The Daily Audio Bible

5 Him (to her): I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
        I have gathered my myrrh with its natural spices.
    I have tasted the honeycomb dripping with my honey
        and have drunk my wine and milk together.

    (to his young friends of Jerusalem) Eat, friends, drink your fill!
        Be intoxicated with love.

² Her: I was sleeping, but my heart was awake
        when I heard a sound, the sound of my love pounding at the door.

Him: Open yourself to me, my sister, my dearest,
        my sweet dove, my flawless beauty.
    My head is drenched with dew;
        my hair is soaked with the wetness of the night.

Her: ³ I have taken off my robe.
        How could I ever put it on again?
    I have washed my feet.
        How could I walk across this dirty floor?
⁴     My love put his hand on the latch;
        my insides began to throb for him.
⁵     I leaped from my bed to let my love in.
        My hands were dripping sweet myrrh,
    My fingers were coated with myrrh
        as I reached for the handles of the lock.
⁶     I opened for my love, but he had turned away and was gone.
        He’d left, and my heart sank.
    I looked for him, but I did not see him.
        I called out to him, but he did not answer.
⁷     The watchmen found me
        as they made their rounds in the city.
    They beat me, they left bruises on my skin,
        and they took away my veil, those watchmen on the walls.

⁸     (to the young women of Jerusalem)
    Promise me that if you find my love,
        you will speak with him, telling him that I am faint with love.

⁹ Young Women of Jerusalem: How is your beloved better than all the other lovers,
        most beautiful of women?
    How is your beloved worth more than all the rest,
        that you would make us promise this?

¹⁰ Her: Because my love is radiant and ruddy,
        he stands out above 10,000 other men.
¹¹     His head is pure gold;
        his hair is thick and wavy and black as a raven.
¹²     His eyes are like doves at the edge of a stream,
        mounted like jewels and bathed in pools of milk.
¹³     His bearded cheeks are like a spice garden, with towers of spice:
        His lips are lilies dripping and flowing with myrrh,
¹⁴     His hands are like strong rods of gold, each set with jewels.
        His body displays his manhood like an ivory tusk inlaid with sapphires.
¹⁵     His legs are like pillars of white marble,
        both set on bases of gold.
    He stands tall and strong like the mountains of Lebanon,
        with all its majestic cedars.
¹⁶     His mouth tastes sweet, so sweet;
        he is altogether desirable.
    This is my love. This is my dear one, as I am his,
        O young women of Jerusalem.

6 Young Women of Jerusalem (to her): Where has your love gone,
        most beautiful of women?
    Do you know which direction he went
        so we can help you find him?

² Her: Women of Jerusalem, I know where my love is.
        My love has gone into his garden
    Among the beds of aromatic spices,
        like a gazelle grazing among his gardens
        and a gardener gathering the lilies.
³     I belong to my love, and my love to me.
        He feeds his flock among the lilies.

⁴ Him (to her): You are beautiful, my dear, as beautiful as Tirzah,
        as lovely as Jerusalem,
        as regal as an army beneath their banners.
⁵     Turn your eyes from me
        because they overpower me as always.
    Your hair moves as gracefully as a flock of goats
        leaping down the slopes of Mount Gilead.
⁶     Your teeth are pearl white like a flock of sheep shorn,
        fresh up from a wash.
    Each is perfect and paired with another;
        not one of them is lost.
⁷     Your cheeks are rosy and round beneath your veil,
        like the halves of a pomegranate.
⁸     There may be 60 queens and 80 concubines—
        there may be more virgins than can be counted—
⁹     But my dove, my perfect love is the only one for me,
        the only daughter of her mother,
        the pure and favored child to the one who bore her.
    The young women saw her and called her blessed;
        the queens and concubines praised her.

¹⁰ Young Women of Jerusalem: Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
        as radiant as the full moon, as bright as sunlight,
        as majestic as an army beneath their banners?

¹¹ Her: I went down to walk among a stand of walnut trees,
        to take in the new growth of the valley,
    To see if the vines had budded
        or the pomegranates were blooming.
¹²     Before I knew it, my passions set me before some chariots,
        those belonging to my noble people.^[a]

¹³ Young Women of Jerusalem: Come back, come back, O Shulammite!
        Come back, come back to us, so that we can look upon you.

Him: Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
        as you would stare at the dance of joyous victory at Mahanaim?

7 Him: Your feet are so beautiful,
        perfectly fitted in sandals, noble daughter!^[b]
    Your sculpted thighs are like jewels,
        the work of a master hand.
²     Your hidden place is open to me like a goblet, perfect and round,
        that never runs dry of blended wine;
    Your waist is a mound of wheat—curved and white and fertile—
        encircled by lilies.
³     Your breasts are like two fawns,
        twins of a gazelle.
⁴     Your neck is as stunning as an ivory tower;
        your eyes shimmer like the pools in Heshbon
        by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
    Your nose is strong and proud like the tower of Lebanon,
        which points toward Damascus.
⁵     Your head is as stately as Mount Carmel;
        your hair shines like a tapestry of royal purple cloth—
        the king is held captive by your locks.
⁶     How beautiful you are, my love, and how pleasing
        In all your delightful and satisfying ways.
⁷     Your stature is as elegant as a date palm tree,
        and your breasts are sweet, attractive, and round like clusters of its fruit.
⁸     I say, “I will climb the palm tree;
        I will take hold of its fruit.”
    May your breasts be like clusters of grapes,
        the fragrance of your mouth^[c] like fresh apples,
⁹         and may your kisses satisfy like the best wine.

