Bellarmine on Psalm XLIV: Verse 10

 Verse 10

Myrrh and stacte and cassia perfume thy garments, from the ivory houses: out of which The daughters of kings have delighted thee in thy glory.

Myrrha, et gutta, et casia a vestimentis tuis, a domibus eburneis; ex quibus delectaverunt te filiae regum in honore tuo.

This verse is extremely obscure: let us therefore explain first the vocabulary and then the sentences. Myrrh resin is well-known as bitter and aromatic; gutta / drop, is a general word but in Greek it has στἁχτη / stacte, which in Basil’s commentary on this text is (a gum) distilled from myrrh, and is like honey extracted from myrrh, that is, the subtlest distillation of myrrh. But it does not seem likely that the Prophet wanted to say “Myrrh and gutta,” the subtlest essence of myrrh; the Hebrew has ahaloth, which we call aloe in Latin. Now aloe resin is also bitter and aromatic, but it is a species distinct from myrrh; and we read in the Gospel that Nicodemus took to Christ’s tomb “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.”[1] We ought therefore to understand what our Interpreter has said, “gutta,” as meaning aloes, as St. Jerome writes in his Epistle ad Principiam; or distillation of myrrh, as St. Basil teaches in his Commentary. Finally, casia / cassia is a bush from which the fragrant bark is taken and it is numbered amongst the spices in

the same way as cinnamon. By domibus eburneis / ivory houses are understood palaces or sumptuous temples, with roof panels of ivory; for in the Hebrew, the word is not baith which properly means house, but hechal, which means palace, basilica and temple. The Greek words used, βαρέων έλεφαντἱνων, mean a great palace, as St. Basil says. And so it is unlikely, as some would have it, that these are store-rooms for spices, and even less likely, as others would maintain, that they are chests or coffers in which clothes or spices are stored. But, they say, chests are made of ivory, not palaces. This is true, but they do not in this text call them ivory houses because they are  made entirely of ivory, but because the roofs are so made. In the same way, Nero’s house was called domus aurea, the house of gold, and the gates of Constantinople were called the golden gates, because they were gilded, or covered with a laminate of gold, not because they were made of solid gold. In this way do we understand III Kings xxii: “the house of gold, that Achab built.”[2] See also Amos iii: “ And the houses of

ivory shall perish.”[3] St. Gregory in book xxxv of Moralium, in chapter xiii, writes a gradibus eburneis / from the ivory steps; but this came from ambiguous vocabulary he drew from St. Jerome’s epistle ad Principiam. For he wrote that the Greek word βαρέων is ambiguous and can mean steps, palaces or houses, whence, deceived by this ambiguity, others among the Latins translated this, from the ivory steps; but as this signifies nothing it is credible that it was changed to write from the ivory steps. By the daughters of kings may be understood numerous different kingdoms. For the Scriptures at various places speak of the daughters of Jerusalem, of Babylon, of the Assyrians and of Tyre, representing the multitude of the people of those cities, or peoples. The words may also be understood, as the words are pronounced, the daughters of princes, by which the souls of the elect are figuratively signified, as St. Basil says; for this entire speech is figurative. Having explained these things, we may now come to the meaning: by aromatic spices, we understand the virtues, or rather the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which give off a spiritual fragrance; and because shortly before, the Prophet 

said to Christ: “ God, thy God, hath anointed thee,” [verse 9] he rightly now adds: “Myrrh and stacte and cassia,” referring to the aromatic fragrances, which are given off from that anointing: of this fragrance, the Blessed Paul speaks when he says in II Cor, ii.: “ For we are the good odour of Christ.”[4] And since in His passion Christ chiefly exuded the greatest fragrance of the virtues, chiefly of resolute patience, humble obedience and ardent charity, thus the Prophet calls myrrh bitter but fragrant, which befits patience aloe is also 

bitter yet fragrant, which befits humility and obedience, of which Blessed Paul says: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death;”[5] finally, cassia is hot and fragrant, which befits charity ablaze with ardour, with which He prayed for those who were crucifying Him.[6] These aromatic spices spread from the garments and the ivory houses of Christ. “Myrrh,” he says,  “and cassia perfume thy garments, from the ivory houses,” they pour forth and they flow, or they flowed. By garments is understood Christ’s humanity which covered His divinity like a robe or veil; by ivory houses is understood His humanity, which was like a temple or palace, dazzling because of its purity, in which the divinity was dwelling. It is not to be wondered at that the same thing should be called garments and a house: for the Apostle, in II Corinth. v., joins these two when he says: “For we know, if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven. For in this also we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation that is from heaven. Yet so that we be found clothed, not naked. For we also, who are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burthened; because we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, that that which is mortal may be swallowed up by glory (life.)"[7] Here you see the mortal body being called a house 

