Jerome

In his own words on Song of Solomon

• Song of Solomon 1:1

  Solomon, a lover of peace and of the Lord, corrects morals, teaches nature, unites Christ and the church, and sings a sweet marriage song to celebrate that holy bridal.

  LETTER 53.8

• Song of Solomon 1:2

  Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed. I see two things, which by coming together and meeting become one. Justice and peace have kissed. All this is fitted to the mystery of the Lord and Savior: this is the Son of God and of man, who is for us truth, mercy, peace, and justice, in whom the justice of the former people and the mercy of the latter are joined together into one peace. "For he himself," says the Apostle, "is our peace, who has made both one." This is the mystery which the Church desires, and cries out in the Song of Songs, saying, "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." This is the kiss of which the Apostle Paul says, "Greet one another with the kiss of peace."

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, ALTERNATE SERIES 64 (PSALM 84)

• Song of Solomon 1:3

  Like ointment upon the head, which runs down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron. Oh, if there were time for us to discuss each detail, a day could not suffice us. We read in Exodus how the priestly ointment is prepared; then we read how there was another ointment, with which the kings were anointed. There was also another ointment with which the prophets were anointed. And why do I say more? All the ointments had their own distinctions and mysteries. Do we marvel about holy persons? A leper, after he has been cleansed, after he has been sprinkled with hyssop and with the blood of a bird, and one bird is released into the wilderness, he too has his own proper ointment. Nothing is sanctified except through ointment. Therefore the young maidens also say in the Song of Songs: "Thy name is ointment poured out. After thee we will run in the fragrance of thy ointments."

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 45 (Psalm 132)

• Song of Solomon 1:4

  There also—the Lord himself is my witness—when I had shed copious tears and had strained my eyes toward heaven, I sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts and for joy and gladness sang, "Because of the sweet smell of your good ointments, we will run after you."

  LETTER 22.7

• Song of Solomon 1:5

  Born, in the first instance, of such parentage we are naturally black. Even when we have repented, so long as we have not scaled the heights of virtue, we may still say, "I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem." … "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be" not as is there said, "of one flesh" but "of one spirit." Your bridegroom is not haughty or disdainful; he has "married an Ethiopian woman." When once you desire the wisdom of the true Solomon and come to him, he will avow all his knowledge to you; he will lead you into his chamber with his royal hand. He will miraculously change your complexion so that it shall be said of you, "Who is this that goes up and has been made white?"

  LETTER 22.1

• Song of Solomon 1:7

  I linger long in the land of the midday sun, for it was there and then that the spouse found her bridegroom at rest.

  LETTER 108.12

• Song of Solomon 1:7

  Because Abraham received the angels at noon, and Joseph invited his brothers to a meal at noon. For both Abraham and Joseph were holy, and therefore their banquet was in clear light and full sun, therefore they feed at noon. And I too, if I have full knowledge of the Scriptures, although it be the third hour, nevertheless I feed you at noon. Indeed even the bride in the Song of Songs says: "Where do you feed, she says, where do you lie down at noon?" You see that the bridegroom does not feed, does not recline at the third hour, but at noon. Where do you feed, where do you lie down, where do I find you, where do you take your delight, where can I find you, O my bridegroom? Do you wish to find me? At noon, in perfect knowledge, in good works, in clear light. Since therefore we have our noon, therefore the devil too transforms himself into an angel of light, and he himself pretends that he has light, that he has noon. When the heretics promise, as it were, certain mysteries, when they promise the kingdom of heaven, when continence, when fasts, when holiness, when renunciation of the world, they promise noon. But since it is not the light of Christ, it is not noon, but the noonday demon.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 20 (Psalm 90)

• Song of Solomon 1:11-12

  Let us hear what the bride says before that the bridegroom comes to earth, suffers, descends to the lower world, and rises again. "We will make for you likenesses of gold with ornaments of silver while the king sits at his table." Before the Lord rose again and the gospel shone, the bride had not gold but likenesses of gold. As for the silver, however, which she professes to have at the marriage, she not only had silver ornaments, but she had them in variety—in widows, in the continent and in the married. Then the bridegroom makes answer to the bride and teaches her that the shadow of the old law has passed away and the truth of the gospel has come.

