Paraphrasis in Dionysium Areopagitam

and between the breastplate. And he said to his charioteer, "Turn your hands and lead me out of the war, for I am wounded." And the battle was turned that day; and the king was standing on the chariot opposite Syria from morning until evening, and he poured out the blood from the wound into the bosom of the chariot, and he died in the evening. And the herald stood in the camp as the sun was setting, saying, "Each to his own city and to his own land, for the king is dead." And they buried the king in Samaria, and they washed the blood at the fountain of Samaria; and the swine and the dogs licked the blood, and the harlots bathed in the blood, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke.

These, then, are the things concerning the deceit of Ahab. Note also concerning the Song of Songs Canticles, in which someone mentions the erotic passions, the provocations, the kisses, and the rest, for which Theodore of Mopsuestia foolishly slandered the book. And [consider] how many other signs—as it were, symbols—are filled with the intelligible and the unitary, and are divisive of the indivisible. He says the symbols are "filled" [with meaning] in relation to that true and unitary [reality]. For that [divine reality] would say, "I am unitary." But the symbols that signify it are multiplied: at once because they signify the truth through one thing and another; and also because whatever one might say, it is far from the unitary. And the forms and the words are divided for the sake of the many. But the reason these things are done and said is because [God] is unitary and indivisible. Let us not suppose that these visible signs—that is, the things happening symbolically—were fashioned for their own sake—that is, for the purpose of being understood as they appear—as the visible has it, and the letter simply dictates; rather, these are set forth and appear [as a veil] for the ineffable...