Canticles 4:3
Thy lips are as a scarlet lace: and thy speech sweet. Thy cheeks are as a piece of a pomegranate, besides that which lieth hid within.
Open Canticles 4:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sicut vitta coccinea labia tua, et eloquium tuum dulce. Sicut fragmen mali punici, ita genæ tuæ, absque eo quod intrinsecus latet.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὡς σπαρτίον τὸ κόκκινον χείλη σου, καὶ ἡ λαλιά σου ὡραία· ὡς λέπυρον ῥόας μῆλόν σου ἐκτὸς τῆς σιωπήσεώς σου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כְּח֤וּט הַשָּׁנִי֙ שִׂפְתֹתַ֔יִךְ וּמִדְבָּרֵ֖יךְ נָאוֶ֑ה כְּפֶ֤לַח הָֽרִמּוֹן֙ רַקָּתֵ֔ךְ מִבַּ֖עַד לְצַמָּתֵֽךְ
Haydock's commentary
Scarlet. Preachers of the gospel (St. Gregory) must speak with elegance, and have their lips dyed with the blood of Christ, and purified with coals from the altar. (Calmet)
So, if we may use the words of a living critic, who is sometimes accurate, "a commentator ought to study at the foot of his crucifix, and write with ink drawn from the heart of Jesus." (Haydock)
Pomegranate. Plump and ruddy, representing the purity of the Church, and of virgins, who are its "flower," (St. Cyprian) and bring forth fruits of good works. (St. Augustine, de Virg.)
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 On the Mysteries, Chapter VII. The washing away of sins is indicated by the white robes of the catechumens, whence the Church speaks of herself as black and comely. Angels marvel at her brightness as at that of the flesh of the Lord. Moreover, Christ Himself commended His beauty to His Spouse under many figures. The mutual affection of the one for the other is described
38. And farther on: “Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which are come up from the pool, which all bear twins, and none is barren among them, thy lips are as a cord of scarlet.” This is no slight praise. First by the pleasing comparison to those that are shorn; for we know that goats both feed in high places without risk, and securely find their food in rugged places, and then when shorn are freed from what is superfluous. The Church is likened to a flock of these, having in itself the many virtues of those souls which through the laver lay aside the superfluity of sins, and offer to Christ the mystic faith and the grace of good living, which speak of the cross of the Lord Jesus.