  Against Jovinianus 1.30

• Song of Solomon 1:15

  So that it may be that which is said in the Song of Songs: "You are wholly beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in you." And again: "Behold, you are fair, my near one, behold, you are fair, your eyes are doves." You who are fair and strong, when you have become like him of whom it is sung, "In your beauty and your comeliness," you will hear from the Bridegroom: "Forget your people and your father's house, and the King will desire your beauty."

  Homily 61, on Psalm 15 (Alternate Series)

• Song of Solomon 2:1

  [Christ] himself says in the Song of Songs, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley." Our rose is the destruction of death, and [that rose] died that death itself might die in his dying.

  LETTER 75.1

• Song of Solomon 2:1

  The earth has given its fruit. First it gave a flower. He says in the Song of Songs: "I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys." This flower, then, has been made fruit, that we might eat him, that we might feed on his flesh. Do you wish to know what this fruit is? A virgin from a virgin, the Lord from a handmaid, God from man, a son from a mother, fruit from the earth. See what this fruit himself says. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it cannot bear much fruit." The earth has given its fruit, it has given the grain of wheat: which grain of wheat fell into the earth and died, and therefore brings forth much fruit.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 6 (PSALM 66)

• Song of Solomon 2:8

  We therefore, first let us flee the valleys of Zion, let us come to the plains, from the plains let us come to the hills, from the hills let us come to the mountains, let us follow Christ upon the mountains. For our cousin, like a roe and a fawn of the harts, leaps over the hills, and springs across the mountains. Whence also, according to the truth of the ascension, he did not ascend into the heavens after the resurrection from a valley, but from a mountain. Unless we are mountains in virtues, we cannot ascend to heaven. For there, that is, in the mountains of Zion, in the virtues, in the confession of faith, in the truth of the doctrines, there is the blessing and life for evermore.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 45 (PSALM 132)

• Song of Solomon 2:10-12

  Then the bridegroom makes answer to the bride and teaches her that the shadow of the old law has passed away and the truth of the gospel has come. "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." … "The voice of the turtle [dove] is heard in our land." The turtle [dove], the most chaste of birds, always dwelling in lofty places, is a type of the Savior.

  Against Jovinianus 1.30

• Song of Solomon 2:13-14

  Immediately the turtle says to its fellow, "The fig tree has put forth its green figs," that is, the commandments of the old law have fallen, and the blossoming vines of the gospel give forth their fragrance.… While you covered your countenance like Moses and the veil of the law remained, I neither saw your face, nor did I condescend to hear your voice. I said, "Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear." But now, with unveiled face behold my glory, and shelter yourself in the cleft and steep places of the solid rock.

  Against Jovinianus 1.30

• Song of Solomon 3:4

  But otherwise the footstool of the feet of Jesus is the soul of the believer. Happy is he in whose breast the feet of Jesus are daily placed. Would that his feet were placed in my breast too, would that his footprints might ever cling in my heart, would that I too might say with the bride: "I will hold him, and I will not let him go." The bridegroom is quickly offended, he ever loves cleanness: wherever he sees filth, he quickly withdraws.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 26 (PSALM 98)

• Song of Solomon 4:7-8

  "Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. You shall come and pass on from the beginning of faith, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards." Lebanon is, being interpreted, "whiteness." Come then, fairest bride, concerning whom it is elsewhere said, "Who is she that comes up, all in white?" Pass on by way of this world, from the beginning of faith, and from Senir, which is by interpretation, "God of light," as we read in the psalm: "Your word is a lantern unto my feet, and light unto my path," and "from Hermon," that is, "consecration," and "flee from the lions' dens, and the mountains of the leopards who cannot change their spots."

  Against Jovinianus 1.30

• Song of Solomon 4:9

  Flee, he says, from the lions' dens, flee from the pride of devils, that when you have been consecrated to me, I may be able to say unto you, "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck." What he says is something like this—I do not reject marriage: you have a second eye, the left, which I have given to you on account of the weakness of those who cannot see the right. But I am pleased with the right eye of virginity, and if it is blinded, the whole body is in darkness. And that we might not think he had in view carnal love and bodily marriage, he at once excludes this meaning by saying, "You have ravished my heart, my bride, my sister." The name sister excludes all suspicion of unhallowed love. "How fair are your breasts with wine," those breasts concerning which he had said above, my beloved is mine, and I am his: "between my breasts shall he lie," that is, in the princely portion of the heart where the Word of God has its lodging.

