1 The aSong of Songs, which is Solomon’s.
The Bride Confesses Her Love
She1
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is bbetter than wine;
3 your anointing oils are fragrant;
your name is oil poured out;
therefore virgins love you.
4 cDraw me after you; let us run.
The king has dbrought me into his chambers.
Others
We will exult and rejoice in you;
we will extol your love more than wine;
rightly do they love you.
She
5 I am very dark, but lovely,
O edaughters of Jerusalem,
like the ftents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark,
because the sun has looked upon me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me gkeeper of the vineyards,
but hmy own vineyard I have not kept!
7 Tell me, you iwhom my soul loves,
where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon;
for why should I be like one who veils herself
beside the flocks of your jcompanions?
Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other
He
8 If you do not know,
kO most beautiful among women,
follow in the tracks of the flock,
and pasture your young goats
beside the shepherds’ tents.
9 I compare you, lmy love,
to a mare among Pharaoh’s mchariots.
10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.
Others
11 We will make for you2 ornaments of gold,
studded with silver.
She
12 While the king was on his couch,
my nnard gave forth 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 ohenna blossoms
in the vineyards of Engedi.
He
15 pBehold, qyou are beautiful, my love;
behold, you are beautiful;
ryour eyes are doves.
She
16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.
Our couch is green;
17 the beams of our house are cedar;
our rafters are pine.
a lily of the valleys.
He
2 As a lily among brambles,
so is tmy love among the young women.
She
3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is umy beloved among the young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He vbrought me to the banqueting house,4
and his wbanner over me was love.
5 Sustain me with raisins;
refresh me with apples,
for xI am sick with love.
6 yHis left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
7 zI adjure you,5 O adaughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
The Bride Adores Her Beloved
8 The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is blike a gazelle
or a young stag.
Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
looking through the lattice.
10 My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, 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 singing6 has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in cblossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.
14 O dmy dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the crannies of the cliff,
let me see your face,
elet me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
15 Catch the foxes7 for us,
the little foxes
that spoil the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in blossom.”
16 fMy beloved is mine, and I am his;
17 hUntil the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
or a young stag on cleft mountains.9
The Bride’s Dream
1 On my bed by night
I sought him iwhom my soul loves;
I jsought him, but found him not.
2 I will rise 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 found him not.
3 kThe watchmen found me
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4 Scarcely had I passed them
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I had lbrought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
5 mI adjure you, O ndaughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
Solomon Arrives for the Wedding
6 oWhat is that coming up from the wilderness
like columns of smoke,
perfumed with pmyrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?
7 Behold, it is the litter10 of qSolomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men,
some of the mighty men of Israel,
8 all of them wearing swords
and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh,
against terror by night.
9 King Solomon made himself a carriage11
from the wood of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with love
by the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Go out, O daughters of Zion,
and look upon King Solomon,
with the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.
Paul Accepted by the Apostles
1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem jwith Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up because of a krevelation and set before them (though privately before lthose who seemed influential) mthe gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run nin vain. 3 oBut even Titus, who was with me, pwas not qforced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4 Yet because of false brothers rsecretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our sfreedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might tbring us into uslavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the vtruth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God wshows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that xI had been yentrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who zworked through Peter for his aapostolic ministry to the circumcised bworked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived cthe grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to dremember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
Paul Opposes Peter
11 eBut when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, fhe was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing gthe circumcision party.1 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Justified by Faith
15 We ourselves are hJews by birth and not Gentile isinners; 16 yet we know that ja person is not justified2 by works of the law but kthrough lfaith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law mno one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law nI died to the law, so that I might olive to God. 20 I have been pcrucified with Christ. It is qno longer rI who live, sbut Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me tand gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness3 were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
