Глава 3

Song 3:1 On my bed in night seeking, which my soul loved, I sought him, and found him not: I called him, and he did not hearken to me. Song 3:2 I will therefore arise and dwell in the city, and in the market places, and in the hillocks, and will seek that which my soul has loved. I sought him, and did not find him: I called him, and he did not listen to me. For the perfection of the souls of the pious, God often allows them to fall into various temptations, and sometimes He speeds up and sometimes hesitates to help those who need deliverance, benefiting them from everything. Therefore, the Bride, having lost her groom for several times, searches for Him on the bed, searches not during the day, but at night, searches and does not find. Not finding Him, he calls Him, then he rises up and goes around the city, marketplaces and haystacks. For love motivates her, ignites her and does not allow her to stay at home. Finally he meets with the guards of the city and asks them: Song 3:3 The guards who went about the city found me: have you seen the one my soul loved? Song 3:4 For as soon as I had departed from them, I found him whom my soul loved: “The watchers who found me, went around in the city.” I was found by the Holy Angels who walk around me like hail, noticing all my deeds, all my thoughts, all my movements, in order to convict or praise me for them on the terrible day of Judgment. The Angels found me, me, who perished due to wickedness and ignorance and was a student of evil spirits. “When the guards found me, going around in the city: “I asked them: “Have you seen the one my soul loves?” O you, who accompany the Most High in the choirs, do you know the nature of Him Whom I desire to comprehend and cannot, do you know? If so, then instruct me too. But since the Angels themselves, as creatures, cannot comprehend the nature of the Bridegroom, they did not answer my question, declaring their ignorance to be silent. Therefore I departed from them, seeking “whom my soul shall love.” But “I had scarcely departed from them before I found Dondezh, whom my soul loved.” As soon as I left created things, as soon as I left the Angels, looking for my Beloved among them, I already comprehended Him by faith alone. He surpasses all beings, and His essence cannot be discerned in any creature. So I "hold Him" and we did not leave him, Dondezhe brought him into the house of my mother and into the palace of the one who conceived me. I did not stop looking for my Beloved until I brought Him into my mind - into this house of the mother and guilt of all things - the Wisdom of God. For reason is, as it were, the palace and bed of Wisdom, which contains the secrets within itself. This Wisdom conceived me because before the creation of the world she conceived a good intention for me. Song 3:5 I have cursed you, daughters of Jerusalem, in the strength and in the strongholds of the villages: if you move and raise up love, if the Dondezh delights. This was already interpreted at the beginning of the word (Song. 2:7). For for the second time the Bride swore an oath on the daughters of Jerusalem so that they would have ardent love for the Bridegroom. But after these words, marveling at her, the Divine powers say: Song 3:6 Who is this that riseth out of the wilderness, like a stalk of smoke burning myrrh and frankincense, from all the spices of the myrrh-maker? How, having seen the Bridegroom ascending into Heaven after His victory over the devil and the destruction of death, they marvel at Him and ask: “Who is this King of glory” (Ps. 23:8, 10); So here, amazed by the beauty of the Bride, they say: “Who is this one who rises from the desert?” “Wilderness” is what human nature calls because of previous wickedness. Rising from the desert, from the abyss to heights, from humiliation to greatness. Next - “like a stalk of smoke.” The meaning is dark. Aquila and Symmachus explained, saying that it was like smoke from incense. The smoke from incense often forms a “stem” in the air - “like a stem of smoke burning myrrh and frankincense, from all the incense of the myrrh-maker.” They show what kind of incense he compares it with. From the Mosaic Law it is clear that Lebanon is given to God (Lev. 2), and the bodies of the dead are embalmed with myrrh (cf. John 19:39). Why do they rightly compare her to the incense of myrrh and frankincense, for she worships the Divinity and humanity of the Bridegroom, recognizes His pre-eternal nature and together with His death. Moreover, of all the aromas of the myrrh, myrrh and frankincense are praised. The Bride also has other virtues from the Divine Scripture, like those taken from a flower bed, but myrrh and frankincense, that is, the recognition of the Bridegroom’s