  Against Jovinianus 1.30

• Song of Solomon 4:9

  You should not grieve that you are destitute of those bodily eyes which ants, flies and creeping things have as well as do people. Rather you should rejoice that you possess that eye of which it is said in the Song of Songs, "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes." This is the eye with which God is seen and to which Moses refers when he says, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight."

  LETTER 76.2

• Song of Solomon 5:1

  Indeed, it is written in another place: "Come my sister, my bride." Lest in the fact that it had said, bride, you should understand something shameful, sister is joined, so that all shameful love may be excluded. Come my sister: for the love is holy, and therefore I call you sister. And my bride: therefore I call you bride, so that I may have a wife, and from you make many sons, many sons like clusters from a vine. Just as a vine has various clusters, and there is indeed one root, but it spreads its tendrils far and wide, here and there, and the tendrils themselves have their own fruits, and in the fruits themselves are the clusters; so also from wisdom, which is our wife, provided that we never let her go, many clusters are born, that is, very many virtues, holy thoughts, splendid works.

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 42 (PSALM 127)

• Song of Solomon 5:1

  We read also in the Song of Songs: "Come, brothers, drink and be inebriated." And wine which gladdens the heart of man. This fleshly wine does not gladden the heart of man, but overwhelms it, and makes it mad. Indeed, it is written that those who are powerful should not drink wine. The apostle too writes that we ought not to drink wine and eat flesh. Again it is said to us: And wine gladdens the heart of man. But it speaks of a spiritual wine, which, if anyone drinks it, he is immediately inebriated. All of you, that you might let go of your possessions and your parents and your children and your kinfolk, drank wine, and being inebriated for Christ began to be mad. Does it not seem to you to be drunkenness, does it not seem to you to be spiritual madness, to despise delights, to seek out squalor, to flee the cities, to pursue the deserts, to know no affections, to ignore the nearness of the flesh, and to know Christ alone?

  HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 42 (PSALM 127)

• Song of Solomon 5:10

  "My beloved is white and ruddy": white in virginity, ruddy in martyrdom. And because he is white and ruddy, therefore it is immediately added, "His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely."

  Against Jovinianus 1.31

• Song of Solomon 5:16

  [Daniel 9:23] "'From the very beginning of thy prayers the word went forth and I myself have come to show it to thee, because thou art a man of desires.'" That is, at the time when thou didst begin to ask God, thou didst straightway obtain His mercy, and His decision was put forth. I have therefore been sent to explain to thee the things of which thou art ignorant, inasmuch as thou art a man of desires, that is to say a lovable man, worthy of God's love - even as Solomon was called Idida (var: Jedida) or "man of desires." (Song of Solomon 5:16) I have been sent because thou art worthy, in recompense for thine affection for God, to be told the secret counsels of God and to have a knowledge of things to come. "'Thou therefore pay heed to the word and understand the vision.'" Thus Daniel is told, "Pay diligent heed, in order that thou mayest hear and understand what thou seest." We too should do this, for our eyes have been blinded by the shadows of ignorance and the darkness of sins.

  St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

• Song of Solomon 6:9

  "My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her." Now the mother of whom this is said is the heavenly Jerusalem.

  LETTER 22.24

• Song of Solomon 7:1

  The virgin bridegroom, having been praised by the virgin bride, in turn praises the virgin bride and says to her, "How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O daughter of Aminadab," which is, being interpreted, a people that offers itself willingly. For virginity is voluntary, and therefore the steps of the church in the beauty of chastity are praised. This is not the time for me like a commentator to explain all the mysteries of virginity from the Song of Songs. I have no doubt that the fastidious reader will turn up his nose at what has already been said.

  Against Jovinianus 1.31

• Song of Solomon 8:5

  O mortal, you have now been cleansed in baptism, and it is said of you, "Who is she that comes up, cleansed and leaning upon her beloved?" so that she, indeed, is cleansed, but she is not able to guard her purity, unless she is sustained by the Lord God. You, who but a moment ago were freed from your sins, how is it that you desire to be delivered by the mercy of God, if not in the way I stated, that, when we have done everything, we confess that we of ourselves are insufficient?

  Against the Pelagians 3.15