should be shed as to wash the bed and water it with tears, the couch of him who is praying, for weeping has to do with the present, rewards with the future, since it is said: “Blessed are ye that weep, for ye shall laugh;” or if we take the word of the prophet as applied to our bodies, we must wash away the offences of the body with tears of penitence. For Solomon made himself a bed of wood from Lebanon, its pillars were of silver, its bottom of gold, its back strewn with gems. …