Divinity and humanity exceeds everything in her. Thus, marveling at her beauty, they show her His wealth: Song 3:7 Behold, the bed of Solomon, there are sixty mighty men round about it from the mighty men of Israel, Song 3:8 All who have weapons are taught to fight: a man, his weapon is on his thigh for fear in his nights. First of all, we need to examine why the groom is called Solomon. Solomon means peaceful. This can also be seen in the first book of Chronicles, where God says to David, who intends to build a church: “Behold, a son will be born to you, he will be a man of peace, and I will give him rest from all his enemies around, for Solomon is his name, and peace and rest will I give him over Israel in his days: he will build an house for my name, and he will be my son, and I will be his Father: and I will set the throne of his kingdom in Israel until centuries" (1 Chronicles 22:9-10). But Solomon died not long after living and his throne had an end, therefore, here he calls Solomon the Peacemaker of our Lord Jesus Christ, about whom Paul: “For by him is our peace, making both one and destroying the middle of the fence” (Eph. 2:14) “Behold the bed of Solomon” - the bed of the Bridegroom is Divine Scripture, on which He and the bride are united. The latter, having accepted the seeds of the teaching, conceives, bears, gets sick and gives birth to spiritual benefits. “Sixty mighty men surrounded him from the mighty men of Israel, all who had weapons, taught them to fight: a man, his weapon was on his thigh because of the terror in his nights.” I think sixty is said here not to mean a certain number, but to show only the men in the Old Testament who were glorified in holiness. "Sixty mighty men surrounded it from the mighty men of Israel." Those perfect in the law, descended from Israel, surround His bed; the perfect, who are more courageous than all, more skillful in battle, surround Him, “having” naked swords in their hands, and also “on their hips.” "From horror in the night." Symmachus explained - because of the horrors of the night. These strong ones surround His bed, protecting the Bride from enemy attacks. They have two swords, one in their hand and the other on their hip. One sword is shame, the other is understanding. One is in readiness - for denunciation, the other in the hidden scabbard - for the study of the sacraments. Song 3:9 King Solomon made himself a bed from the trees of Lebanon. Song 3:10 Thou shalt make her pillars of silver, and her rays of gold: her rising of scarlet, the stone laid within her, the love of the daughters of Jerusalem. The Oder here commemorates the Holy Apostles who preached the name of the Lord before the tongues, kings and children of Israel. “King Solomon made himself a bed from the trees of Lebanon.” - “From the trees of Lebanon:” Divine Scripture often means Jerusalem and the Jewish people by Lebanon. But since the Apostles came from there, they are called “bed”, compiled “from the trees of Lebanon.” “Make his pillars of silver” - and here they are of course. For Paul writes: “James, and Cephas, and John, were like pillars, giving fellowship to me and Barnabas as right hands, that we might be of tongues, and they of circumcision” (Gal. 2:9) “And his admiration was golden.” This is the preaching of the Gospel, on which the Word of God rests. “Its sunrise is scarlet, stone is laid inside it.” The words of God are likened to precious stones - as in the New Testament: do not cast pearls before swine (cf. Matthew 7:6). So, the Divine powers, having described the bed of the King, convince the daughters of Jerusalem to come out to see the Bridegroom and the crown placed on His head: Song 3:11 Daughters of Zion, come forth and see King Solomon in the crown with whom his mother crowned him on the day of his betrothal and on the day of the joy of his heart. O daughters of Zion, come forth and see the King adorned with love. He so loved the world that, being God, he humbled himself, took on the form of a servant, and was in human likeness (cf. Phil. 2:7-8), come out and see “in the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his betrothal and on the day of the joy of his heart.” He is called Mother by humanity - Judea, who, like a riotous woman, placed this crown on Him. Out of contempt, she crowned Him with thorns, and He transformed these thorns into a crown of love. Because he voluntarily suffered the dishonor and torment of death. And therefore, the day of His torment is the day of joy of His heart, the day of His betrothal. - On this day the marriage took place. For then - at the Mystical Supper - His disciples were honored to taste His Mystical Body and drink His Mystical Blood. But after this, the Bride and Groom talk again: