15. “The queen stood by your right
hand, clothed in vestments wrought in gold.” And for what follows: “arrayed in
diverse colors,” no other interpreter translated this, only the common edition.
In the Hebrew it says: “The spouse stood at your right hand with a golden
diadem.” Where we translated “spouse,” the Hebrew reads segal. Aquila
translated this as συγκοιτον [“bed companion”]; Symmachus and the
fifth edition by παλλακην, that is, “concubine”; the
Septuagint, Theodotion, and the sixth edition by “queen.” Then, where I have recorded:
“with a diadem of gold,” Symmachus translated: “in fine gold”; Aquila, the
fifth and the sixth editions: “in tincture,” or “in gold of Ophir.” By means of
myrrh, the drop, cassia, and ivory palaces, these women, who are daughters of
kings, and who are prepared for the embraces of the bridegroom, delight him,
whose throne is forever and ever. Now, the one who has already been founded and
firmly rooted on Christ the rock, the Catholic Church, has single dove, perfect
and very intimate, stands at the right hand and has nothing in it on the
left (sinistrum). She stands in vestments wrought with gold, passing from the
words of Scripture into their meaning, and full of all virtues; or, as we have
translated, with a diadem of gold. For she is a queen, and she reigns
with the king whose daughter we can understand in a general way as the souls of
believers and, in a special way, the choirs of virgins. Ophir is a kind of
gold, so called either form its location in India or from its color. For there
are seven words for gold in Hebrew. The wife and the concubine we should
understand according to the Song of Solomon. She is the one who cannot sleep
without her bridegroom, or husband.
. . .
17. Let us ask the Jews who this daughter is to whom God is speaking. I
have no doubt that they would answer: the synagogue. But how is it said to the
synagogue and to the people of Israel: “Leave your people and your father’s
house”? Did they forsake the Hebrew nation and Abraham, their ancient father?
If they reply that it is signifying the calling of Abraham because he abandoned
the Chaldeans, who then is this king who will love the beauty of Abraham?
Certainly, there is one who says: “Hear, O daughter,” and another of whom it is
said: “The king will covet your beauty.” And this other one is not only king,
but also Lord and God, who is to be worshiped. (Jerome,
“Epistle 65 to the Virgin Principia,” A.D. 397, in St. Jerome: Exegetical
Epistles, 2 vols. [trans. Thomas P. Scheck; The Fathers of the Church 147;
Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023], 1:289-90, 291-92)