Fathers

Song of Solomon 2

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I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love. His left hand is under my head. His right hand embraces me. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires. The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice. My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.” My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies. Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.

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What the Fathers say

Song of Solomon 2:14

Western Saints

Bede

Because your voice is sweet, etc. Indeed, the voice of that soul is sweet to the Lord, which knows how either to announce the words of the Lord to neighbors or to resound praises to the Lord Himself sweetly with the prophet, How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth (Psalm 119)! …

Commentary on the Song of Songs ↗

Bernard of Clairvaux

"My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollows of the wall" (Song 2:14). Not only in the clefts of the rock does the dove find a safe refuge; she finds it also in the hollows of the wall. But if by the wall we understand not a heap of stones, but the communion of saints, let us see whether perhaps he has called the hollows of the wall the places, as it were left empty, of the angels who fell through pride: inasmuch as these are to be filled up from among men, as ruins to be repaired from living stones. …

Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 62 ↗

Robert of Tombelaine

By the holes of the rock, moreover, I would gladly understand the wounds of the hands and feet of Christ hanging on the cross. And the cavity of the wall I would interpret in the same sense as the wound in his side made by the lance. And rightly is the dove said to be in the holes of the rock and in the cavity of the wall, because while it imitates the patience of Christ in the remembrance of the cross, while it recalls those very wounds to memory for the sake of example, just as a dove in the holes of a rock, so the simple soul …

Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 2 ↗