Old/New Testament
The Friends Speak to the Woman
6 Where has your lover gone,
most beautiful of women?
Which way did your lover turn?
We will look for him with you.
The Woman Answers the Friends
2 My lover has gone down to his garden.
He has gone to the garden beds of spices
to feed in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
3 I belong to my lover.
And my lover belongs to me.
He feeds among the lilies.
The Man Speaks to the Woman
4 My darling, you are as beautiful as the city of Tirzah.
You are as lovely as the city of Jerusalem.
You are as wonderful as an army flying flags.
5 Turn your eyes from me.
They excite me too much!
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down Mount Gilead.
6 Your teeth are white like sheep
just coming from their bath.
Each one has a twin.
None of them is alone.
7 Your cheeks behind your veil
are like slices of a pomegranate.
8 There may be 60 queens and 80 slave women
and so many girls you cannot count them.
9 But there is only one like my dove, my perfect one.
She is her mother’s only daughter,
the brightest of the one who gave her birth.
The young women saw her and called her happy.
The queens and the slave women also praised her.
The Young Women Praise the Woman
10 Who is that young woman?
She shines out like the dawn.
She’s as pretty as the moon.
She’s as bright as the sun.
And she’s as wonderful
as an army flying flags.
The Man Speaks
11 I went down into the orchard of nut trees.
I went to see the blossoms of the valley.
I went to look for buds on the vines,
to see if the pomegranate trees had bloomed.
12 My desire for you makes me feel
like a prince in a chariot.
The Friends Call to the Woman
13 Come back, come back, woman of Shulam.
Come back, come back,
so we may look at you!
The Woman Answers the Friends
Why do you want to look at the woman of Shulam
as you would at the dance of two groups?
The Man Speaks to the Woman
7 Your feet are beautiful in sandals,
you daughter of a prince.
Your round thighs are like jewels
shaped by an artist.
2 Your navel is like a round drinking cup
always filled with wine.
Your stomach is like a pile of wheat
with lilies around it like a fence.
3 Your breasts are like two fawns.
They are like twins of a gazelle.
4 Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon
near the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon
which looks toward Damascus.
5 Your head is like Mount Carmel.
And your hair is like purple cloth.
The king is captured in its folds.
6 You are beautiful.
You are very pleasant.
My love, you are full of delights!
7 You are tall like a palm tree.
Your breasts are like its bunches of fruit.
8 I said, “I will climb up the palm tree.
I will take hold of its fruit.”
Let your breasts be like bunches of grapes.
Let the smell of your breath be like apples.
9 And let your mouth be like the best wine.
The Woman Speaks to the Man
Let this wine go down sweetly for my lover.
May it flow gently past the lips and teeth.
10 I belong to my lover,
and he desires only me.
11 Come, my lover.
Let’s go out into the country.
Let’s spend the night in the fields.
12 Let’s go early to the vineyards.
Let’s see if the buds are on the vines.
Let’s see if the blossoms have already opened
and if the pomegranates have bloomed.
There I will give you my love.
13 The mandrake flowers give their sweet smell.
And at our gates there are all the best fruits.
I have saved them for you, my lover,
the old delights and the new.
8 I wish you were like my brother
who was fed at my mother’s breasts!
If I found you outside,
I would kiss you.
And no one would look down on me.
2 I would lead you and bring you
to my mother’s house.
She is the one who has taught me.
I would give you a drink of spiced wine
from my pomegranates.
The Woman Speaks to the Friends
3 My lover’s left hand is under my head.
And his right arm holds me tight!
4 Women of Jerusalem, promise me.
Promise not to wake love.
Don’t excite my feelings of love
until I’m ready.
The Friends Speak
5 Who is this coming out of the desert,
leaning on her lover?
The Man Speaks to the Woman
I woke you under the apple tree.
It was there that you were born.
There your mother gave birth to you.
6 Put me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm.
Love is as strong as death.
Desire is as strong as the grave.
Love bursts into flames.
It burns like a very hot fire.
7 Even much water cannot put out the flame of love.
Floods cannot drown love.
If a man offered everything in his house for love,
people would totally reject it.
The Woman’s Brothers Speak
8 We have a little sister,
and her breasts are not yet grown.
What should we do for our sister
on the day she becomes engaged?
9 If she is a wall,
we will put silver towers on her.
If she is a door,
we will protect her with cedar boards.
The Woman Speaks
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.
So I was to him,
as one who brings happiness.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon.
He rented the vineyards for others to tend.
Everyone who rented had to pay
25 pounds of silver for the fruit.
12 But my own vineyard is mine to give.
Solomon, the 25 pounds of silver are for you.
And 5 pounds are for those who tend the fruit.
The Man Speaks to the Woman
13 You who live in the gardens,
my friends are listening for your voice.
Let me hear it!
The Woman Speaks to the Man
14 Hurry, my lover.
Be like a gazelle
or a young deer
on the mountains where spices grow.
4 I want to tell you this: While the one who will inherit his father’s property is still a child, he is no different from a slave. It does not matter that the child owns everything. 2 While he is a child, he must obey those who are chosen to care for him. But when the child reaches the age set by his father, he is free. 3 It is the same for us. We were once like children. We were slaves to the useless rules of this world. 4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son. His Son was born of a woman and lived under the law. 5 God did this so that he could buy freedom for those who were under the law. His purpose was to make us his children.
6 And you are God’s children. That is why God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts. The Spirit cries out, “Father, dear Father.”[a] 7 So now you are not a slave; you are God’s child, and God will give you what he promised, because you are his child.
Paul’s Love for the Christians
8 In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real. 9 But now you know the true God. Really, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to those weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again? 10 You still follow teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am afraid for you. I fear that my work for you has been wasted.
12 Brothers, I was like you; so I beg you to become like me. You were very good to me before. 13 You remember that I came to you the first time because I was sick. That was when I preached the Good News to you. 14 Though my sickness was a trouble for you, you did not hate me or make me leave. But you welcomed me as an angel from God, as if I were Jesus Christ himself! 15 You were very happy then. Where is that joy now? I remember that you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me if that were possible. 16 Now am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17 Those people[b] are working hard to persuade you. But this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us. They want you to follow only them. 18 It is good for people to show interest in you, but only if their purpose is good. This is always true. It is true when I am with you and when I am away. 19 My little children, again I feel pain for you as a mother feels when she gives birth. I will feel this until you truly become like Christ. 20 I wish I could be with you now. Then maybe I could change the way I am talking to you. Now I do not know what to do about you.
The Example of Hagar and Sarah
21 Some of you people still want to be under the law of Moses. Tell me, do you know what the law says? 22 The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman. The mother of the other son was a free woman. 23 Abraham’s son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.
24 This makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and men. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai.[c] The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement. 25 She is like Mount Sinai in Arabia and is a picture of the earthly Jewish city of Jerusalem. This city is a slave, and all its people are slaves to the law. 26 But the heavenly Jerusalem which is above is like the free woman. She is our mother. 27 It is written in the Scriptures:
“Be happy, Jerusalem.
You are like a woman who never gave birth to children.
Start singing and shout for joy.
You never felt the pain of giving birth to children.
But you will have more children
than the woman who has a husband.” Isaiah 54:1
28 My brothers, you are God’s children because of his promise, as Isaac was then. 29 The son who was born in the normal way treated the other son badly. It is the same today. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son! The son of the free woman will receive everything his father has. But the son of the slave woman will receive nothing.”[d] 31 So, my brothers, we are not children of the slave woman. We are children of the free woman.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.