The Bride and the Daughters of Jerusalem

11 The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.


Beloved

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;
for your love is better than wine. 3 Your oils have a pleasing fragrance.
Your name is oil poured forth,
therefore the virgins love you. 4 Take me away with you.
Let us hurry.
The king has brought me into his chambers.

Friends
We will be glad and rejoice in you.
We will praise your love more than wine!

Beloved
They are right to love you. 5 I am dark, but lovely,
you daughters of Jerusalem,
like Kedar’s tents,
like Solomon’s curtains. 6 Don’t stare at me because I am dark,
because the sun has scorched me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me.
They made me keeper of the vineyards.
I haven’t kept my own vineyard.

7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you graze your flock,
where you rest them at noon;
For why should I be as one who is veiled
beside the flocks of your companions?

Lover 8 If you don’t know, most beautiful among women,
follow the tracks of the sheep.
Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.

The Bride and the Bridegroom

9 I have compared you, my love,
to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots. 10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels. 11 We will make you earrings of gold,
with studs of silver.

Beloved

12 While the king sat at his table,
my perfume spread its fragrance. 13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh,
that lies between my breasts. 14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
from the vineyards of En Gedi.

Lover 15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
Behold, you are beautiful.
Your eyes are doves.

Beloved 16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant;
and our couch is verdant.

Lover 17 The beams of our house are cedars.
Our rafters are firs.

Beloved

21 I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.

Lover 2 As a lily among thorns,
so is my love among the daughters.

Beloved

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,
his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4 He brought me to the banquet hall.
His banner over me is love. 5 Strengthen me with raisins,
refresh me with apples;
For I am faint with love. 6 His left hand is under my head.
His right hand embraces me. 7 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
that you not stir up, nor awaken love,
until it so desires.

8 The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping on the mountains,
skipping on the hills. 9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart.
Behold, he stands behind our wall!
He looks in at the windows.
He glances through the lattice. 10 My beloved spoke, and said to me,
“Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. 11 For, behold, the winter is past.
The rain is over and gone. 12 The flowers appear on the earth.
The time of the singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13 The fig tree ripens her green figs.
The vines are in blossom.
They give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.”

Lover

14 My dove in the clefts of the rock,
In the hiding places of the mountainside,
Let me see your face.
Let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. 15 Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes that spoil the vineyards;
for our vineyards are in blossom.

Beloved 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his.
He browses among the lilies. 17 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
turn, my beloved,
and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of Bether.

The Bride's Reverie

31 By night on my bed,
I sought him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn’t find him. 2 I will get up now, and go about the city;
in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn’t find him. 3 The watchmen who go about the city found me;
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” 4 I had scarcely passed from them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go,
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
into the chamber of her who conceived me. 5 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
that you not stir up, nor awaken love,
until it so desires.

The Wedding Procession

6 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all spices of the merchant?

7 Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage!
Sixty mighty men are around it,
of the mighty men of Israel. 8 They all handle the sword, and are expert in war.
Every man has his sword on his thigh,
because of fear in the night. 9 King Solomon made himself a carriage
of the wood of Lebanon. 10 He made its pillars of silver,
its bottom of gold, its seat of purple,
its midst being paved with love,
from the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 Go forth, you daughters of Zion, and see king Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother has crowned him,
in the day of his weddings,
in the day of the gladness of his heart.

Lover

21 Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. 2 I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might 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 This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; 5 to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you. 6 But from those who were reputed to be important (whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God doesn’t show partiality to man)—they, I say, who were respected imparted nothing to me, 7 but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcision, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcision 8 (for he who appointed Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision appointed me also to the Gentiles); 9 and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. 10 They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.

Paul Rebukes Peter at Antioch

11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy; so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do? 15 “We, being Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker. 19 For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. 21 I don’t make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”