Her: May the wine go down smoothly for my love,
        flowing gently over his lips and teeth.^[d]
10     I belong to my love,
        and he has desire for me.

¹¹     (to him) Come out into the fields, my love,
        and there spend the night in the villages.
¹²     Let’s rise with the morning and go to the vineyards
        to see if the vines have budded,
    If their blossoms have opened,
        and if the pomegranates are in bloom.
        There I will give you my love.
¹³     The mandrakes send out their seductive fragrance,
        and the finest fruits wait at our doors—
    New pleasures as well as old—
        I have stored them up for you, my lover.

8 Her (to him): If only you were like my brother, my love,
        nursed at my mother’s breast!
    Then we could show our affection in public.
        I would kiss you, and no one would think anything of it.
        Nobody would look down on me.
²     I would take you by the hand
        and bring you to my mother’s house—
        she has taught me to be a woman.
    I would give you spiced wine to drink,
        and you could enjoy the juice of my pomegranates.

³     His left hand cradles my head,
        and his right hand reaches out to embrace me.

⁴     (to the young women of Jerusalem) Heed my warning:
        I charge you not to excite your love until it is ready.
    Don’t stir a fire in your heart too soon, until it is ready to be satisfied.

⁵ Young Women of Jerusalem: Who is this woman coming up from the desert,
        leaning on her love?

Her: Under the apple tree I roused your love for me,
        in the place where your mother conceived you,
        in the place where she gave birth to you.
⁶     Set me as a seal over your heart;
        wear me as an emblem on your arm
    For love is as strong as death,
        and jealousy is as relentless as the grave.
    Love flares up like a blazing fire, a very ardent flame.
⁷     No amount of water can quench love;
        a raging flood cannot drown it out.
    If a person tried to exchange all of his wealth for love,
        then he would be surely rejected.

⁸ Young Women of Jerusalem: We have a little sister
        whose breasts have not yet developed.
    How shall we protect her
        until the time when she is spoken for?
⁹     If she is a wall,
        we will build silver towers of protection;
    If she is a door,
        we will barricade the door with the strongest cedar.

¹⁰ Her: I was a wall,
        and now my breasts are like towers;
    At that time I found completeness and satisfaction in his eyes.

¹¹     Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon;
        he let farmers tend it and charged each a ransom for its produce—1,000 pieces of silver.
¹²     My vineyard is my own—mine to lend or mine to lease.
        Solomon, you may have your 1,000;
    Those who tend the fruit, your 200.

¹³ Him: You who dwell in the gardens,
        whose friends are always attentive to your voice,
    Let me hear it.

¹⁴ Her: Come quickly, my love.
        Be like a gazelle or young stag on the mountains of spices.

He scattered abroad; He gave freely to the poor;
    His righteousness endures throughout the ages.^[b]

¹ Look on me with a heart of mercy, O God,
    according to Your generous love.
According to Your great compassion,
    wipe out every consequence of my shameful crimes.
² Thoroughly wash me, inside and out, of all my crooked deeds.
    Cleanse me from my sins.

³ For I am fully aware of all I have done wrong,
    and my guilt is there, staring me in the face.
⁴ It was against You, only You, that I sinned,
    for I have done what You say is wrong, right before Your eyes.
So when You speak, You are in the right.
    When You judge, Your judgments are pure and true.^[a]
5 For I was guilty from the day I was born,
    a sinner from the time my mother became pregnant with me.

⁶ But still, You long to enthrone truth throughout my being;
    in unseen places deep within me, You show me wisdom.
⁷ Cleanse me of my wickedness with hyssop, and I will be clean.
    If You wash me, I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Help me hear joy and happiness as my accompaniment,
    so my bones, which You have broken, will dance in delight instead.
⁹ Cover Your face so You will not see my sins,
    and erase my guilt from the record.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God;
    restore within me a sense of being brand new.
¹¹ Do not throw me far away from Your presence,
    and do not remove Your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Give back to me the deep delight of being saved by You;
    let Your willing Spirit sustain me.

¹³ If You do, I promise to teach rebels Your ways
    and help sinners find their way back to You.
¹⁴ Free me from the guilt of murder, of shedding a man’s blood,
    O God who saves me.
    Now my tongue, which was used to destroy, will be used to sing with deep delight of how right and just You are.

¹⁵ O Lord, pry open my lips
    that this mouth will sing joyfully of Your greatness.
¹⁶ I would surrender my dearest possessions or destroy all that I prize to prove my regret,
    but You don’t take pleasure in sacrifices or burnt offerings.
¹⁷ What sacrifice I can offer You is my broken spirit
    because a broken spirit, O God,
    a heart that honestly regrets the past,
You won’t detest.

¹⁸ Be good to Zion; grant her Your favor.
    Make Jerusalem’s walls steady and strong.
¹⁹ Then there will be sacrifices made,
    burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings,
With right motives that will delight You.
    And costly young bulls will be offered up to Your altar, only the best.