I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
All Commentaries on Song of Songs 2:1 Go To Song of Songs 2
Nilus of Sinai
AD 430
It is necessary to understand that the valleys where the bride is a lily, as she is called, are comparable to these ravines. For in distinguishing herself in the midst of that which is called “hollow” by reason of actions or thoughts that are base, she who is adorned magnificently stands resplendent among them as a lily. It is also because at the age to come she is going to pass judgment on such souls by comparison with the perfection of her own deeds even though by nature she holds no advantage over them, just as the inhabitants of Nineveh and the Queen of the South pass judgment upon a generation that is faithless. Besides the fact that she became as a lily in the valleys where nothing was possible before, these valleys may have begun to bear fruit out of envy for the beauty of her flower, receiving seeds from the sower who went out to sow, … like a land rich and good that causes the seed to multiply. …
If the valleys, because they are low, fallow and many in number, designate the Gentiles who have come to knowledge after being in the depths of impiety, then the field may designate Israel made level by the teachings of the prophets and the law in order to be ready for cultivation.… For the plow of the cross has not yet opened up the earth: that plow to which the Savior has yoked the apostles like oxen in sending them out to cultivate two-by-two. Nor has the land yet been moistened by the blood of the Savior, being sterile and infertile.