and tabernacle and at the same time a garment, of which we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon; and in a like manner the heavenly home is called a garment and a habitation. And so Christ’s humanity, from which spread outwards the sweetest fragrances of His virtues, may be called a garment, and a house of ivory, unless it were wished to refer the garment to His soul and the ivory house to His body, which Christ Himself called a temple when He said in John ii: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”[8] It is not unusual for the prophet to speak in a number of multitude (ie in the plural),  “from the ivory houses,” for a great house is one and many on account of the great number of rooms and chambers; for this reason we speak in the plural of a house as ædes nostrae.[9] It continues: “Out of which The daughters of kings have delighted thee in thy glory,” that is, from these fragrances, which spread outwards like breath from the garments and ivory houses of Thy humanity, “the daughters of kings,” whether royal and exalted souls or the multitudes of peoples from various kingdoms, “ have delighted thee,” while they run after the odour of Thy fragrant ointments. For Christ is really delighted when He sees multitudes of Saints roused and drawn to run after His fragrance; and truly, he who begins to experience with a spiritual sense that most sweet fragrance which is exhaled from the patience, humanity and charity of Christ, cannot but run after Him and would rather suffer torments than suffer himself to be separated from Him; for he says along with the Apostle in Rom viii: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ?”[10] But in this way the daughters of kings are most pleasing to Christ, running after the fragrance of His ointments, because they do this in His honour, that is, from a pure intention of glorifying God. The martyrs in their suffering, running after Christ, greatly glorified God; of which John says in his chapter xxi concerning the suffering of St. Peter foretold to him by Christ: “Signifying,” he said, “by what death he should glorify God.”[11]

[1] And Nicodemus also came, (he who at the first came to Jesus by night,) bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Venit autem et Nicodemus, qui venerat ad Jesum nocte primum, ferens mixturam myrrhae et aloes, quasi libras centum. [Ioan. Xix. 39]

[2] III Reg. xxii. 19.

[3] Amos iii. 15.

[4] For we are the good odour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. quia Christi bonus odor sumus Deo in iis qui salvi fiunt, et in his qui pereunt : [II Cor, ii. 15]

[5] He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. Humiliavit semetipsum factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. [Philipp. ii. 8]

[6] And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But they, dividing his garments, cast lots. Jesus autem dicebat : Pater, dimitte illis : non enim sciunt quid faciunt. Dividentes vero vestimenta ejus, miserunt sortes. [Luc. Xxiii. 34]

[7] Scimus enim quoniam si terrestris domus nostra hujus habitationis dissolvatur, quod aedificationem ex Deo habemus, domum non manufactam, aeternam in caelis. Nam et in hoc ingemiscimus, habitationem nostram, quae de caelo est, superindui cupientes : si tamen vestiti, non nudi inveniamur. Nam et qui sumus in hoc tabernaculo, ingemiscimus gravati : eo quod nolumus expoliari, sed supervestiri, ut absorbeatur quod mortale est, a vita. [II Cor. v. 1-4]

[8] Jesus answered, and said to them: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Respondit Jesus, et dixit eis : Solvite templum hoc, et in tribus diebus excitabo illud. [Ioan. ii. 19]

[9] Sing., a dwelling of the gods, a sanctuary, a temple. A dwelling for men, a house, habitation, abode; syn. domus; usu. only in the plur., as a collection of several apartments;

[10] Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? Quis ergo nos separabit a caritate Christi? tribulatio? an angustia? an fames? an nuditas? an periculum? an persecutio? an gladius? [Rom. Viii. 35]

[11] Amen, amen I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not. Amen, amen dico tibi : cum esses junior, cingebas te, et ambulabas ubi volebas : cum autem senueris, extendes manus tuas, et alius te cinget, et ducet quo tu non vis. [19] And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he saith to him: Follow me. Hoc autem dixit significans qua morte clarificaturus esset Deum. Et cum hoc dixisset, dicit ei : Sequere me. [Ioan. Xxi. 18-19]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.