Do not consider me that I am brown, because the sun hath altered my colour: the sons of my mother have fought against me, they have made me the keeper in the vineyards: my vineyard I have not kept.

“"I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem." I am a sinner, but even more, I am beautiful, because Christ loved me. "I am black and beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem." All nations, come and gather and look at me, the beloved. "Do not marvel at my countenance because I am darkened or because the sun's glance has made me swarthy." … Nor is it because Christ has despised me, since [Scripture] calls him the true sun, for it says, "And the sun of righteousness will appear to you who fear my name."”

“It adds, "I was dark and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem." I have to confess that I am astonished at how the church is here called dark and beautiful, since it is not possible for what is dark to be beautiful. How can something dark be so beautiful, or something beautiful be so dark? But pay attention to the mystery of the Word and see how elevated is the sense with which the Holy Spirit speaks. The church called herself dark on account of those from the Gentiles who would become believers, all of whom were seen to be blackened with the filthy smoke of idolatry and sepulcher of sacrifices. But they were made beautiful through faith in Christ and the holiness of the Spirit, whom they received. Hence she said, "I was dark" because she had not yet seen herself as the sun.”

“The bride further speaks to her pupils of an amazing fact about herself in order that we might learn of the bridegroom's immense love for humankind who added beauty to the beloved [bride] through such love. "Do not marvel," she says, "that righteousness has loved me." Although I have become dark through sin and have dwelt in gloom by my deeds, the bridegroom made me beautiful through his love, having exchanged his very own beauty for my disgrace. After taking the filth of my sins upon himself, he allowed me to share his own purity, and filled me with his beauty. He who first made me lovely from my own repulsiveness has showed his love for me.…The bride says, although the beauty given to me by being loved by righteousness now shines forth, I still realize that in the beginning I was not radiant but black. My former life has created this dark, shadowy appearance. Although I am black, I am now this beautiful form, for the image of darkness has been transformed into beauty.… Then the text adds further words for strengthening the minds of its pupils. The cause of darkness is not ascribed to the Creator, but its origin is attributed to the free will of each person.”

“It is written, "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God." In this is signified the appearance of holy church, who says in the Song of Solomon, "I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem": black through sin, comely through grace; black by natural condition, comely through redemption, or certainly, black with the dust of her labors. So it is black while fighting but comely when it is crowned with the ornaments of victory.”

“I am black but comely, etc. You, my friends, let me not be light in your eyes even if my husband has left me because of my blackness, for I am black because of the sun’s gaze, but I am comely with the shape of beautiful limbs, and if I am black as the tents of Kedar, which are blackened by the rain, for they are constantly spread out in the deserts, I am easily cleansed to be like the curtains of Solomon. The allegory is that the congregation of Israel says to the nations: I am black in my deeds, but I am comely in the deeds of my ancestors, and even some of my deeds are comely. If I am guilty of the iniquity of the [Golden] Calf, I can counter it with the merit of the acceptance of the Torah (Song Rabbah). He calls the nations the daughters of Jerusalem because she [Jerusalem] is destined to become the metropolis for them all, as Ezekiel prophesied (16:61): “and I shall give them to you for daughters,” like (Josh. 15:45): “Ekron, with her towns (וּבְנוֹהֶיהָ).””

