Old/New Testament
Chapter 1
Title and Prologue[a]
1 The Song of Songs by Solomon.[b]
Longing for Love
Bride:
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
Your[c] love is more delightful than wine;
3 fragrant is the scent of your anointing oils.[d]
Your name is a perfume poured out,
and that is why the maidens love you.
4 Take me with you, and let us make haste;
bring me into your chamber, O king.
Companions:
We will exult and rejoice in you;[e]
we will praise your love more than wine;
how right it is to love you.
First Poem
Tell Me, You Whom My Heart Loves
Let Me Not Be Found Wandering . . .[f]
Bride:
5 I am dark[g] but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Salma.
6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
for I was scorched by the sun.
My mother’s sons vented their rage against me;
they forced me to look after the vineyards,
but my own vineyard[h] I could not watch over.
7 Tell me, you whom my heart loves,
where you pasture your flocks,
and where you rest them at midday,[i]
so that I may not be found wandering
beside the flocks of your companions.
Companions:
8 If you do not know,
O fairest among women,
follow the tracks of the flocks
and pasture your young goats
close to the tents of the shepherds.
To Sit in His Shadow Is My Delight[j]
Bridegroom:
9 I compare you, my beloved,
to a mare[k] harnessed to Pharaoh’s chariot.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with pendants
and your neck with its jeweled necklaces.
11 We will make ornaments of gold for you
that are studded with silver.
Bride:
12 While the king reclines on his couch,
my nard[l] yields its fragrance.
13 My beloved is for me a sachet of myrrh[m]
that lies between my breasts.
14 My beloved is for me a cluster of henna[n] blossoms
in the vineyards of En-gedi.
Bridegroom:
15 How beautiful you are, my beloved,
how beautiful you are;
your eyes are doves.[o]
Bride:
16 How handsome you are, my love,
and how you delight me.
Our couch is verdant.[p]
Bridegroom:
17 The beams of our house are cedar;
our rafters are all of pine.
Chapter 2
Bride:
1 I am a rose of Sharon,[q]
a lily of the valley.
Bridegroom:
2 As a lily growing among thorns,
so is my beloved among maidens.[r]
Bride:
3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among young men.
To sit in his shadow is my delight,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He escorts me into his banquet hall
and his banner[s] over me is love.
5 Strengthen me with raisins,
restore me with apples,[t]
for I am sick with love.
6 His left arm is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.
Bridegroom:
7 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,[u]
by the gazelles and the wild does:
Do not stir up or awaken love
before its time has come.
Second Poem[v]
Let Me See You
Bride:
8 Hark! I hear the voice of my beloved.
Look, here he comes,
leaping across the mountains[w]
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Look where he stands
behind our wall,
peering in through the windows,
gazing through the lattice.
10 My beloved speaks,
and he says to me:
“Arise, my beloved,
my fair one, and come!
11 [x]For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
12 The flowers appear in the countryside;
the season of joyful songs has arrived,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs
and the blossoms on the vine give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my beloved,
my fair one, and come!”
Bridegroom:
14 O my dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock,
in the sheltered recesses of the cliff,
let me see you,
let me hear your voice.
For your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
Companions:
15 Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes
that ruin our vineyards,
for our vineyards are blossoming.
Bride:
16 My beloved belongs to me, and I am his;[y]
he pastures his flock among the lilies.
17 Before the dawn[z] comes,
and the shadows flee,
return, my beloved,
like a gazelle or a young stag
upon the mountains of the covenant.
Third Poem
Chapter 3
I Found the One My Heart Loves[aa]
Bride:
1 Night[ab] after night upon my bed
I sought the one my heart loves.
I sought him, but I could not find him.
2 I said, “I will rise and go through the city,
along the streets and in the squares.
I will seek the one my heart loves.”
I sought him, but I could not find him.
3 The watchmen[ac] came upon me
as they made their rounds of the city,
and I asked them,
“Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
4 I had hardly gone past them
when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
until I had brought him to my mother’s house,[ad]
to the very room where she had conceived me.
Bridegroom:
5 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles and the wild does:
Do not stir up or awaken love
before its time has come.[ae]
Solomon on the Day of His Wedding[af]
Companions:
6 What is this coming up from the desert
like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
and with all the fragrant spices of the merchant?
7 Look, it is Solomon being carried in his litter,
and escorted by sixty valiant guards,
the bravest of the mighty warriors of Israel,
8 all of them expert swordsmen
and experienced in warfare,
each with his sword ready at his side
to guard against the terrors by night.[ag]
9 King Solomon had made himself a carriage
from the wood of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
its base of gold,
its seat of purple cloth,
and its framework inlaid with ivory.
11 Daughters of Zion,[ah] come forth
and welcome King Solomon
as he wears the crown
that his mother had placed upon his head
on the day of his wedding,
on the day of his heart’s joy.
Chapter 2
The Council of Jerusalem[a]
Confirmation of Paul’s Gospel and Mission. 1 Fourteen years later, I traveled up to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas, and I also took along Titus. 2 I went up in response to a revelation, and I set before them the gospel that I preach to the Gentiles—in a private meeting with the leaders—to ensure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain.
3 Yet not even Titus, who was accompanying me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 Yet some false brethren were secretly brought in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might reduce us to slavery. 5 But not for a single moment did we submit to them, in order that the truth of the gospel might remain untouched for you.
6 As for those who were regarded as men of importance—whether or not they actually were important makes no difference to me, nor does it matter to God—these men did not add anything further to my message. 7 On the contrary, they realized that I had been entrusted with preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with preaching the gospel to the circumcised ( 8 for the one who worked through Peter in his mission to the Jews was also at work in me in my mission to the Gentiles).
9 Therefore, when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged as pillars of the community, recognized the grace that had been bestowed upon me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles while they concentrated on the Jews. 10 They asked only one thing: that we remember the poor, which is the very thing I was eager to do.
Paul Rebukes Peter[b]
11 Peter’s Inconsistency at Antioch. However, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was in the wrong. 12 For until some people came from James,[c] he had been eating with the Gentiles; but when they arrived, he drew back and kept himself apart because he was afraid of the circumcised. 13 And the rest of the Jews[d] carried out the same pretense that he did, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their pretense.
14 Paul’s Rebuke. But when I saw that their conduct was not in accordance with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of all of them, “You are a Jew, yet you are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How then can you require the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Paul Defends the Freedom of Christians[e]
It Is Faith That Saves[f]
Justified by Faith in Christ.[g] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,[h] 16 yet we know that a man is justified not by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too came to believe in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in him and not by the works of the Law, for no one will be justified by the works of the Law.17 But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? By no means! 18 However, if I am now rebuilding what I previously tore down, then I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law[i] so that I might live to God.
I have been crucified with Christ. 20 And now it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if justification comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.
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