9. But now God, having compassion on them, thus dried up and withered by drought, saith to the prophet, _Lament to Me for virgin girded with sackcloth and for the husband of her youth_, that is to say, over the dead husband of this soul or of the Synagogue. And with her He expostulates in another place, forasmuch as she had forgotten her resolution, forgotten His grace, had wandered from discipline, and had lost her former affections as a wife. Lastly therefore He reproves her with His words, calling to mind and repeating her tenderness and her expressions of affection: ‘Didst Thou not call me one of Thy household, the parent and guide of Thy virginity.’ Sidenote: 1 Cor. xi. 14. Sidenote: Eph. iv. 13. 10. Wherefore for this soul, to whom through her infidelity the Word of God is dead, and this Virgin Word is dead also, He appoints grief and brings in an Intercessor, that so she may be called to penitence, and may thereby earn compassion. But she who is of prudent understanding and very beautiful to look upon, was gained for him, like Abigail, in battle; her adversaries were conquered, and her husband, he who, surrounded by spiritual wickedness, struggled and fought not to lose his beautiful wife, being dead. On her, her victorious and loving Spouse confers sweetness and grace, cleansing her from all that might obscure her beauty, and taking off from her the garments of her captivity, that so, laying aside all the hairs of her head, that is, the curls of sins, which seem to be superfluous parts of our person (for _if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him_), she may strive to come _in the unity of the faith, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ_, that she may lay aside all trouble of mind, and founded in love may grow up in the Lord Jesus, and make increase of the whole body. Sidenote: Deut. xxi. 12. Sidenote: Ib. 12. Sidenote: Eccles. ii. 14. Sidenote: Deut. xxi. 13. Sidenote: Jer. xvii. 12. Vulg. 11. This is that soul whom the Law shews to thee under the figure of a beautiful woman, and _if thou seest her among the captives, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife_, it says to thee, _thou shalt bring her home to thine house_, that thou mayest commit to her the whole interior of thy house, the possession of all thy secrets, that thou mayest take away her superfluities, and cut off her transgressions; and with a razor not too sharp, lest it come to evil, may cut off the slough of thy passions, and thy idle senses. Wherefore it is said, _she shall shave her head_, that so the _wise man’s eyes_ that _are in his head_ may meet with no hindrance. And _she shall remain_, it is said, _in thine house a full month_, bewailing the sins of her nativity, and the lies of her wicked father the devil, who would fain _gather what he hath not laid_, that so, cleansed by the purification of this mystic number, she may obtain the keys of marriage.