Canticles 7:1
What shalt thou see in the Sulamitess but the companies of camps? How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince's daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, that are made by the hand of a skillful workman.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sponsa Quid videbis in Sulamite, nisi choros castrorum ? Chorus Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui in calceamentis, filia principis ! Juncturæ femorum tuorum sicut monilia quæ fabricata sunt manu artificis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Τί ὄψεσθε ἐν τῇ Σουμανείτιδι; ἡ ἐρχομένη ὡς χοροὶ τῶν παρεμβολῶν. Ὡραιώθησαν διαβήματά σου ἐν ὑποδήμασιν, θύγατερ Ναδάβ. ῥυθμοὶ μηρῶν σου ὅμοιοι ὁρμίσκοις, ἔργον τεχνίτου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Canticles 7:2
- מַה יָּפ֧וּ פְעָמַ֛יִךְ בַּנְּעָלִ֖ים בַּת נָדִ֑יב חַמּוּקֵ֣י יְרֵכַ֔יִךְ כְּמ֣וֹ חֲלָאִ֔ים מַעֲשֵׂ֖ה יְדֵ֥י אָמָּֽן
Haydock's commentary
What? Christ commends the Jews, who shall at last embrace the faith with great fervour. (Worthington)
Thou. Hebrew and Septuagint, "ye." They join this sentence with the preceding chapter. (Haydock)
Companies. Hebrew, "as it were the choir (or dance) of Mahanaim," (Calmet) where Jacob saw the camps of angels, near the Jaboc. (Haydock) (Genesis xxxii.)
These dances might be proverbial.
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 Jerome Against Jovinianus, Book I
31. Then follows: “A garden shut up is my sister, my bride: a garden shut up, a fountain sealed.” That which is shut up and sealed reminds us of the mother of our Lord who was a mother and a Virgin. Hence it was that no one before or after our Saviour was laid in his new tomb, hewn in the solid rock. And yet she that was ever a Virgin is the mother of many virgins. For next we read: “Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with precious fruits.” By pomegranates and fruits is signified the blending of all virtues in virginity.“My beloved is white and ruddy”; white in virginity, ruddy in martyrdom. …