“Verse 5. Do not consider me, that I am dark, because the sun has discolored me. For "has discolored," the Hebrew is שֶׁשֶׁזָפַתְנִי scheschezaphatni, a word found only here and in Job 20:9, where our version renders it "saw"; the Septuagint, "looked upon"; others, "gazed upon." Various translators, then, render it variously here. The Septuagint: "do not look upon me, that I am black, because" παρέβλεψε, "he despised" — that is, "the sun looked upon me obliquely"; Symmachus, παρενέβλεψε, that is, "looked sternly upon"; Theodotion, "the sun scorched me"; Aquila, "the sun burned me"; St. Jerome, "because the sun despised me," or, as is better contained in the Hebrew, "the sun discolored me." St. Ambrose, however, in the book On Isaac, chapter 4: "Because the sun has not looked upon me"; for παραβλέπω signifies to turn the eyes aside, which often happens when men pretend not to see what they see, and look not with a straight face but a sidelong one, which amounts to not looking at all — likewise to look with narrowed and stern eyes, says Budaeus. Vatablus: "because the sun looked upon me, striking me with its rays"; Symmachus, "touched"; Philo Carpathius, instead of παρέβλεψε, that is, "despised," reads περιέβλεψε, that is, "looked around," as if to say: Do not consider me, that formerly in paganism I was dark through unbelief, because now the sun of justice has looked around upon me, who by his faith and grace has illumined me on every side. The same, in Sermon 12 on Psalm 118, attributes this same thing to the Church of the Gentiles, as though she herself were humbly answering the Synagogue that reproaches her with her paganism, confessing her former blackness of idolatry, because the sun of the faith of Christ did not look upon her, as unworthy of his gaze, as if to say: Because I did not look toward Christ by believing, hence neither did he look upon me with his grace, but passed by and despised me, says Origen, Homily 2 of the four. Again, Origen, Homily 3, translates παρέβλεψε as "looked upon obliquely," as if to say: I was dark, because Christ, the sun of justice, looked upon me obliquely and distortedly, because I first looked upon him obliquely and perversely: for the cause and origin of all obliqueness and perversity is from us, according to that word of Leviticus 26:23, according to the Septuagint: "If you walk with me obliquely, I too will walk with you in my fury, obliquely." These things Origen. Hence the Chaldean, in his own manner attributing this to the Jews, translates thus: the assembly of Israel says before the peoples: "Do not despise me because I am blacker than you, and because I have done according to your works, and have worshiped the sun and the moon." So too Theodotion: "I have been blackened," he says, "while I worship creatures, the Creator being passed over, and I honor this visible sun instead of the sun of justice; but shortly I shall be made white through the grace of Christ, and then you will cry out: Who is this that comes up made white?" Song of Songs 8:3. Further, St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, Sermon 2, reading "the sun has not looked upon me" — namely, the sun of justice, that is, Christ — takes this verse as spoken of the Synagogue, left and for a time rejected by Christ, namely when he transferred the Gospel from the unbelieving Jews to the Gentiles. The Synagogue of the Jews says, then, says St. Ambrose: "Do not shun me, because I am dark; I am dark for this reason, that the sun of justice has left me, who before was accustomed to give light, Malachi 4:2; I have lost the color of my countenance, the keenness of my eyes has grown dull, with which I used to see before the sun. I walk in darkness, because I do not know the day of Christ, John 12:35. Yet do not despise me, since he who left can look upon me again, and have mercy again. He is accustomed to gather the scattered, to seek out the forsaken, to collect the destitute." And a little later: "The sun has not looked upon me, and therefore I am darkened. But the sun shines upon the just and the unjust, upon the just for grace, upon the unjust for mercy: to the former granting the reward of their merits, to the latter forgiving their sins. And it did not shine upon the Gentiles before; now it shines. Now it rises for them, he who used to rise for me, who forgave them, will also forgive me. Do not think, because I am darkened, that the sun has utterly left me, and no longer looks upon me, nor looks again upon me black. He has hidden himself from me, because I did not keep his commandments: he will be reconciled, when he sees the repentance of my sins. The sun did not see me, because I did not receive him as he came, I did not open the windows, that the light of life might enter. When Primus Sensus Totalis, De Christo et Ecclesia. These things can be expounded in four ways, according to the four senses assigned in the preceding verse; hence by "sun" can be understood the heat, first of mortal sins, second of venial sins, third of concupiscences, fourth of persecutions and tribulations. First, then, some expound it thus, as if to say: Do not