| Song of Solomon 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 skilful workman.
| 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.
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| Song of Solomon 7:2
| Thy navel is like a round bowl never wanting cups. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies.
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| Song of Solomon 7:3
| Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
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| Song of Solomon 7:4
| Thy neck as a tower of ivory. Thy eyes like the fish-pools in Hesebon, which are in the gate of the daughter of the multitude. Thy nose is as the tower of Libanus, that looketh towards Damascus.
| Ivory. Preachers communicate the sentiments of the Church, (Calmet) which prevails against the gates of hell. [Matthew 16:18.] (Cassiodorus)
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| Song of Solomon 7:5
| Thy head is like Carmel: and the hairs of thy head as the purple of the king bound in the channels.
| Carmel. Shaded with trees. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "purple," which colour was sometimes given to the hair. (Propertius 2:18.) --- Channels. Of the dyers. Hebrew, "to beams." (Calmet) --- Protestants, "the king is held in the galleries" to view thee. (Haydock) --- Christ was all charity, and the faithful are twice dyed, with the love of God, and of their neighbour. (Menochius)
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| Song of Solomon 7:6
| How beautiful art thou, and how comely, my dearest in delights!
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| Song of Solomon 7:7
| Thy stature is like to a palm-tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
| Grapes. The Church triumphs over her adversaries, and feeds her children. (Calmet)
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| Song of Solomon 7:8
| I said: I will go up into the palm-tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof: and thy breasts shall be as the clusters of the vine: and the odour of thy mouth like apples.
| Up. Christ shed his blood on the cross, and enabled his Church, composed of Jews and Gentiles, who were before barren, to produce a numerous progeny. (Calmet) --- Mouth. Hebrew and Septuagint, "nose."
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| Song of Solomon 7:9
| Thy throat like the best wine, worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and his teeth to ruminate.
| Lips. Septuagint, "sufficient for my lips and teeth." (Haydock) --- The wine in that country was very thick, when kept a long time. It here denotes charity, or the gospel truths, Luke 5:37., and Acts 2:13. Hebrew, "causing the lips of them who sleep to speak," (Calmet) as the apostles did, in transports of zeal. (Theodoret) --- Yet the reading of the Septuagint, Aquila, etc., seems preferable. (Calmet)
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| Song of Solomon 7:10
| I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me.
| Turning. The Church is submissive to Jesus Christ, and is entirely actuated by his Spirit. (Calmet) --- She takes the words, as it were out of his mouth, (ver. 9.) and answers, worthy, etc., acknowledging that all the praise belongs to him.
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| Song of Solomon 7:11
| Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages.
| Villages. She begs that he would come and remain with her. (Worthington) --- She accompanies him into the country, on the morning after the fifth night. There Christ affords the purest delights, (ver. 12.; Calmet) and the Church (Menochius) becomes his mother, while she instructs and feeds others. (St. Gregory, hom.) (Menochius)
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| Song of Solomon 7:12
| Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits, if the pomegranates flourish: there will I give thee my breasts.
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| Song of Solomon 7:13
| The mandrakes give a smell. In our gates are all fruits: the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee.
| Mandrakes. Hebrew dodai comes from the same root as dodi, "my breasts or loves," ver. 12. (Haydock) --- It may denote oranges, as mandrakes are not spring-fruits, Genesis 30:14. (Calmet) --- Yet (Haydock) married women eagerly sought after mandrakes. Here they may signify such as are fit to gain souls to Christ. (Menochius) --- And the old. Or great abundance, Leviticus 26:10., and Matthew 13:52. (Calmet) --- She acknowledges Christ to be the Saviour of all, under the Old and the New Testament. (Worthington) --- A doctor of the Church shews Christ in the prophets, and figures of the law, as well as manifested in the gospel. (Aponius, etc.) (Calmet)
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