Song of Solomon 4-5
Lexham English Bible
Groom’s Praise of His Bride
4 Oh my![a] You are beautiful, my beloved!
Oh my![b] You are beautiful!
Your eyes are doves
from behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
that move down from the mountains of Gilead.
2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
that came up from the washing,
all of them bearing twins,
and there is none bereaved among them.
3 Your lips are like a thread of crimson,
and your mouth is lovely.
Your temple is like pomegranate
from behind your veil.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David,
built in courses;
a thousand ornaments[c] are hung on it,
all the shields of the warriors.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle that feed among the lilies.
6 Until the day breathes and the shadows flee,
I will go to the mountain of the myrrh,
to the hill of the frankincense.
7 You are completely beautiful, my beloved!
You are flawless![d]
The Mountains and Fragrance of Lebanon
8 Come[e] with me from Lebanon, my bride!
Come with me[f] from Lebanon!
Look from the top of Amana,
from the top of Senir and Hermon,
from the dwelling places of the lions,
from the mountains of leopard.
9 You have stolen (my) heart, my sister bride!
You have stolen my heart with one glance from your eyes,
with one ornament from your necklaces.
10 How beautiful is your love, my sister bride!
How better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
11 Your lips drip nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your lips;
the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.
The Locked Garden of Delights Is Unlocked
12 A garden locked is my sister bride,
a spring enclosed,[g] a fountain sealed.
13 Your shoots[h] are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruit,[i]
henna with nard;
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon spice with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes with all chief spices.
15 A garden fountain, a well of living water,
flowing (streams) from Lebanon.
16 Awake, O north wind! Come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden! Let its fragrances[j] waft forth![k]
Let my beloved come to his garden,
let him eat his choice fruit!
5 I have come to my garden, my sister bride,
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice,
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey,
I have drunk my wine with my milk!
Eat, O friends! Drink and become drunk with love![l]
Maiden’s Dream: Seeking and Not Finding
2 I was asleep but[m] my heart was awake.
A sound! My beloved knocking![n]
“Open to me, my sister, my beloved,
my dove, my perfect one!
For my head is full of dew,
my hair drenched from the moist night air.”[o]
3 I have taken off my tunic, must I put it on?[p]
I have bathed my feet, must I soil them?[q]
4 My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
and my inmost yearned for him.
5 I myself arose to open to my beloved;
my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
upon the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened myself to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone;[r]
my heart sank[s] when he turned away.[t]
I sought him, but I did not find him;
I called him, but he did not answer me.
7 The sentinels making rounds in the city found me;
they beat me, they wounded me;
they took my cloak[u] away from me—
those sentinels on the walls![v]
Adjuration Refrain
8 I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,[w]
if you find my beloved, what will you tell him?
Tell him that I am lovesick![x]
Maiden’s Praise of Her Beloved
9 How is your beloved better than another lover,[y]
O most beautiful among women?
How is your beloved better than another lover, [z]
that you adjure us thus?
10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy,[aa]
distinguished among[ab] ten thousand.
11 His head is gold, refined gold;
his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves beside springs[ac] of water,
bathed in milk, set like mounted jewels.[ad][ae]
13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, a tower of fragrances;
his lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh.
14 His arms are rods[af][ag] of gold engraved with[ah] jewels;
his belly[ai] is polished ivory covered with sapphires.[aj]
15 His legs are columns of alabaster,[ak] set on bases of gold;
his appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.[al]
16 His mouth[am] is sweet,
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved;
this is my friend, O young women of Jerusalem.[an]
Footnotes
- Song of Solomon 4:1 Literally “Behold!” Or “Look!”
- Song of Solomon 4:1 Literally “Behold!” Or “Look!”
- Song of Solomon 4:4 Literally “shields”
- Song of Solomon 4:7 Literally “There is no flaw in you!”
- Song of Solomon 4:8 Or “You must come”
- Song of Solomon 4:8 Or “With me”
- Song of Solomon 4:12 Or “a source locked”
- Song of Solomon 4:13 Or “your channel”
- Song of Solomon 4:13 Literally “fruit of choice things”
- Song of Solomon 4:16 Or “perfumes”
- Song of Solomon 4:16 Or “His perfumes can waft down”
- Song of Solomon 5:1 Or “Drink and become drunk, O lovers!”
- Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “and”
- Song of Solomon 5:2 Or “The sound of my beloved knocking!”
- Song of Solomon 5:2 Literally “my locks with drops of night”
- Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I put it on?”
- Song of Solomon 5:3 Literally “How will I soil them?”
- Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my beloved had left; he was gone”
- Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “my soul left”
- Song of Solomon 5:6 Or “when he was speaking.” Translations equivocate on how to translate this verb, since there are two terms in Hebrew spelled identically: “to speak” and “to turn aside” (HALOT 1:210). The context suggests the latter
- Song of Solomon 5:7 Or “mantle”
- Song of Solomon 5:7 Literally “the sentinels of the walls”
- Song of Solomon 5:8 Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”
- Song of Solomon 5:8 Literally “sick with love”
- Song of Solomon 5:9 Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
- Song of Solomon 5:9 Literally “What is your beloved more than another beloved …?”
- Song of Solomon 5:10 Literally “red”
- Song of Solomon 5:10 Literally “more than”
- Song of Solomon 5:12 Or “streams”
- Song of Solomon 5:12 Literally “dwelling in a setting”
- Song of Solomon 5:12 Or “seated at a suitable mounting”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Literally “cylinders”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “rings”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Literally “filled with”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “body”
- Song of Solomon 5:14 Or “works of ivory set with sapphire”
- Song of Solomon 5:15 Or “marble”
- Song of Solomon 5:15 Literally “the cedars”
- Song of Solomon 5:16 Or “his palate”
- Song of Solomon 5:16 Literally “O daughters of Jerusalem”
Galatians 3
Lexham English Bible
Justified by the Law, or Justified by Faith?
3 O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as having been crucified? 2 I want only to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be made complete by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things for nothing—if indeed also it was for nothing? 5 Therefore does the one who gives you the Spirit and who works miracles among you do so by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6 Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, 7 then understand that the ones who have faith[a], these are sons of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the good news in advance to Abraham: “In you all the nations[b] will be blessed.”[c] 9 So then, the ones who have faith are blessed together with Abraham who believed. 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things that are written in the book of the law to do them.”[d] 11 Now it is clear that no one is justified in the sight of God by the law, because “the one who is righteous will live by faith.”[e] 12 But the law is not from faith, but “the one who does these things will live by them.”[f]
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by[g] becoming a curse for us, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”[h] 14 in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The Promise to Abraham and His Descendant
15 Brothers, I am speaking according to a human perspective. Nevertheless, when[i] the covenant of a man has been ratified, no one declares it invalid or adds additional provisions to it. 16 Now to Abraham and to his descendant the promises were spoken. It does not say, “and to descendants,” as concerning many, but as concerning one, “and to your descendant,”[j] who is Christ. 17 Now I am saying this: the law, that came after four hundred and thirty years, does not revoke a covenant previously ratified by God, in order to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.
The Addition of the Law
19 Why then the law? It was added on account of transgressions, until the descendant should come to whom it had been promised, having been ordered through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now the mediator is not for one, but God is one.
21 Therefore is the law opposed to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, certainly righteousness would have been from the law. 22 But the scripture imprisoned all under sin, in order that the promise could be given by faith[k] in Jesus Christ to those who believe.
23 But before faith came, we were detained under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. 24 So then, the law became our guardian until Christ, in order that we could be justified by faith. 25 But after[l] faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,[m] 27 for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.
Footnotes
- Galatians 3:7 Literally “of faith”
- Galatians 3:8 Or “Gentiles”; the same Greek word can be translated “nations” or “Gentiles” depending on the context
- Galatians 3:8 A quotation from Gen 12:3; 18:18
- Galatians 3:10 A quotation from Deut 27:26
- Galatians 3:11 Or “the one who is righteous by faith will live,” a quotation from Hab 2:4
- Galatians 3:12 A quotation from Lev 18:5
- Galatians 3:13 Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“becoming”) which is understood as means
- Galatians 3:13 A quotation from Deut 21:23
- Galatians 3:15 Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“has been ratified”) which is understood as temporal
- Galatians 3:16 A quotation from Gen 12:7; 13:15; 17:7; 24:7
- Galatians 3:22 Or “through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ”
- Galatians 3:25 Here “after” is supplied as a component of the participle (“has come”) which is understood as temporal
- Galatians 3:26 Or “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith”
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