11 The song of songs, which is Solomon's.
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; For thy love is better than wine. 3 Thine ointments savour sweetly; Thy name is an ointment poured forth: Therefore do the virgins love thee. 4 Draw me, we will run after thee!—The king hath brought me into his chambers—We will be glad and rejoice in thee, We will remember thy love more than wine. They love thee uprightly. 5 I am black, but comely, daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon. 6 Look not upon me, because I am black; Because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's children were angry with me: They made me keeper of the vineyards; Mine own vineyard have I not kept.
7 Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest [thy flock], Where thou makest it to rest at noon; For why should I be as one veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions? 8 If thou know not, thou fairest among women, Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, And feed thy kids beside the shepherds' booths.
9 I compare thee, my love, To a steed in Pharaoh's chariots. 10 Thy cheeks are comely with bead-rows, Thy neck with ornamental chains. 11 We will make thee bead-rows of gold With studs of silver.
12 While the king is at his table, My spikenard sendeth forth its fragrance. 13 A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me; He shall pass the night between my breasts. 14 My beloved is unto me a cluster of henna-flowers In the vineyards of Engedi. 15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; Behold, thou art fair: thine eyes are doves. 16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant; Also our bed is green. 17 The beams of our houses are cedars, Our rafters are cypresses.
21 I am a narcissus of Sharon, A lily of the valleys. 2 As the lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters.
3 As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons: In his shadow have I rapture and sit down; And his fruit is sweet to my taste. 4 He hath brought me to the house of wine, And his banner over me is love. 5 Sustain ye me with raisin-cakes, Refresh me with apples; For I am sick of love. 6 His left hand is under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me. 7 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.
8 The voice of my beloved! Behold, he cometh Leaping upon the mountains, Skipping upon the hills. 9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart. Behold, he standeth behind our wall, He looketh in through the windows, Glancing through the lattice. 10 My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over, it is gone: 12 The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land; 13 The fig-tree melloweth her winter figs, And the vines in bloom give forth [their] fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!
14 My dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the covert of the precipice, Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. 15 Take us the foxes, The little foxes, that spoil the vineyards; For our vineyards are in bloom. 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his; He feedeth [his flock] among the lilies, 17 Until the day dawn, and the shadows flee away. Turn, my beloved: be thou like a gazelle or a young hart, Upon the mountains of Bether.
31 On my bed, in the nights, I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2 I will rise now, and go about the city; In the streets and in the broadways Will I seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 3 The watchmen that go about the city found me:—Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth? 4 —Scarcely had I passed from them, When I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, Until I had brought him into my mother's house, And into the chamber of her that conceived me. 5 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.
6 Who is this, [she] that cometh up from the wilderness Like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all powders of the merchant? ...
7 Behold his couch, Solomon's own: Threescore mighty men are about it, Of the mighty of Israel. 8 They all hold the sword, Experts in war; Each hath his sword upon his thigh Because of alarm in the nights. 9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin Of the wood of Lebanon. 10 Its pillars he made of silver, Its support of gold, Its seat of purple; The midst thereof was paved [with] love By the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Go forth, daughters of Zion, And behold king Solomon With the crown wherewith his mother crowned him In the day of his espousals, And in the day of the gladness of his heart.
21 Then after a lapse of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with [me]; 2 and I went up according to revelation, and I laid before them the glad tidings which I preach among the nations, but privately to those conspicuous [among them], lest in any way I run or had run in vain; 3 (but neither was Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, compelled to be circumcised;) 4 and [it was] on account of the false brethren brought in surreptitiously, who came in surreptitiously to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; 5 to whom we yielded in subjection not even for an hour, that the truth of the glad tidings might remain with you. 6 But from those who were conspicuous as being somewhat—whatsoever they were, it makes no difference to me: God does not accept man's person; for to me those who were conspicuous communicated nothing; 7 but, on the contrary, seeing that the glad tidings of the uncircumcision were confided to me, even as to Peter that of the circumcision, 8 (for he that wrought in Peter for [the] apostleship of the circumcision wrought also in me towards the Gentiles,) 9 and recognising the grace given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were conspicuous as being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas [the] right hands of fellowship, that we [should go] to the nations, and they to the circumcision; 10 only that we should remember the poor, which same thing also I was diligent to do.
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to [the] face, because he was to be condemned: 12 for before that certain came from James, he ate with [those of] the nations; but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those of [the] circumcision; 13 and the rest of the Jews also played the same dissembling part with him; so that even Barnabas was carried away too by their dissimulation. 14 But when I saw that they do not walk straightforwardly, according to the truth of the glad tidings, I said to Peter before all, If thou, being a Jew, livest as the nations and not as the Jews, how dost thou compel the nations to Judaize? 15 We, Jews by nature, and not sinners of [the] nations, 16 but knowing that a man is not justified on the principle of works of law [nor] but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified on the principle of [the] faith of Christ; and not of works of law; because on the principle of works of law no flesh shall be justified. 17 Now if in seeking to be justified in Christ we also have been found sinners, then [is] Christ minister of sin? Far be the thought. 18 For if the things I have thrown down, these I build again, I constitute myself a transgressor. 19 For I, through law, have died to law, that I may live to God. 20 I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me; but [in] that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the [faith] of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness [is] by law, then Christ has died for nothing.