wonder at me, nor despise me, that I am dark, not by nature, but through past crimes of idolatry, lust, gluttony, pride, etc., because the sun, that is, the heat of temptations, has fouled and blackened me, but I have washed away these stains by baptism and penance: so Nyssen, Aponius, and others. Aponius, however, understands by "sun" the devil, who is nearly always the instigator of every temptation by which we are discolored. Second, the Church and the just soul say of themselves: Do not wonder that I am dark through defects and venial faults: for these do not blacken, but dim the soul's brightness, because the sun has discolored me, that is, the heat of temptation. Third, as if to say: Do not wonder that I am dark through the various soot and murk of the passions, because these are continually breathed out by the concupiscence innate in me, which discolors me. Hence St. Jerome, on Amos chapter 3, notes that, just as idle and sluggish bodies are burned and made dark when struck by the sun, so also those who are idle and languish in idleness are inflamed and blackened by the heat of temptations; but those bodies that move, walk, and labor in the sun feel the sun's rays but little: so too laborious men, who prepare themselves for struggles and contests, overcome the injuries of the world, and obtain the blessing of the Holy Spirit, who says to the just man: "By day the sun shall not burn you, nor the moon by night," Psalm 120:6. Fourth, and truest, as if to say: Do not wonder that I have been made dark through tribulations and hardships, because the heat of persecution has discolored me by these; but this same heat has breathed into me patience and constancy, which illumines me far more. So Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus Orgelitanus, and others. In a similar sense, concerning the Nazirites made lurid and black by hunger in the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah says: "Their face is blacker than coals, and they are not known in the streets," Lamentations 4:8. That this is the sense is clear from what follows: "The sons of my mother fought against me." Somewhat differently, St. Anselm: "Christ, the sun of justice, has discolored me," he says, "because for his faith and love I endure these persecutions, by which I am darkened." And St. Gregory and St. Bernard, Sermon 28, who explain it thus, as if to say: I am bright and pure in myself, but I appear dark if I be compared with the splendor of Christ's holiness: for he is so great that he darkens me and, as it were, discolors me, just as the stars, when the sun rises, are darkened by its splendor. I open, he will illumine my eyes, he who came that he might illumine the whole world, and that even those who do not see might see. Secundus Sensus Partialis, De Christo et anima justa. All these things which I have said concerning the Church, attribute to the soul, only the name being changed; to which add: Symbolically, the sun that kindles, and so as it were consumes and blackens the soul, is the heat of charity, likewise the burning desire of enjoying God, and the zeal of justice by which the soul, as it were, wastes away, when it sees offenses against God and the perdition of souls, according to that word of Psalm 68:10: "The zeal of your house has consumed me"; and that of Psalm 118:139: "My zeal has made me waste away, because my enemies have forgotten your words." So St. Bernard, Sermon 28, who also adds that charity, as it were, discolors the soul, while it burns and torments her, that she may weep with those who weep, be weak with the weak, and say with Paul: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn?" 2 Corinthians 11:29. In like manner the desire of enjoying God induces a languor in the soul, and thence, as it were, a pallor, a darkness, and a fainting. Hear St. Bernard: "Or, to be discolored by the sun is to be set aflame with fraternal charity, to weep with those who weep, to be weak with those who are weak, to burn at the scandals of each one. Or thus: Christ, the sun of justice, has discolored me, by love of whom I languish. This languor is a certain effacing of color, and a failing in the desire of the soul, whence it also says: I was mindful of God, and was delighted, and was exercised, and my spirit failed, Psalm 76:4. Therefore, like a burning sun, the ardor of desire discolors the soul journeying in the body, while, gaping after the face of glory, it makes her impatient at delay, and the postponement torments the one who loves. Which of us burns with so holy a love, that from desire of seeing Christ he disdains and lays aside all the color of present glory and joy, protesting to him with that prophetic voice: And I have not desired the day of man, you know? etc., Jeremiah 17:16; likewise with St. David: My soul has refused to be comforted, Psalm 76:3, that is, disdains to be colored by the empty joy of present goods." Tertius Sensus Principalis, De Christo et B. Virgine. First, the Blessed Virgin, as to color, was dark and somewhat black, such as are the Egyptians and Palestinians, because they are scorched by the sun. This is clear from her