Fathers

Song of Solomon 6

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Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. He browses among the lilies. You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats, that lie along the side of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes, which have come up from the washing, of which every one has twins; not one is bereaved among them. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil. There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed. The queens and the concubines saw her, and they praised her. Who is she who looks out as the morning, beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun, and awesome as an army with banners? I went down into the nut tree grove, to see the green plants of the valley, to see whether the vine budded, and the pomegranates were in flower. Without realizing it, my desire set me with my royal people’s chariots. Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you. Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, as at the dance of Mahanaim?

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What the Fathers say

Song of Solomon 6:8

Western Saints

Bede

There are sixty queens, etc. Both queens and concubines indeed approach the king's bed, they bear children for the king, but not both adorn the king's head with a royal diadem. Therefore, both signify souls that adhere to the preaching of truth, and through the word of faith and the fountain of saving baptism, beget spiritual offspring for the eternal king, but there is some, indeed not little, difference of their minds: for queens are those minds that serve the doctrine with the view of the heavenly kingdom. …

Commentary on the Song of Songs ↗

Bonaventure

Solomon represents Christ, except in the women in whom there is no good that can have symbolical meaning. Hence, when it is said in the Canticle: "There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and maidens without number," this does not refer literally to wives: these women are placed here in a mysterious fashion, and they represent perfect and imperfect souls.

Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 14 ↗

Robert of Tombelaine

What is designated by the queens, if not the souls of the saints, who, while they prudently govern their bodies and preside over others, acquire for themselves an eternal kingdom? For there are some in the holy Church who mortify their flesh and afflict it for the sake of God, conquer vices, subject demons to themselves as though tyrants, wisely govern all their impulses so that they run in an orderly manner, preach to others what they themselves do, and fighting with the sword of the word, snatch many from the jaws of demons. …

Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 6 ↗