Canticles 8:7
Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.
Open Canticles 8:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Aquæ multæ non potuerunt extinguere caritatem, nec flumina obruent illam. Si dederit homo omnem substantiam domus suæ pro dilectione, quasi nihil despiciet eam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὕδωρ πολὺ οὐ δυνήσεται σβέσαι τὴν ἀγάπην, καὶ ποταμοὶ οὐ συνκλύσουσιν αὐτήν. ἐὰν δῷ ἀνὴρ τὸν πάντα βίον αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ, ἐξουδενώσει ἐξουδενώσουσιν αὐτόν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- מַ֣יִם רַבִּ֗ים לֹ֤א יֽוּכְלוּ֙ לְכַבּ֣וֹת אֶת הָֽאַהֲבָ֔ה וּנְהָר֖וֹת לֹ֣א יִשְׁטְפ֑וּהָ אִם יִתֵּ֨ן אִ֜ישׁ אֶת כָּל ה֤וֹן בֵּיתוֹ֙ בָּאַהֲבָ֔ה בּ֖וֹז יָב֥וּזוּ לֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Drown it. As other fires may be extinguished. He who sinks under persecution, has not real charity. Temptation does not weaken a person, but shews what he is, Ecclesiasticus xxxiv. 9. (Calmet)
He shall. Worldlings will ridicule his parting with temporal delights, for those which do not appear: but the true lover will make no account of the former. (Calmet)
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 The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
41. Emerge, I pray you, for a while from your prison-house, and paint before your eyes the reward of your present toil, a reward which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man.” What will be the glory of that day when Mary, the mother of the Lord, shall come to meet you, accompanied by her virgin choirs! When, the Red Sea past and Pharaoh drowned with his host, Miriam, Aaron’s sister, her timbrel in her hand, shall chant to the answering women: “Sing ye unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” Then shall Thecla fly with joy to embrace you. …
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
13. For after the vision of the Angels, Jesus came as His own Herald; and the Gospel says, And behold Jesus met them, saying, All hail! and they came and took hold of His feet . They took hold of Him, that it might be fulfilled, I will hold Him, and will not let Him go . Though the woman was weak in body, her spirit was manful. Many waters quench not love, neither do rivers drown it ; He was dead whom they sought, yet was not the hope of the Resurrection quenched. And the Angel says to them again, Fear not ye ; I say not to the soldiers, fear not , but to you; as for them, let them be afraid, that, taught by experience, they may bear witness and say, Truly this was the Son of God ; but you ought not to be afraid, for perfect love casteth out fear . Go, tell His disciples that He is risen ; and the rest. …