image painted by St. Luke, which is devoutly venerated at Rome in the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Hence Nicephorus, History, Book II, chapter 23, from St. Epiphanius, describes her form thus: "She was of a wheat color, with fair hair, keen eyes, having pupils somewhat tawny and of an olive color; her eyebrows were arched and becomingly black, her nose rather long, her lips full and full of sweetness of speech; her face not round and sharp, but somewhat longer, her hands and likewise her fingers rather long." Second, the Blessed Virgin was most bright in purity and holiness; which, however, if compared with the transcendent holiness of God and of Christ, seems to be dimmed, just as the brightness of the moon is dulled and darkened by the splendor of the sun. Third, she was dark, because being pregnant she carried the child in her womb, and bore him as other mothers do, who while they conceive and give birth, grow pale and dark: but the Blessed Virgin was not darkened by this conceiving and bearing, but rather gilded and, as it were, deified, because she conceived and bore the Son of God, who is the light of the world. So Rupert: "Do not consider me," he says, "daughters of Jerusalem, that I am dark, that is, corrupted; because that I have a swelling womb, that I am found having one in the womb, no man has done, since I do not know a man, but thus the sun has discolored me. The true sun, and one far more beautiful than the sun, God, has filled me with himself, has made my womb swell from himself. Is this to be discolored? Not in your eyes, O daughters of Jerusalem, who have a simple eye, but in the thoughts of the proud, whose eye is wicked. Joseph's eye was not wicked, but having a certain excusable cloud of ignorance, was quickly cleared, the angel of the Lord telling him that with sound skin I had been discolored, discolored not by a flame of fire from below, but by the sun from above, that with virginity intact I was pregnant; made pregnant not by an earthly man, but by the heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit." Motherhood, therefore, did not discolor virginity in the Blessed Virgin, but adorned it in the highest degree. Finally, standing by the cross in the passion of Christ, she was darkened not so much by the heat of the sun as by that of sorrow; but this darkness the glorious resurrection and appearing of Christ soon wiped away. So Hailgrinus and William, as if to say: Do not despise me on account of my son's passion and my compassion, or on account of the various insults, mockeries, and afflictions of my whole life: for these things happened through no fault or desert of mine or of my son, but because the sun of Jewish envy and the heat of afflictions has discolored me, since my son willed that I be conformed and made like to his passion. The sons of my mother fought against me; they set me as keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept. THEY FOUGHT AGAINST ME. — In Hebrew, נִחֲרוּ בִי nicharu vi, that is, "they were angry," or "they grew hot against me"; others, "they contended," or "they quarreled against me"; Origen, "they fought in me"; the Septuagint, "they fought in him," that is, "in me," in the ablative, that is, "for me"; or "in me," that is, "against me," as others commonly translate. For often ἐν ἐμοί, that is, "in me," is taken by the Greeks for ἐπ' ἐμοί, that is, "against me," in the accusative; it can, however, properly be taken as "in me" in the ablative, as I shall soon show; Symmachus, "they warred against me." THEY SET ME AS KEEPER IN THE VINEYARDS; MY OWN VINEYARD I HAVE NOT KEPT. — Instead of "my own," the Hebrew has "which is mine," namely, one's own or by inheritance, or by dowry, or acquired by my own labors, or singularly dear and beloved to me; Vatablus: "for the sons of my mother, growing hot against me, set me as keeper of the vineyards; but I did not keep my own vineyard." Grammatically, the bride gives the reason why the sun has discolored her, namely, that her brothers, persecuting her, forced her to act as keeper in the vineyards of others, so that she was not able to keep her own vineyard: in which, while she wanders about examining and guarding each one, struck by the rays of the sun, she was discolored and darkened. So Aben-Ezra. THE SONS OF MY MOTHER — are my brothers, begotten of the same mother and the same womb, who therefore ought to have defended and most greatly loved me as their sister of the same womb; these, however, contrary to every right and law of nature, contrary to all brotherly and motherly love, fought against me. For brothers and sisters of the same mother are wont to love one another more than those of the same father but begotten of a different mother: for a mother unites and joins her children to one another more, both as conceived in her womb and, once born, as associated in her house through continuous upbringing and care. Again, "sons of the mother" here are called those begotten of a different father, and therefore having dissimilar loves, affections, and characters, on account of which they fought against their sister of the same