Canticles 4:16
Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow through my garden, and let the aromatical spices thereof flow.
Open Canticles 4:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sponsa Surge, aquilo, et veni, auster : perfla hortum meum, et fluant aromata illius.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ἐξεγέρθητι, βορρᾶ· καὶ ἔρχου, νότε, καὶ διάπνευσον κῆπόν μου, καὶ ῥευσάτωσαν ἀρώματά μου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- ע֤וּרִי צָפוֹן֙ וּב֣וֹאִי תֵימָ֔ן הָפִ֥יחִי גַנִּ֖י יִזְּל֣וּ בְשָׂמָ֑יו יָבֹ֤א דוֹדִי֙ לְגַנּ֔וֹ וְיֹאכַ֖ל פְּרִ֥י מְגָדָֽיו
Haydock's commentary
Wind. At different times. Let all nations be convinced of thy beauty. (Calmet)
The holy Spirit enabled the apostles to convert the world. (Nys. Rupert.)
All temptations, whether proceeding from cruelty or deceit, "make constant souls more grateful to God." (Worthington)
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 Hippolytus On the Song of Songs
1. Arise, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out ( Canticles iv. 16 ). As Joseph was delighted with these spices, he is designated the King’s son by God; as the Virgin Mary was anointed with them, she conceived the Word: then new secrets, and new truth, and a new kingdom, and also great and inexplicable mysteries, are made manifest.
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter XI
Now she who brings forth, and has brought forth, the masculine Word in the hearts of the faithful, and who passed, undefiled and uninjured by the wrath of the beast, into the wilderness, is, as we have explained, our mother the Church. And the wilderness into which she comes, and is nourished for a thousand two hundred and sixty days, which is truly waste and unfruitful of evils, and barren of corruption, and difficult of access and of transit to the multitude; but fruitful and abounding in pasture, and blooming and easy of access to the holy, and full of wisdom, and productive of life, is this most lovely, and beautifully wooded and well-watered abode of Arete. …
St Ambrose On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book II. On the Belief in the Resurrection
118. And you may recognize also the voice of the invitation of the Church, for she says: “Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south, blow upon my garden, and let my ointment flow forth. Let my brother come down into his garden and eat the fruit of his precious trees.” For knowing even then, O holy Church, that from those also there would be fruitful works for thee, thou didst promise to thy Christ fruit from such as they, thou who didst first say that thou wast brought into the King’s chamber, loving His breast above wine, since thou lovedst Him Who loved thee, soughtest Him Who fed thee, and didst despise dangers for religion’s sake.
St Ambrose Concerning Virgins, Chapter IX. Other passages from the Song of Songs are considered with relation to the present subject, and St. Ambrose exhorting the virgin to seek for Christ, points out where He may be found. A description of His perfections follows, and a comparison is made between virgins and the angels
47. He Who was spoiled by the soldiers, Who was wounded by the spear, that He might heal us by the blood of His sacred wounds, will assuredly answer you (for He is meek and lowly of heart, and gentle in aspect): “Arise, O north wind, and come, O south, and blow upon My garden, that My spices may flow out.” For from all parts of the world has the perfume of holy religion increased, and the limbs of the consecrated Virgin have glowed. “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem.” So it is not the beauty of the perishable body, which will come to an end with sickness or old age, but the reputation for good deserts, subject to no accidents and never to perish, which is the beauty of virgins.