Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I awakened you under the apple tree: there your mother brought you forth: there she brought you forth that bore you.
All Commentaries on Song of Songs 8:5 Go To Song of Songs 8
Aquinas Study Bible
AD 2017
leaning upon her beloved: meaning, the Church has obtained this tranquility by relying completely on Christ.
your mother was in travail with you, there she who bore you was in travail: This agrees particularly well with the truth of the Gospel. For it says in John 19:25: "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother," pierced with a sword of sorrow because of her son, in accordance with what holy Simeon had prophesied in Luke 2:53: "And thy own soul a sword shall pierce." (Nicholas lf Lyra) Also in relation to Revelation 12:2,
Until the divine angel told Joseph about her (Mary), that the conception was from the Holy Spirit, the Virgin was naturally despondent, blushing before her betrothed, and thinking that he might somehow suspect that she was in labor from a furtive marriage. Her despondency and grief he called, according to the principles of metaphor, crying and anguish; and this is not surprising. (Oecumenius)