womb, begotten of a different father. ii. For often ἐν ἐμοί, that is, "in me," is taken by the Greeks for ἐπ' ἐμοί, that is, "against me," in the accusative; it can, however, properly be taken as "in me" in the ablative, as I shall soon show; Symmachus, "they warred against me." Now as to the parabolic and proper sense, by "sons of the mother," first, some understand the sons of Eve, namely any idolatrous nations, who warred against the Church: Lyranus understands Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who persecuted the sons of Israel, Exodus 1. For both, after the descent of Jacob into Egypt, had been born in Egypt; both, therefore, were sons of the same mother, that is, of the land of Egypt. Second, others understand the Jews who, apostatizing from the true God and Moses, fell away to idols and the rites of the nations in the time of the Judges, the Kings, and the Maccabees, so that this complaint would not be that of the Church, but of the Synagogue, namely of the Jews duly worshiping God in Judaism, as if to say: My brothers, Jews begotten with me of the same stock of Israel and of the Synagogue as of a mother, falling away to idols, warred against me, the Synagogue of the faithful Jews worshiping the one God, and perverted many of them, and enticed them to their idolatry, and accordingly set them as keepers in the vineyards, that is, as presidents and prefects in the adulterous assemblies of idolaters, and in the perverse religions of the nations, that they might propagate them, and draw over all the Jews to them; by which it came about that I could not keep my vineyard, that is, the true religion, worship, and faith of God, and the true Synagogue of God, but many flowed away from it to the vineyards, that is, the synagogues of the profane nations, according to that: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Judah his delightful plant, and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity; and justice, and behold a cry," Isaiah 5:7. So the Chaldean, who translates: because false prophets were the cause that the wrath of the Lord's fury rolled down upon me, and they taught me to serve your idols, and to walk in your institutions; but the Lord of the age, who is God, I did not serve, nor did I walk in his laws, nor did I keep his precepts and his law. But the bride in this book of the Song is the Church of Christians, not the Synagogue of the Jews; wherefore these words are the Church's, not the Synagogue's. Third, and truly, by "sons of the mother" here are understood the Jews persecuting the Church of Christ: for these were begotten with her of the same mother, namely the Synagogue (for from her was born Christ, the apostles, and the rest of the first Christians, who were all by race and nation Jews, according to that: "Out of Sion shall go forth the law (of the Gospel), and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," Isaiah 2:3), but of a different father, namely the devil, since the Church is born of God and of Christ, according to that: "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father (that you may kill me) you wish to do," John 8:44. The sense, then, is, as if to say: The Jews, obstinate in Judaism, warred most fiercely against me, the Church of Christ, that is, the apostles and the first Christians, and therefore compelled them to abandon Judea, and flee to the Gentiles, and there to raise up and keep vineyards, that is, the outlying Churches of the Gentiles: by which it came about that I could not keep my vineyard, that is, the Church situated in Judea, which was native and proper to me, and singularly commended by Christ: wherefore, driven out from it, I was compelled to wander through the vineyards of the Gentiles, where, having endured various heats of the sun, that is, of persecution, I was discolored, afflicted, and darkened by hardships. Here note in passing the fruit of the Jews' persecution, for this was the cause of the conversion of all the nations: for while the Jews, says Lyranus, wished to disturb the Church, unwillingly they brought it about that the Gospel was more widely scattered, and that instead of the one Church in Judea, Churches were established among all the nations. This is what Paul reproaches the Jews with: "It behooved us to speak the word of God to you first: but because you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles: for so the Lord has commanded us," Acts 13:46. So Origen, Cassiodorus, Bede, Justus Orgelitanus, Haymo, Anselm, and Bernard, Sermon 29. Hence the Author of the Unfinished Work on St. Matthew, in St. Chrysostom, Homily 3: "It is the nature of vipers," he says, "to burst the bowels of their mothers, and so to be born. Since, then, the Jews, continually persecuting the prophets, destroyed their mother the Synagogue, as she herself, mourning, says in the Song: The sons of my mother fought against me; therefore John called them a brood of vipers," Luke 3:7. Wherefore, alluding to this, Christ brings forward the parable of the vineyard, into which, God sending the prophets as workers, who were all killed by the tenants, that is, by the Jews, at