Song of Solomon 6-8

English Standard Version

Others

6 Where has your beloved gone,
O ^(A)most beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned,
that we may seek him with you?

Together in the Garden of Love

She

²My beloved has gone down to his ^(B)garden
    to ^(C)the beds of spices,
to ^(D)graze^[a] in the gardens
    and to gather ^(E)lilies.
³^(F)I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine;
    he grazes among the lilies.

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He

⁴You are beautiful as ^(G)Tirzah, ^(H)my love,
    ^(I)lovely as ^(J)Jerusalem,
    ^(K)awesome as an army with banners.
⁵Turn away your eyes from me,
    for they overwhelm me—
^(L)Your hair is like a flock of goats
    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
⁶^(M)Your 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^(N)Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
    behind your veil.
⁸There are ^(O)sixty ^(P)queens and eighty ^(Q)concubines,
    and ^(R)virgins without number.
⁹My ^(S)dove, my ^(T)perfect one, is the only one,
    the only one of her mother,
    pure to ^(U)her who bore her.
^(V)The young women saw her and called her blessed;
    ^(W)the queens and ^(X)concubines also, and they praised her.

¹⁰^(Y)“Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
^(Z)awesome as an army with banners?”

She

¹¹I went down to the nut orchard
    to look at ^(AA)the blossoms of the valley,
^(AB)to see whether the vines had budded,
    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
¹²^(AC)Before I was aware, my desire set me
    among ^(AD)the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.^[b]

Others

¹³^[c] Return, return, O ^(AE)Shulammite,
return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

Why should you look upon ^(AF)the Shulammite,
as upon ^(AG)a dance before ^(AH)two armies?^[d]

7 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
    O ^(AI)noble daughter!
Your rounded thighs are like ^(AJ)jewels,
    the work of ^(AK)a master hand.
²Your navel is a rounded bowl
    that never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
    encircled with ^(AL)lilies.
³^(AM)Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle.
⁴Your ^(AN)neck is like an ivory tower.
Your ^(AO)eyes are pools in ^(AP)Heshbon,
    by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of ^(AQ)Lebanon,
    which looks toward ^(AR)Damascus.
⁵Your head crowns you like ^(AS)Carmel,
    and your ^(AT)flowing locks are like purple;
    a king is held captive in the tresses.

⁶^(AU)How beautiful and ^(AV)pleasant you are,
    O loved one, with all your delights!^[e]
⁷Your stature is like a palm tree,
    and your breasts are like its clusters.
⁸I say I will climb the palm tree
    and lay hold of its fruit.
Oh may your breasts be like ^(AW)clusters of the vine,
    and the scent of your breath like apples,
⁹and your ^(AX)mouth^[f] like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
gliding over lips and teeth.^[g]

¹⁰^(AY)I am my beloved's,
^(AZ)and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love

¹¹^(BA)Come, my beloved,
    let us go out into the fields
    and lodge in the villages;^[h]
¹²let us go out early to the vineyards
    ^(BB)and see whether the vines have budded,
whether ^(BC)the grape blossoms have opened
    and the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
¹³^(BD)The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
    and beside our doors are all choice fruits,
^(BE)new as well as old,
    which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

Longing for Her Beloved

8 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.
²I would lead you and ^(BF)bring you
    into the house of my mother—
    she who used to teach me.
I would give you ^(BG)spiced wine to drink,
    the juice of my pomegranate.
³^(BH)His left hand is under my head,
    and his right hand embraces me!
⁴I ^(BI)adjure you, O ^(BJ)daughters of Jerusalem,
    ^(BK)that you not stir up or awaken love
    until it pleases.

⁵^(BL)Who 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.

⁶Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as ^(BM)a seal upon your arm,
for ^(BN)love is strong as death,
    ^(BO)jealousy^[i] is fierce as the grave.^[j]
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    the very ^(BP)flame of the Lord.
⁷Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
    all the wealth of his ^(BQ)house,
    he^[k] would be utterly despised.

Final Advice

Others

⁸We have a little sister,
    and she ^(BR)has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
    on the day when she is spoken for?
⁹If she is a wall,
    we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
    we will enclose her with ^(BS)boards of cedar.

She

¹⁰^(BT)I was a wall,
and my ^(BU)breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds^[l] peace.

¹¹Solomon had ^(BV)a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
    he ^(BW)let out the vineyard to ^(BX)keepers;
    each one was to bring for its fruit ^(BY)a thousand pieces of silver.
¹²My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
    you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
    and ^(BZ)the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

He

¹³^(CA)O you who dwell in the gardens,
with ^(CB)companions listening for your voice;
^(CC)let me hear it.

She

¹⁴^(CD)Make haste, my beloved,
and be ^(CE)like a gazelle
or a young stag
on ^(CF)the mountains of spices.

Footnotes

Song of Solomon 6:2 Or to pasture his flock; also verse 3
Song of Solomon 6:12 Or chariots of Ammi-Nadib
Song of Solomon 6:13 Ch 7:1 in Hebrew
Song of Solomon 6:13 Or dance of Mahanaim
Song of Solomon 7:6 Or among delights
Song of Solomon 7:9 Hebrew palate
Song of Solomon 7:9 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew causing the lips of sleepers to speak, or gliding over the lips of those who sleep
Song of Solomon 7:11 Or among the henna plants
Song of Solomon 8:6 Or ardor
Song of Solomon 8:6 Hebrew as Sheol
Song of Solomon 8:7 Or it
Song of Solomon 8:10 Or brings out

1 Corinthians 5

English Standard Version

Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church

5 It is actually reported that there is ^(A)sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, ^(B)for a man has his father's wife. ²And ^(C)you are arrogant! Ought you ^(D)not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

³For though ^(E)absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. ⁴When you are assembled ^(F)in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵you are ^(G)to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so ^(H)that his spirit may be saved ^(I)in the day of the Lord.^[a]

⁶^(J)Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that ^(K)a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸Let us therefore celebrate the festival, ^(L)not with the old leaven, ^(M)the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in my letter ^(N)not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰^(O)not at all meaning ^(P)the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, ^(Q)since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone ^(R)who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. ¹²For what have I to do with judging ^(S)outsiders? ^(T)Is it not those inside the church^[b] whom you are to judge? ¹³God judges^[c] those outside. ^(U)“Purge the evil person from among you.”