Fathers

Song of Solomon 3

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By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived 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. Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant? Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel. They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night. King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of Lebanon. He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem. Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see king Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.

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What the Fathers say

Song of Solomon 3:5

Western Saints

Bede

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, etc. If we look at the preceding verses, we will not find in them that the bride reached rest or sleep, but rather that, leaping from the bed, with the greatest effort of searching, she reached the discovery of her beloved. And how now does the same beloved adjure the daughters of Jerusalem not to awaken her, nor to cause her to wake, unless perhaps because the soul, as though tranquil in the most blessed sleep, knows how to rest in divine love? …

Commentary on the Song of Songs ↗

Bonaventure

Concerning this hierarch, then, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the whole of sacred Scripture exists, through which we are taught to be purged, illumined, and perfected, and this according to the threefold law handed down in it, namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace; or rather according to its threefold principal part, namely the Mosaic law which purges, the prophetic revelation which illumines, and the evangelical teaching which perfects; or most especially according to its threefold spiritual understanding: the …

Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 4 ↗

Robert of Tombelaine

Resting delightfully among them, free from their disturbance, the Bridegroom forbids the wicked, saying: "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and the deer of the fields, do not stir up nor awaken the beloved until she herself wills it." In this, certainly, he shows that after her conversion he will find some from the Synagogue of the same perfection as very many from the Church, since he takes equal delight in their rest and forbids any disturber from them, just as he forbade it from the Church.

Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 3 ↗