last he sent the Son, who, crucified by the same, destroyed Judea and the Jews, Matthew 21:33. To this agrees St. Gregory, who by "sons of the mother" understands the first Judaizing Christians, who by their importunity compelled the primitive Church to judaize, and to observe circumcision and the other things prescribed by the old law. To this agree also those who think there is here a hysterologia, or inverted order; for in the right order these things should be arranged thus: "They set me (the apostles) as keeper in the vineyards," that is, in the churches of the Gentiles; because "my vineyard (that is, the church of Judea) I did not keep," that is, I could not keep; since "the sons of my mother (the Jews) fought against me." Fourth, by "sons of the mother" can be understood heretics, who war against, afflict, and discolor the Church their mother, in whom they were baptized and reborn, while they bring in their adulterous vineyards, that is, synagogues of Satan, in which they teach their heresies, and set over them keepers, that is, priests, teachers, and preachers, whereby it comes about that the orthodox Church cannot keep herself, but is torn and mangled by them. Of these John says, 1 Epistle 2:19: "They went out from us, but they were not of us"; and Paul, Acts 20:30: "From among yourselves men shall arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." Fifth, by "sons of the mother" can be understood the wicked pastors of the Church, bishops and prelates, especially those who covet bishoprics and prelacies, that they may be made keepers of the vineyards, that is, presidents of the Churches, not out of zeal for Christ and souls, but that they may heap up riches, and proudly preside over and lord it over the rest in the clergy; wherefore these do not keep their vineyard, that is, the Church committed to them, but scatter and overturn it. So Origen, Homily 1, and Aponius. See St. Bernard, Homily 30, where he beautifully explains how holy souls flee the keeping of vineyards, that is, the headship of Churches, because they say: "My vineyard I have not kept," that is, I am not able to preserve and rule my own soul; how then should I rule the souls of others in so great a number? Wherefore, if they are placed unwillingly over others, they continually mourn and lament. Symbolically, Theodoret, St. Gregory, Philo Carpathius, and St. Bernard, Sermon 29, and St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, Sermon 2, on verse 1, understand by "sons of the mother" the apostles, who fought against the Church, but for the Church's benefit, namely that they might purge her of errors and vices, just as the prophets fought against the Synagogue. The same Origen, Homily 2, understands this of the holy angels, who in us and for us fight against demons, that they may destroy sins and implant virtues. But these are accommodated senses, not literal ones, indeed but little consonant with the letter. St. Anselm and Cedrenus in the Compendium have the same. To this also belongs Theocritus, Idyll 10, who testifies that Syrian women are dark with these verses: Graceful Bombyce, all call you / Slender, burnt by the sun, / But I alone call you fresh honey. Secundus Sensus Partialis, De Christo et anima sancta. First, "sons of the mother" war against their brother or sister, when impious believers persecute a faithful and religious man, for example, a superior, a preacher, a teacher, etc., who reproves, chastises, and reforms their impiety and crimes. How often in monasteries, chapters, societies, cities, etc., do we see and hear dissolute or ambitious religious, canons, priests, citizens warring against their own order, church, congregation, city? so that she herself, sighing and groaning, says: "The sons of my mother fought against me." See St. Bernard, Sermon 29. Second, "sons of the mother," that is, of the same soul, are the senses and the concupiscences, which, springing up from the same soul, war against their sister, that is, the reason and mind of the soul, while they rebel against her, and strive to drag her, as it were, to adulterous vineyards, toward the things they desire, namely sensible goods, against the law of God, and indeed often do drag her; whereby it comes about that the soul does not keep her vineyard, that is, the state of grace, charity, and the virtues, from which the flowers and fruits of all good things will spring, but scatters and squanders it, according to that: "My eye has plundered my soul," Lamentations 3:51. So St. Ambrose, in the book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter 4: "The sons of the mother fought against me. This is," he says, "the passions of the body warred against me, the allurements of the flesh discolored me, therefore the sun of justice did not shine upon me." To this belongs the Septuagint version, "the sons of my mother fought in me." For in the same soul are the concupiscences, which struggle against the reason and mind, according to that: "The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh," Galatians 5:17: wherefore religious, who know how difficult it is for a man to keep the vineyard