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 Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath
1 After this there was ha feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the iSheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic1 called Bethesda,2 which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.3 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, jtake up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
kNow that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews4 said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and lit is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! mSin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were npersecuting Jesus, obecause he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Jesus Is Equal with God
18 This was why the Jews were pseeking all the more qto kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, rmaking himself sequal with God.
