Canticles 6:3
Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem: terrible as an army set in array.
Open Canticles 6:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sponsus Pulchra es, amica mea ; suavis, et decora sicut Jerusalem ; terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καλὴ εἶ πλησίον μου, ὡς εὐδοκία, ὡραία ὡς Ἰερουσαλήμ, θάμβος ὡς τεταγμέναι.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Canticles 6:4
- יָפָ֨ה אַ֤תְּ רַעְיָתִי֙ כְּתִרְצָ֔ה נָאוָ֖ה כִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑ם אֲיֻמָּ֖ה כַּנִּדְגָּלֽוֹת
Haydock's commentary
Thou. Christ again commends his Church, which is well composed of distinct orders, some governing, others retired from the world, and the rest exercising works of mercy, amid its troubles, who altogether form a complete army, terrible to all her enemies. (Worthington)
Jerusalem. Which was then one of the finest cities in the east. (Calmet) The Catholic Church resembles the heavenly Jerusalem. (Theodoret)
Terrible. So great is the power of love, (Romans viii. 35.) in the martyrs, and of the Church, against infidels! (Calmet)
She is lovely to Christ, and terrible to the wicked. Even her spouse is wounded by her glance. (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 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.