The Bridegroom Praises the Bride

41 Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
Behold, you are beautiful.
Your eyes are doves behind your veil.
Your hair is as a flock of goats,
that descend from Mount Gilead. 2 Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock,
which have come up from the washing,
where every one of them has twins.
None is bereaved among them. 3 Your lips are like scarlet thread.
Your mouth is lovely.
Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil. 4 Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory,
whereon a thousand shields hang,
all the shields of the mighty men. 5 Your two breasts are like two fawns
that are twins of a roe,
which feed among the lilies. 6 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh,
to the hill of frankincense. 7 You are all beautiful, my love.
There is no spot in you.

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
with me from Lebanon.
Look from the top of Amana,
from the top of Senir and Hermon,
from the lions’ dens,
from the mountains of the leopards. 9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride.
You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes,
with one chain of your neck. 10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine!
The fragrance of your perfumes than all manner of spices! 11 Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb.
Honey and milk are under your tongue.
The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12 A locked up garden is my sister, my bride;
a locked up spring,
a sealed fountain. 13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits:
henna with spikenard plants, 14 spikenard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree;
myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,

15 a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters,
flowing streams from Lebanon.

Beloved 16 Awake, north wind; and come, you south!
Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden,
and taste his precious fruits.

Lover

51 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride.
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.

Friends
Eat, friends!
Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.

Beloved

The Distress of Separation

2 I was asleep, but my heart was awake.
It is the voice of my beloved who knocks:
“Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;
for my head is filled with dew,
and my hair with the dampness of the night.” 3 I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on?
I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them? 4 My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening.
My heart pounded for him. 5 I rose up to open for my beloved.
My hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
on the handles of the lock. 6 I opened to my beloved;
but my beloved left; and had gone away.
My heart went out when he spoke.
I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
I called him, but he didn’t answer. 7 The watchmen who go about the city found me.
They beat me.
They bruised me.
The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me. 8 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
that you tell him that I am faint with love.

Friends

The Bride Praises the Bridegroom

9 How is your beloved better than another beloved,
you fairest among women?
How is your beloved better than another beloved,
that you do so adjure us?

Beloved 10 My beloved is white and ruddy.
The best among ten thousand. 11 His head is like the purest gold.
His hair is bushy, black as a raven. 12 His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks,
washed with milk, mounted like jewels. 13 His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes.
His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. 14 His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl.
His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires. 15 His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. 16 His mouth is sweetness;
yes, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
daughters of Jerusalem.

Friends

The Spirit Received through Faith

31 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth among you as crucified? 2 I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you, and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?

God's Covenant with Abraham

6 Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” 7 Know therefore that those who are of faith, the same are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.” [1] 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.” [2] 11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.” [3] 12 The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.” [4] 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” [5] 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 15 Brothers, speaking of human terms, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void, or adds to it. 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He doesn’t say, “To seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “To your seed,” [6] which is Christ. 17 Now I say this. A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.

The Purpose of the Law

19 What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not between one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law. 22 But the Scriptures imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.