Expressions of Praise

The Beloved

How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
(A)O prince’s daughter!
The curves of your thighs are like jewels,
The work of the hands of a skillful workman.
Your navel is a rounded goblet;
It lacks no [a]blended beverage.
Your waist is a heap of wheat
Set about with lilies.
(B)Your two breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle.
(C)Your neck is like an ivory tower,
Your eyes like the pools in Heshbon
By the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
Which looks toward Damascus.
Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,
And the hair of your head is like purple;
A king is held captive by your tresses.

How fair and how pleasant you are,
O love, with your delights!
This stature of yours is like a palm tree,
And your breasts like its clusters.
I said, “I will go up to the palm tree,
I will take hold of its branches.”
Let now your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
The fragrance of your [b]breath like apples,
And the roof of your mouth like the best wine.

The Shulamite

The wine goes down smoothly for my beloved,
[c]Moving gently the [d]lips of sleepers.
10 (D)I am my beloved’s,
And (E)his desire is toward me.

11 Come, my beloved,
Let us go forth to the field;
Let us lodge in the villages.
12 Let us get up early to the vineyards;
Let us (F)see if the vine has budded,
Whether the grape blossoms are open,
And the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
13 The (G)mandrakes give off a fragrance,
And at our gates (H)are pleasant fruits,
All manner, new and old,
Which I have laid up for you, my beloved.

Footnotes

  1. Song of Solomon 7:2 Lit. mixed or spiced drink
  2. Song of Solomon 7:8 Lit. nose
  3. Song of Solomon 7:9 Gliding over
  4. Song of Solomon 7:9 LXX, Syr., Vg. lips and teeth.

Lovers Reunited at Their Country Home

Oh, that you were like my brother,
Who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
If I should find you outside,
I would kiss you;
I would not be despised.
I would lead you and bring you
Into the (A)house of my mother,
She who used to instruct me.
I would cause you to drink of (B)spiced wine,
Of the juice of my pomegranate.

(To the Daughters of Jerusalem)

(C)His left hand is under my head,
And his right hand embraces me.
(D)I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not stir up nor awaken love
Until it pleases.

Love Renewed in Lebanon

A Relative

(E)Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
Leaning upon her beloved?

I awakened you under the apple tree.
There your mother brought you forth;
There she who bore you brought you forth.

The Shulamite to Her Beloved

(F)Set me as a seal upon your heart,
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
(G)Jealousy as [a]cruel as [b]the grave;
Its flames are flames of fire,
[c]A most vehement flame.

Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor can the floods drown it.
(H)If a man would give for love
All the wealth of his house,
It would be utterly despised.

The Shulamite’s Brothers

(I)We have a little sister,
And she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
In the day when she is spoken for?
If she is a wall,
We will build upon her
A battlement of silver;
And if she is a door,
We will enclose her
With boards of cedar.

The Shulamite

10 I am a wall,
And my breasts like towers;
Then I became in his eyes
As one who found peace.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon;
(J)He leased the vineyard to keepers;
Everyone was to bring for its fruit
A thousand silver coins.

(To Solomon)

12 My own vineyard is before me.
You, O Solomon, may have a thousand,
And those who tend its fruit two hundred.

The Beloved

13 You who dwell in the gardens,
The companions listen for your voice—
(K)Let me hear it!

The Shulamite

14 (L)Make[d] haste, my beloved,
And (M)be like a gazelle
Or a young stag
On the mountains of spices.

Footnotes

  1. Song of Solomon 8:6 severe, lit. hard
  2. Song of Solomon 8:6 Or Sheol
  3. Song of Solomon 8:6 Lit. A flame of Yah, poetic form of YHWH, the Lord
  4. Song of Solomon 8:14 Hurry, lit. Flee

The Great Apostasy

Now, brethren, (A)concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (B)and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, (C)not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of [a]Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come (D)unless the falling away comes first, and (E)the man of [b]sin is revealed, (F)the son of perdition, who opposes and (G)exalts himself (H)above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits [c]as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For (I)the [d]mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [e]He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, (J)whom the Lord will consume (K)with the breath of His mouth and destroy (L)with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is (M)according to the working of Satan, with all power, (N)signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among (O)those who perish, because they did not receive (P)the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And (Q)for this reason God will send them strong delusion, (R)that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but (S)had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Stand Fast

13 But we are [f]bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God (T)from the beginning (U)chose you for salvation (V)through [g]sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for (W)the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, (X)stand fast and hold (Y)the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our [h]epistle.

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, (Z)who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and (AA)good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts (AB)and [i]establish you in every good word and work.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Thessalonians 2:2 NU the Lord
  2. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 NU lawlessness
  3. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 NU omits as God
  4. 2 Thessalonians 2:7 hidden truth
  5. 2 Thessalonians 2:7 Or he
  6. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 under obligation
  7. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 being set apart by
  8. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 letter
  9. 2 Thessalonians 2:17 strengthen

Laboring and Prospering with the Lord

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

127 Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless (A)the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To (B)eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.

Behold, (C)children are a heritage from the Lord,
(D)The fruit of the womb is a (E)reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
(F)Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
(G)They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

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