The Bride and the Daughters of Jerusalem

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 oils have a goodly fragrance; Thy name is [as] oil 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 make mention of thy love more than of wine: Rightly do they love thee. 5 I am black, but comely, Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon. 6 Look not upon me, because I am swarthy, Because the sun hath scorched me. My mother's sons were incensed against me; They made me keeper of the vineyards; [But] mine own vineyard have I not kept.

7 Tell me, O 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 that is veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions? 8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, And feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

The Bride and the Bridegroom

9 I have compared thee, O my love, To a steed in Pharaoh's chariots. 10 Thy cheeks are comely with plaits [of hair], Thy neck with strings of jewels. 11 We will make thee plaits of gold With studs of silver.

12 While the king sat at his table, My spikenard sent forth its fragrance. 13 My beloved is unto me [as] a bundle of myrrh, That lieth betwixt my breasts. 14 My beloved is unto me [as] a cluster of henna-flowers In the vineyards of En-gedi. 15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; Behold thou art fair; Thine eyes are [as] doves. 16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our couch is green. 17 The beams of our house are cedars, [And] our rafters are firs.

21 I am a rose of Sharon, A lily of the valleys. 2 As a 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. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4 He brought me to the banqueting-house, And his banner over me was love. 5 Stay ye me with raisins, refresh me with apples; For I am sick from love. 6 His left hand [is] under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me. 7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, Until 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 roe or a young hart: Behold, he standeth behind our wall; He looketh in at the windows; He glanceth through the lattice. 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For, lo, the winter is past; The rain is over and gone; 12 The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing [of birds] is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land; 13 The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, And the vines are in blossom; They give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, In the covert of the steep place, 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 blossom. 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: He feedeth [his flock] among the lilies. 17 Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away, Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart Upon the mountains of Bether.

The Bride's Reverie

31 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2 [I said], I will rise now, and go about the city; In the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 3 The watchmen that go about the city found me; [To whom I said], Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4 It was but a little that 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 adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the roes, or by the hinds of the field, That ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, Until he please.

The Wedding Procession

6 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness Like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all powders of the merchant?

7 Behold, it is the litter of Solomon; Threescore mighty men are about it, Of the mighty men of Israel. 8 They all handle the sword, [and] are expert in war: Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, Because of fear in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin Of the wood of Lebanon. 10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, The bottom thereof of gold, the seat of it of purple, The midst thereof being paved with love, From the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon, With the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him In the day of his espousals, And in the day of the gladness of his heart.

21 Then after the space of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. 2 And I went up by revelation; and I laid before them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles but privately before them who were of repute, lest by any means I should be running, or had run, in vain. 3 But not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: 4 and that because of the false brethren privily brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: 5 to whom we gave place in the way of subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. 6 But from those who were reputed to be somewhat (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth not man's person)—they, I say, who were of repute imparted nothing to me: 7 but contrariwise, when they saw that I had been intrusted with the gospel of the uncircumcision, even as Peter with [the gospel] of the circumcision 8 (for he that wrought for Peter unto the apostleship of the circumcision wrought for me also unto the Gentiles); 9 and when they perceived the grace that was given unto me, James and Cephas and John, they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision; 10 only [they would] that we should remember the poor; which very thing I was also zealous to do.

Paul Rebukes Peter at Antioch

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before that certain came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing them that were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that even Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation. 14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Cephas before [them] all, If thou, being a Jew, livest as do the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, how compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? 15 We being Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17 But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, [the faith] which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. 21 I do not make void the grace of God: for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nought.