Old/New Testament
1 The song of songs[a] of Solomon
A Bride Sings of Her Lover
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine.
3 Your ointments have a pleasing fragrance.
Your name is poured out like perfume.
No wonder maidens love you!
4 Draw me after you, let us run!
The king has brought me into his chambers.
Chorus: Daughters of Zion
Let us rejoice and be glad in you;
let us extol your love more than wine.
Rightly do they love you!
The Bride
5 I am black, but beautiful,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark,
because the sun has looked on me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
and made me keeper of the vineyards;
my very own vineyard I have not kept.
7 Tell me, the one my soul loves,
where you graze your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon?
Why should I be as one veiled
beside the flocks of your companions?
The Lover and Bride Express Affection
8 If you yourself do not know,
O most beautiful among women,
go out yourself in the footsteps of the flock
and graze your kids by the shepherds’ tents.
9 I compare you, my darling,
to my mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of beads.
11 Ornaments of gold we will make for you
with spangles of silver.
12 While the king is on his couch,
my nard spreads its fragrance.[b]
13 My lover is my pouch of myrrh,
passing the night between my breasts.
14 My love is to me a spray of henna blooms
in the vineyards of En-gedi.
15 How lovely you are, my darling, how lovely!
Your eyes are doves.
16 How handsome you are, my lover!
Oh, so delightful!
Yes, our couch is luxuriant.
17 The beams of our houses are cedar trees,
our panels are cypress trees.
2 I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
2 Like a lily among thorns,
so is my darling among the daughters.
3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my lover among the sons.
In his shadow I delighted to sit,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He has brought me to the banquet house
and his banner over me is love.
5 Sustain me with raisin cakes,
refresh me with apples—
for I am weak with love.
6 His left hand is under my head
and his right hand embraces me.
7 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you,
by the gazelles and does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love until it delights.
8 The voice of my lover!
Behold, he is coming—
leaping over the mountains,
springing over the hills!
9 My lover is like a gazelle
or a young buck among the stags.
Look! He is standing behind our wall—
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
10 In response my lover said to me:
“Get yourself up, my darling,
my pretty one, and come, come![c]
11 For behold, the winter has past,
the rain is over, it has gone.
12 Blossoms appear in the land,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens its early figs.
The blossoming vines give off their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling,
my pretty one, and come, come!
14 My dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in a secret place along the steep path,
let me see your form,
let me hear your voice.
For your voice is sweet
and your form is lovely.”
15 Catch the foxes for us—
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in blossom.
The Bride’s Revelry
16 My lover is mine, and I am his!
He grazes his flocks among the lilies.
17 Until the day cools
and the shadows flee away,
turn about, my lover,
like a gazelle or like a stag
upon the mountains of spices.
3 On my bed in the night
I longed for the one my soul loves.
I looked for him but did not find him.
2 I will get up and go about the city,
into the streets and into the squares.
I must seek the one my soul loves.
I looked for him but did not find him.
3 The guards patrolling the city found me.
“Have you seen the one my soul loves?”
4 Hardly had I passed beyond them
when I found the one my soul loves.
I held him, and I would not let him go,
until I brought him to my mother’s house,
to the chamber of her who conceived me.
5 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you,
by the gazelles and does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it delights.
The King on his Wedding Day
6 Who is this—she who is coming up from the wilderness
like columns of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with every powder of the merchant?
7 Behold, it is Solomon’s traveling couch—
around it are sixty warriors
from the warriors of Israel.
8 All of them wield a sword,
experts in war.
Each man with his sword on his thigh
against terrors of the night.
9 King Solomon has made for himself
a carriage from the trees of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver, its back of gold,
its seat of purple cloth,
its interior fitted out with love
by the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Go out, daughters of Zion,
and gaze upon King Solomon,
with a wreath his mother placed on him
on the day of his marriage—
on the day of his heart’s joy.
Accepted in Jerusalem
2 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me. 2 Because of a revelation, I went up and presented to them the Good News that I proclaim among the Gentiles. But I did so privately to those who seemed to be influential, to make sure I would not run—or had not run—in vain. [a] 3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, a Greek, was forced to be circumcised. 4 Now this issue came up because of false brothers secretly brought in (who slipped in to spy out our freedom in Messiah, in order to bring us into bondage). 5 But we did not give in to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the Good News might be preserved for you.
6 But from those who seemed to be influential (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—well, those influential ones added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised just as Peter was for the circumcised. 8 (For the same God who was at work in Peter as an emissary to the Jews, also was at work in me as a emissary to the Gentiles.) 9 Realizing the favor that had been given to me, Jacob and Peter[b] and John—who are the recognized pillars—shook hands in partnership with Barnabas and me,[c] so that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews. 10 They asked only that we remember the poor—something I also was eager to do.
Confronting Hypocrisy
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong— 12 for before certain people came from Jacob, he regularly ate with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and separate himself, fearing those from the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter in front of everyone, “If you—being a Jew—live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
15 We are Jews by birth and not sinners from among the Gentiles. 16 Yet we know that a person is set right not by deeds based on Torah, but rather through putting trust in Messiah Yeshua.[d] So even we have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua, in order that we might be set right based on trust in Messiah and not by deeds based on Torah—because no human will be justified[e] by deeds based on Torah. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Messiah, we ourselves also were found to be sinners, is Messiah then an agent of sin? May it never be! 18 For if I rebuild the very things I tore down, I prove myself to be a law-breaker. 19 For through law I died to law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Messiah; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but Messiah lives in me. And the life I now live in the body, I live by trusting in Ben-Elohim[f]—who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God—for if righteousness comes through Torah, then Messiah died for no reason!
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.