Old/New Testament
6 Where has your lover gone,
most beautiful among women?
Where has your lover turned,
so we may seek him with you?
2 My lover went down to his garden,
to the beds of balsam
to graze his flocks in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.
He browses among the lilies.
Acclaiming the Bride’s Beauty
4 You are beautiful, my darling,
like Tirzah,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awesome as an army with banners.
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
for they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of ewe goats
descending down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
that have come up from the washing.
Each of them has a twin,
and none among them is missing.
7 Your temple is like a slice of pomegranate
behind your veil.
8 There are sixty queens, eighty concubines,
and young women beyond number.
9 Yet my dove, my perfect one is unique.
She is her mother’s only one—
a virtuous child of the one who bore her.
Maidens saw her and called her blessed.
Queens and concubines praised her.
10 Who is this that appears like dawn?
As beautiful as the moon,
bright as the sun,
awesome as an army with banners.
11 I went down into the garden of nut trees
to look at the fruit of the valley,
to see if the vine had budded,
or the pomegranates had bloomed.
12 Before I was aware, my soul set me
among the chariots of my princely people.
7 Come back, come back, O Shulammite!
Come back, come back,
that we may look upon you.
Why do you gaze at the Shulammite
like the dance of Mahanaim?
2 How lovely are your sandaled feet,
O nobleman’s daughter!
The curves of your thighs are like jewels,
the work of a craftsman’s hand.
3 Your navel is a round goblet,
may it not lack mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat
enclosed with lilies.
4 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
5 Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon
near the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon
overlooking Damascus.
6 Your head crowns you like Carmel,
and the hair of your head like purple.
The king is captivated in its tresses!
7 How beautiful and how pleasing you are,
O Love, with your delights!
8 Your stature is like a date palm
and your breasts like its clusters.
9 I said, “I will climb the date palm
and take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
the fragrance of your breath like apple.
The Bride’s Appeal
10 May your mouth be like the best wine,
going down smoothly for my beloved,
causing the lips of sleepers to speak.
11 I am my lover’s,
and his desire is for me.
12 Come, my beloved,
let us go out into the field.
Let us spend the night in the villages.
13 Let us go out early to the vineyards,
—let us see if the vine has budded,
if their blossoms have opened,
and if the pomegranates have bloomed—
there I will give you my love.
14 The mandrakes have given off fragrance,
and over our door is every choice fruit,
both new and old,
that I have stored up for you, my lover.
8 O, that you were like a brother to me,
who nursed at my mother’s breasts.
If I found you outside, I would kiss you,
and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you
and bring you into my mother’s house—
she who has taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink
from the nectar of my pomegranate.
3 O that his left hand were under my head,
and his right hand embraced me.
4 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so delights.
Protecting Love
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her lover?
Under the apple tree I roused you.
There your mother travailed with you.
There she who was in labor gave you birth.
6 Set me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death,
jealousy as cruel as Sheol.
Its flames are bolts of fire,
the flame of Adonai.
7 Many waters cannot quench love,
nor rivers wash it away.
If one gave all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly despised.
8 We have a little sister,
still without breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a turret of silver.
If she is a door,
we will fence her in with cedar plank.
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts like towers.
Thus I have become in his eyes
as one bringing shalom.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon.
He entrusted the vineyard to caretakers.
Each was to bring for his fruit
a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My very own vineyard is before me.
The thousand are for you, Solomon,
and two hundred for those
who tend the fruit.
13 You who abide in the gardens,
friends are listening for your voice.
Let me hear it!
14 Come quickly, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!
Living as Heirs
4 Now I am saying, so long as the heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, even though he is the owner of everything. 2 Instead, he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were subservient to the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time came, God sent out His Son, born of a woman and born under law— 5 to free those under law, so we might receive adoption as sons. 6 Now because you are sons, God sent the Ruach of His Son into our hearts, who cries out, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son—and if a son, also an heir through God. [a] 8 But at that time, when you did not know God, you served those who by nature are not gods at all. 9 But now you have come to know God—or rather you have come to be known by God. So how can you turn back again to those weak and worthless principles? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain!
12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong— 13 you know it was because of a physical ailment that I proclaimed the Good News to you the first time; 14 and though my physical condition was a trial to you, you did not hate or reject me. No, you welcomed me as a messenger of God—or even as Messiah Yeshua. 15 So where is your sense of joy? For I testify that you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me, if possible. 16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?! 17 Others zealously court you—not in a good way, but they wish to shut you out so that you will court them. 18 To be courted is good, but let it always be in a good way—and not just when I am there with you. 19 My dear children! Again I suffer labor pains until Messiah is formed in you. 20 I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, for I don’t know what to make of you.
Midrash on Abraham’s Two Sons
21 Tell me, you who want to be under Torah, don’t you understand[b] the Torah? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. [c] 23 But one—the son by the slave woman—was born naturally;[d] while the other—the son by the free woman—was through the promise. 24 Now these things are being treated allegorically, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, giving birth to slavery—this is Hagar. 25 But this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free—she is our mother. 27 For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren woman
who bears no children.
Break forth and shout,
you who suffer no labor pains.
For more are the children of the desolate
than of the one who has a husband.”[e]
28 Now you, brothers and sisters—like Isaac, you are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Ruach, so it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son”[f] of the free woman. 31 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.