1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,

O ^tnoble daughter!

Your rounded thighs are like ^ujewels,

the work of ^va master hand.

2  Your navel is a rounded bowl

that never lacks mixed wine.

Your belly is a heap of wheat,

encircled with ^wlilies.

3  ^xYour two breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

4  Your ^yneck is like an ivory tower.

Your ^zeyes are pools in ^aHeshbon,

by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

Your nose is like a tower of ^bLebanon,

which looks toward ^cDamascus.

5  Your head crowns you like ^eCarmel,

and your ^fflowing locks are like purple;

a king is held captive in the tresses.

6  ^gHow beautiful and ^hpleasant you are,

O loved one, with all your delights!¹

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 ⁱclusters of the vine,

and the scent of your breath like apples,

9  and your ^jmouth² like the best wine.

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,

gliding over lips and teeth.³

10  ^kI am my beloved’s,

^land his desire is for me.

11  ^mCome, my beloved,

let us go out into the fields

and lodge in the villages;⁴

12  let us go out early to the vineyards

ⁿand see whether the vines have budded,

whether ^othe grape blossoms have opened

and the pomegranates are in bloom.

There I will give you my love.

13  ^pThe mandrakes give forth fragrance,

and beside our doors are all choice fruits,

^qnew as well as old,

which I have laid up for you, O my 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 ^rbring you

into the house of my mother—

she who used to teach me.

I would give you ^sspiced wine to drink,

the juice of my pomegranate.

3  ^tHis left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

4  I ^uadjure you, O ^vdaughters of Jerusalem,

^wthat you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.

5  ^xWho is that coming up from the wilderness,

leaning on her 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 as a seal upon your heart,

as ^ya seal upon your arm,

for ^zlove is strong as death,

^ajealousy⁵ is fierce as the grave.⁶

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

the very ^bflame 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 ^chouse,

he⁷ would be utterly despised.

8  We have a little sister,

and she ^dhas 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 ^eboards of cedar.

10  ^fI was a wall,

and my ^gbreasts were like towers;

then I was in his eyes

as one who finds⁸ peace.

11  Solomon had ^ha vineyard at Baal-hamon;

he ⁱlet out the vineyard to ^jkeepers;

each one was to bring for its fruit ^ka thousand pieces of silver.

12  My vineyard, my very own, is before me;

you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,

and ^lthe keepers of the fruit two hundred.

13  ^mO you who dwell in the gardens,

with ⁿcompanions listening for your voice;

^olet me hear it.

14  ^pMake haste, my beloved,

and be ^qlike a gazelle

or a young stag

on ^rthe mountains of spices.

2  ^gHear, O heavens, and give ear, O ^hearth;

for the Lord has spoken:

“Children^{1 i}have I reared and brought up,

but they have rebelled against me.

3  The ox ^jknows its owner,

and the donkey its master’s crib,

but Israel does ^jnot know,

my people do not understand.”

4  Ah, sinful nation,

a people laden with iniquity,

^koffspring of evildoers,

children who deal corruptly!

They have forsaken the Lord,

they have ^ldespised ^mthe Holy One of Israel,

they are utterly ⁿestranged.

5  Why will you still be ^ostruck down?

Why will you ^pcontinue to rebel?

The whole head is sick,

and the whole heart faint.

6  ^qFrom the sole of the foot even to the head,

there is no soundness in it,

but bruises and sores

and raw wounds;

they are ^rnot pressed out or bound up

or softened with oil.

7  ^sYour country lies desolate;

your cities are burned with fire;

in your very presence

foreigners devour your land;

it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.

8  And ^tthe daughter of Zion is left

like a ^ubooth in a vineyard,

like a lodge in a cucumber field,

like a besieged city.

9  ^vIf the Lord of hosts

had not left us ^wa few survivors,

we should have been like ^xSodom,

and become like ^xGomorrah.

10  Hear the word of the Lord,

you rulers of ^yzSodom!

Give ear to the teaching² of our God,

you people of ^zGomorrah!

11  ^a“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

says the Lord;

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of well-fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

or of lambs, or of goats.

12  “When you come to ^bappear before me,

who has required of you

this trampling of my courts?

13  Bring no more vain offerings;

incense is an abomination to me.

^cNew moon and Sabbath and the ^dcalling of convocations—

I cannot endure ^einiquity and ^fsolemn assembly.

14  Your ^cnew moons and your appointed feasts

my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

15  When you ^gspread out your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

^heven though you make many prayers,

I will not listen;

ⁱyour hands are full of blood.

16  ^jWash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

^kcease to do evil,

17  learn to do good;

^lseek justice,

correct oppression;

^mbring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow’s cause.

18  “Come now, ⁿlet us reason³ together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as ^owhite as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

19  ^pIf you are willing and obedient,

you shall eat the good of the land;

20  but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be eaten by the sword;

^qfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

21  How the faithful city

^rhas become a whore,⁴

^sshe who was full of justice!

Righteousness lodged in her,

but now murderers.

22  ^tYour silver has become dross,

your best wine mixed with water.

23  Your princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone ^uloves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

^vThey do not bring justice to the fatherless,

and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

24  Therefore the ^wLord declares,

the Lord of hosts,

the ^xMighty One of Israel:

“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies

^yand avenge myself on my foes.

25  ^zI will turn my hand against you

and will smelt away your ^adross as with lye

and remove all your alloy.

26  And I will restore your judges ^bas at the first,

and your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterward ^cyou shall be called the city of righteousness,

the faithful city.”

27  ^dZion shall be redeemed by justice,

and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

28  ^eBut rebels and sinners shall be broken together,

and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29  ^fFor they⁵ shall be ashamed of ^gthe oaks

that you desired;

and you shall blush for ^hthe gardens

that you have chosen.

30  For you shall be ⁱlike an oak

whose leaf withers,

and like a garden without water.

31  And the strong shall become ^jtinder,

and his work a spark,

and both of them shall burn together,

with ^knone to quench them.