The Bride Praises Her Beloved
She
10 My beloved is radiant and aruddy,
distinguished among ten thousand.
11 His head is the finest gold;
his locks are wavy,
black as a raven.
12 bHis eyes are like doves
beside streams of water,
bathed in milk,
sitting beside a full pool.1
13 His cheeks are like cbeds of spices,
mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.
His lips are lilies,
dripping liquid myrrh.
14 His arms are rods of gold,
set with jewels.
His body is polished ivory,2
bedecked with sapphires.3
15 His legs are alabaster columns,
set on bases of gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
choice as the cedars.
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
Others
1 Where has your beloved gone,
eO most beautiful among women?
Where has fyour beloved turned,
that we may gseek him with you?
Together in the Garden of Love
She
2 My beloved has gone down to his hgarden
to the ibeds of spices,
to graze5 in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
3 jI am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
he kgrazes among the lilies.
Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other
He
4 lYou are beautiful as mTirzah, nmy love,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awesome as an army with banners.
5 Turn away your eyes from me,
for they overwhelm me—
oYour hair is like a flock of goats
leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
6 pYour teeth are like a flock of ewes
that have come up from the washing;
all of them bear twins;
not one among them has lost its young.
7 qYour cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.
8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
and virgins without number.
9 rMy dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
the only one of her mother,
pure to her who bore her.
The young women saw her and called her blessed;
the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
10 “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
awesome as an army with banners?”
She
11 I went down to the nut orchard
to look at the blossoms of the valley,
to ssee whether the vines had budded,
whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
12 Before I was aware, my desire set me
among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.6
Others
13 7 Return, return, O Shulammite,
return, return, that we may look upon you.
He
Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
as upon a dance before two armies?8
1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O noble daughter!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
the work of a master hand.
2 Your navel is a rounded bowl
that never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
encircled with lilies.
3 tYour two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
4 uYour neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
which looks toward Damascus.
5 Your head crowns you like Carmel,
and your flowing locks are like purple;
a king is held captive in the tresses.
6 How beautiful and pleasant you are,
O loved one, with all your delights!9
7 Your stature is like a palm tree,
and your breasts are like its clusters.
8 I say I will climb the palm tree
and lay hold of its fruit.
Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
and the scent of your breath like apples,
She
It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
gliding over lips and teeth.11
10 wI am my beloved’s,
and his desire is for me.
The Bride Gives Her Love
11 Come, my beloved,
let us go out into the fields
and lodge in the villages;12
12 let us go out early to the vineyards
and xsee whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape yblossoms have opened
and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
13 The zmandrakes give forth fragrance,
and beside our doors are all achoice fruits,
new as well as old,
which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.
Longing for Her Beloved
1 Oh that you were like a brother to me
who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
If I found you outside, I would kiss you,
and none would despise me.
2 I would lead you and bbring you
into the house of my mother—
she who used to teach me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the juice of my pomegranate.
3 cHis left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
4 dI adjure you, O edaughters of Jerusalem,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
5 fWho is that coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on gher beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you;
there she who bore you was in labor.
6 Set me has a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy13 is fierce as the grave.14
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the Lord.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he15 would be utterly despised.
Final Advice
Others
8 We have a little sister,
and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
She
10 I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds16 peace.
11 Solomon ihad a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
he let out the vineyard to keepers;
each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
12 jMy vineyard, my very own, is before me;
you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
He
13 O you who dwell in the gardens,
with kcompanions listening for your voice;
llet me hear it.
She
14 Make haste, my beloved,
and be mlike a gazelle
or a young stag
on the nmountains of spices.
Come, Bless the Lord
A Song of Ascents.
1 tCome, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
uwho stand by night in the house of the Lord!
2 vLift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord!
3 wMay the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who made heaven and earth!
Paul and the False Apostles
1 I wish you would bear with me in a little pfoolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a qdivine jealousy for you, since I rbetrothed you to one husband, sto present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that tas uthe serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, vyour thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For wif someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you xreceived, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 5 Indeed, I consider that yI am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. 6 Even if I am unskilled zin speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
7 Or adid I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I bpreached God’s gospel to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for cthe brothers who came from Macedonia dsupplied my need. So eI refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. 10 fAs the truth of Christ is in me, this gboasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. 11 And why? Because I do not love you? God knows hI do!
12 And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as iservants of righteousness. jTheir end will correspond to their deeds.
Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle
16 I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. 17 What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would1 but as a fool. 18 Since many boast according to the kflesh, I too will boast. 19 For you gladly bear with lfools, being wise yourselves! 20 For you bear it if someone mmakes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. 21 To my shame, I must say, nwe were too weak for that!
But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. 22 Are they oHebrews? pSo am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they qservants of Christ? rI am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with sfar greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews tthe forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was ubeaten with rods. Once I was vstoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, wdanger from my own people, xdanger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,2 in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my yweakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that zI am not lying. 32 aAt Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, 33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.
Paul’s Visions and His Thorn
1 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or bout of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into cparadise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— 6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a dfool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,3 ea thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the fpower of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, gI am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Concern for the Corinthian Church
11 I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For hI was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, ieven though I am nothing. 12 jThe signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. 13 For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that kI myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!
14 Here lfor the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For mchildren are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 nI will most gladly spend and be spent ofor your souls. If pI love you more, am I to be loved less? 16 But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. 17 Did I take advantage of you through any of qthose whom I sent to you? 18 rI urged Titus to go, and sent sthe brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
19 Have you been thinking all along that we have been tdefending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your uupbuilding, beloved. 20 For I fear that perhaps when I come vI may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be wquarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. 21 I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.
Final Warnings
1 xThis is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established yby the evidence of two or three witnesses. 2 I warned zthose who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them— 3 since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. 4 For ahe was crucified in weakness, but lives bby the power of God. For we also are cweak in him, but in dealing with you dwe will live with him by the power of God.
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. eTest yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is fin you?—gunless indeed you hfail to meet the test! 6 I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. 7 But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 For we are glad when iwe are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. 10 For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come jI may not have to be severe in my use of kthe authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
Final Greetings
11 Finally, brothers,4 rejoice. Aim for restoration, lcomfort one another,5 magree with one another, nlive in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 oGreet one another with a holy kiss. 13 pAll the saints greet you.
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the qfellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
