1 The song of songs, which is Solomon's.

² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

³ Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

⁴ Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

⁵ I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

⁶ Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

⁷ Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

⁸ If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

⁹ I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.

¹⁰ Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.

¹¹ We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

¹² While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

¹³ A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

¹⁴ My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

¹⁵ Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

¹⁶ Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.

2 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

² As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

³ As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

⁴ He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

⁵ Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

⁶ His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

⁷ I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

⁸ The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

⁹ My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.

¹⁰ My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

¹¹ For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

¹² The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

¹³ The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

¹⁴ O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

¹⁵ Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

¹⁶ My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

¹⁷ Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

6 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

² Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

³ And this will we do, if God permit.

⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

⁵ And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

⁶ If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

⁷ For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

⁸ But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

⁹ But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

¹⁰ For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

¹¹ And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

¹² That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

¹³ For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

¹⁴ Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

¹⁵ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

¹⁶ For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

¹⁷ Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

¹⁸ That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

¹⁹ Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

²⁰ Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.