of his own will, which is continually assailed by her sisters, namely by so many concupiscences, subject it to their superior, and commit it to his keeping. Hence some, in St. Bernard, Sermon 29, among whom is Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 2, and Psellus, in Theodoret, understand by "sons of the mother" the demons, who were at first created in heaven just and upright, as it were sons of the heavenly Jerusalem our mother; but, seduced by Lucifer, rebelling against God, and therefore expelled from heaven, they persecute the faithful of God with a Vatinian hatred, and therefore stir up in them all the wicked motions of concupiscence, which discolor them, and often burn and destroy them: for "concupiscence, when it has conceived, brings forth sin; but sin, when it is completed, begets death," James 1:15. The soul, therefore, is as it were a spiritual vineyard, of which the eternal Father is the vinedresser and husbandman, John 15:1. Which, therefore, rightly cultivated, bears most sweet clusters, from which is pressed the wine of exultation and confession; otherwise "their grape is a grape of gall, and their clusters most bitter. Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps," Deuteronomy 32:32. Again, the vineyard is each one's state of life, for example the priesthood, marriage, the pastorate, etc., but especially virginity; for this gives the sweetest grapes and the wine of devotion, prayer, contemplation, union with God and Christ. Hence St. Ambrose, Exhortation to Virgins, before the middle: "Let no one," he says, "take away the vineyard of your soul, and sow vile vegetables. For the vineyard is a certain fruit of virginity; marriages are, as it were, vegetable-plots, in which there is frequent jealousy; and therefore, just as the vegetables of the herbs quickly fall and wither, unless old age puts an end to them, or they are carried to the perfection of continence. Let not Ahab, then, come upon you, who covets to destroy and extinguish your vineyard; nor let Jezebel come upon you, that vain and worldly overflow, for by this word is signified a vain and empty superfluity; but let Naboth come, who comes from a father, as the interpretation of his very name signifies, who may defend the vineyard with his own blood, and offer death for it." This alludes, says Nyssen, Homily 2, to the earthly paradise, which was given to Adam by God as it were a vineyard, that he might keep it, Genesis 2:15; but Adam, tempted by the demon and Eve, as it were by his brother and sister, kept neither himself nor paradise. Whence, sinning, expelled from it, he lost his whole posterity, and discolored it with original sin. For man does the same thing, who does not keep his soul as it were his vineyard, but discolors it with sin and hands it over to the devil, and so cultivates a vineyard, not of paradise, but of hell; not of virtues, but of vices; not of the divine law, but of concupiscence. Whence Nyssen judges that the soul here mourns her fall and ruin, by which she was expelled from the vineyard of paradise, when, in Adam, overcome by the serpent, she did not keep the vineyard of immortality, impassibility, likeness to God, and aversion from sin. Finally, St. Gregory, Homily 17 on the Gospels: "Our vineyards," he says, "are the actions which we cultivate by the practice of daily labor; but, set as keepers in the vineyards, we do not keep our vineyard, because while we are entangled in outside affairs, we neglect the ministry of our own action." Tertius Sensus Principalis, De Christo et B. Virgine. First, the Jews vexed and persecuted their sister, that is, the Blessed Virgin, a Jewess by race, with various injuries, equally as they did Christ her son. Whence not even at the death of the son did their hatreds die. They fought, says Rupert, battles of words, battles of blaspheming tongues; the apostles preached to them that my son was God, and I the mother of God, that he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and that I remained an untouched virgin in childbirth and after childbirth. The care of my people was peculiarly mine; but their wickedness compelled me to transfer this care to others. But God, instead of one vineyard, has bestowed on me very many to cultivate and keep: All, he says, have my keeping, and desire to have it, presuming upon my merits, trusting in my intercessions, and continually crying out to me for such keeping. So Rupert, concerning the special Churches of the whole world. Might we not best apply this to so many virginal sodalities everywhere, which are certain private and peculiar vineyards of the Mother of God? says Delrio. Differently, William: the Jews, he says, fighting against the Blessed Virgin and her son the Savior of the world, fought against their own salvation. They set the Blessed Virgin as keeper in the vineyards, because, while they raged against her even unto death, she set her own soul in redemption (through Christ) for many, and that she might keep many vineyards, she did not keep her own vineyard, that is, that she might save many souls, she exposed her own life and that of her son to death.”

