Canticles 4:11
Thy lips, my spouse, are as a dropping honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments, as the smell of frankincense.
Open Canticles 4:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Favus distillans labia tua, sponsa ; mel et lac sub lingua tua : et odor vestimentorum tuorum sicut odor thuris.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- κηρίον ἀποστάζουσιν χείλη σου, νύμφη· μέλι καὶ γάλα ὑπὸ τὴν γλῶσσάν σου, καὶ ὀσμὴ ἱματίων σου ὡς ὀσμὴ Λιβάνου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- נֹ֛פֶת תִּטֹּ֥פְנָה שִׂפְתוֹתַ֖יִךְ כַּלָּ֑ה דְּבַ֤שׁ וְחָלָב֙ תַּ֣חַת לְשׁוֹנֵ֔ךְ וְרֵ֥יחַ שַׂלְמֹתַ֖יִךְ כְּרֵ֥יחַ לְבָנֽוֹן
Haydock's commentary
Lips. Teachers who accommodate their instructions to the capacity of their audience, (Calmet) giving milk to children, Hebrews v. 13., (Haydock) and 1 Corinthians iii. 2.
In allusion, perhaps, to this passage, (Calmet) it was customary to give milk and honey to the new baptized. (Tertullian, coron.)
Garments. Which were perfumed, (Genesis xxvii. 17., and Psalm xliv. 9.) and imply good works, (2 Corinthians v. 3., and Romans xiii. 14.; Calmet) and the external service and prayers of the Church, which ascend like incense, Psalm cxl. 2. (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 Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter I
It is not lawful for me to delay, O Arete, after such discourses, seeing that I confide undoubtingly in the manifold wisdom of God, which gives richly and widely to whomsoever it wills. For sailors who have experience of the sea declare that the same wind blows on all who sail; and that different persons, managing their course differently, strive to reach different ports. Some have a fair wind; to others it blows across their course; and yet both easily accomplish their voyage. Now, in the same way, the “understanding Spirit, holy, one only,” gently breathing down from the treasures of the Father above, giving us all the clear fair wind of knowledge, will suffice to guide the course of our words without offence. And now it is time for me to speak. …
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter II
Chapter II. The Interpretation of that Passage of the Canticles.
St Cyril of Jerusalem On the Words, And Rose Again from the Dead on the Third Day, and Ascended into the Heavens, and Sat on the Right Hand of the Father
5. But wouldst thou know the place also? Again He saith in Canticles, I went down into the garden of nuts ; for it was a garden where He was crucified. For though it has now been most highly adorned with royal gifts, yet formerly it was a garden, and the signs and the remnants of this remain. A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed , by the Jews who said, We remember that that deceiver said while He was yet alive, After three days, I will rise: command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure; and further on, So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone with the guard . And aiming well at these, one saith, and in rest Thou shalt judge them . But who is the fountain that is sealed, or who is interpreted as being a well-spring of living water ? It is the Saviour Himself, concerning whom it is written, For with Thee is the fountain of life .
St Ambrose Concerning Virgins, Chapter VII. St. Ambrose exhorts parents to train their children to virginity, and sets before them the troubles arising from their desire to have grandchildren. He says however that he does not forbid marriage, but rather defends it against heretics who oppose it. Still setting virginity before marriage, he speaks of the beauty of their spouse, and of the gifts wherewith He adorns them, and applies to these points certain verses of the Song of Songs
39. “The smell of thy garments,” says He, “is above all spices.” And again: “And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.” See what progress thou settest forth, O Virgin. Thy first odour is above all spices, which were used upon the burying of the Saviour, and the fragrance arises from the mortified motions of the body, and the perishing of the delights of the members. Thy second odour, like the odour of Lebanon, exhales the incorruption of the Lord’s body, the flower of virginal chastity.
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).