An army of banners from the Song of Songs

On Orthodoxy, CH05.P020

fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners

The closing image adapts Song of Solomon 6:10 in the King James Version: 'fair as the moon, clear as the sun'. Chesterton reverses the heavenly bodies, drops the conjunction before 'terrible', and makes the description modify his Christian 'outer light'. It is a recognizable biblical adaptation, not an exact quotation. The verse itself praises a woman within the Song's language of love and beauty; the immediately preceding verse also describes her singularity and the praise she receives. KJV, Song of Solomon 6:9–10.

The borrowed imagery allows beauty and formidable collective strength to coincide. That is especially apt after the 'divine company' and 'divine captain': the attraction drawing the believer outward is also something under whose banners one can enlist. This is an interpretation of Chesterton's deployment of the verse, rather than a claim that the biblical poem originally describes his contrast between introspection and Christian allegiance.

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