“Again. So as to gain their cause, (Amama) or to make opposition; as the Hebrew yakumu, “stand up,” with defiance, intimates. (Haydock) — They are already judged, (John iii. 18.) and can make no defence; they being separated from the just, like goats. Kimchi (though he is defended by Amama. Haydock) and some other Jews, falsely asserts that the souls of the wicked will be annihilated, and that only the just Israelites will rise again. (Buxtorf, Syn. 1.) — But this is very different from the belief of the ancient Jews, who clearly assert the truth respecting future rewards and punishments, 2 Machabees vii. 9, 14, 23, and 36., and Wisdom v. 1., or Josephus, or 4 Machabees x. See Job, &c. — The Fathers have adduced many such proofs from the other parts of Scripture, which they had read with as much attention as modern critics. (Calmet) — Council, (Menochius) or rather “counsel,” as the same word, Boule , is used by the Septuagint as [in] ver. 1., (Calmet) though the Hebrew hadath, here be different, and mean a council, or assembly. (Menochius) — Septuagint and Vulgate may be understood in the same sense. (Haydock) — Sinners shall be destitute of all hope at the resurrection, and shall be driven from the society of the blessed. (Worthington) — They will not even be able to complain, since they had been so often admonished of their impending fate, (Berthier) and would not judge themselves in time. (St. Augustine; 1 Corinthians xi., and Acts xxiv. 15.) Protestants, “They shall not stand,” &c. (Haydock)”

“The sun hath discolored me. It belongs to the sun to burn and to illuminate; so the true sun outwardly burns his own with persecutions, and by giving strength to resist he illuminates them. The sons of my mother. And as though she answers the objection of the weak who doubt: She shows from what quarter she bore the first fury of the persecutors, which appears the heavier from this, that it came from those of her own tribe. The sons, that is, the apostles destroyed our sect. Paul, the persecutor of the Church, was a son of her mother according to the flesh and to upbringing: and doing penance, converted to his sister's standards, he preached the faith which before he was destroying. They have set me. There was one vineyard of Christ in Jerusalem, namely the primitive Church, which was established on the day of Pentecost by the coming of the Holy Spirit, of which at that time the apostles were the keepers: but when persecution arose they were scattered into the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles, and so it came about that there were several vineyards, that is, in several places. And while the Jewish persecutors wished to trouble the Church, they were scattering the seed-plot of the word more widely, unwilling as they were, and by persecuting one they caused many to be established. When therefore she had said that she was afflicted by the parricidal hatred of the Synagogue, she at once subjoins how much she profited through this affliction, adding in the person of those to whom the care of preaching was committed: They have set me a keeper in the vineyards. Our vineyards are the actions which we cultivate by the practice of daily labor. But set as keepers in the vineyards, we do not keep our own vineyard: because while we are entangled in outside actions, we neglect the ministry of our own action. While I was keeping many vineyards, that I might gain others, in certain of them I sustained losses. The bitterness of the persecution of the sons of the Synagogue made me not keep my own vineyard, because, the evangelical doctrine being abandoned, they were compelling toward the distinctions of the legal observances.”