Old/New Testament
The Friends
6 Where has your lover gone,
most beautiful of women?
Where did your lover turn?
We will look for him with you.
I Am His. He Is Mine.
The Woman
2 My lover has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to browse in the gardens,
and to gather lilies.
3 I am my lover’s, and my lover is mine.
He browses among the lilies.
You Are Beautiful
The Man
4 You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,[a]
lovely as Jerusalem,
majestic as troops with banners.
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
because they arouse me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
flowing down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
coming up from the washing.
Each has its twin. Not one of them is alone.
7 Your cheeks behind your veil
are like the halves of a pomegranate.
8 There may be sixty queens,
and eighty concubines,
and virgins beyond number,
9 but my dove, my perfect one, is one of a kind.
She is the only daughter of her mother,
pure to the one who bore her.
The girls saw her and called her blessed.
The queens and concubines also praised her.
The Friends
10 Who is this woman that appears like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun,
majestic as the stars in procession?
A Puzzling Interlude
The Woman or The Man[b]
11 I went down to the grove of nut trees,
to look at the new growth in the valley,
to see whether the vines had budded,
whether the pomegranates had blossomed.
12 Before I realized it, my desire set me
among the chariots of my willing people.[c]
Beautiful From Bottom to Top
The Friends
13 Turn back, turn back, O Shulammite.
Turn back, turn back, so that we may look at you![d]
The Woman[e]
7 Why would you look at the Shulammite.
as at the dance of Mahanaim?[f]
The Friends or The Man
2 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
O prince’s daughter!
Your hips are curved like a necklace,
the work of the hands of a craftsman.
3 Your navel is a round mixing bowl.
It never lacks blended wine.
Your belly is a mound of wheat, encircled by lilies.
4 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
5 Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are the pools in Heshbon,
by the gate of Bat Rabbim.[g]
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,
overlooking Damascus.
6 Your head rises above you like Mount Carmel.
The flowing hair of your head is like purple.
The king is captivated by its curls.
The Man
7 How beautiful you are and how pleasing,
O loved one, daughter of delights![h]
8 Your height is like that of the date palm,
and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
9 I said, “I will climb the date palm.
I will take hold of its bunches of fruit.”
May your breasts be like the clusters of the vine,
the fragrance of your breath like apples,
10a and your mouth like the best wine—
The Woman
10b —flowing to my lover,
gliding smoothly over lips and teeth.[i]
11 I belong to my lover,
and his desire is for me.
12 Come, my lover,
let us go to the fields.
Let us spend the night in the villages.
13 Let us go early to the vineyards.
We will see if the vines have budded,
if their blossoms have opened,
if the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give my love to you.
The mandrakes send out their fragrance.
At our door is every delicacy,
new as well as old,
that I have stored up for you, my lover.
He Embraces Me
The Woman
8 I wish that you were like a brother to me,
who was nursed at my mother’s breasts.
Then if I would meet you in public,
I could kiss you,
and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you.
I would bring you to my mother’s house
where she used to teach me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the juice of my pomegranates.
3 His left arm is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.
4 Daughters of Jerusalem, you must swear
that you will not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.
The Friends
5 5a Who is this woman coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on her lover?
The Wealth of Our House
The Woman
5b Under the apple tree I roused you.
There your mother conceived you.
There she who gave birth to you was in labor.
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm,
because love is as strong as death.
Its passion is as relentless as the grave.
Its flames are flames of fire, a mighty blaze.[j]
7 Many waters cannot quench such love.
Rivers cannot wash it away.
If a man were to offer all the wealth
of his house for love,
he would be utterly scorned.
The Brothers. . .Decorated With Silver
The Brothers
8 We have a little sister.
She has no breasts.
What shall we make for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build towers of silver on her.
If she is a door,
we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
My Own Vineyard
The Woman
10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers.
Thus I have become in his eyes
like one who delivers contentment.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon.
He leased his vineyard to tenants.
Each was to bring for its fruit
a thousand shekels of silver.
12 But my own vineyard is before me.
The thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.
The Last Call to Love
The Man
13 You who dwell in the gardens
with friends in attendance,
let me hear your voice!
Run Away With Me
The Woman
14 Run away, my love,
and be like a gazelle,
or like a young buck
on the mountains of spices.
God Sent His Son
4 What I am saying is this: As long as the heir is a young child, he is no different from a slave. Although he is owner of everything, 2 he is still under guardians and managers until the day set by his father. 3 So also, when we were younger children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ.[a]
Paul’s Concern for the Gentiles
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, why are you turning back again to the basic principles that are weak and miserable? Do you want to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You carefully observe days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am fearful about you, that somehow my labor for you was wasted.
12 I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I also became like you. You did me no harm. 13 You know that, because of a weakness of the flesh, I preached the gospel to you the first time. 14 And you did not despise or disdain the test my flesh gave you. Instead, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.
15 So where is this blessed attitude of yours now? Yes, I can say for a fact that, if it were possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are eager to win you over, but not in a good way. Rather, they want to alienate you, so that you will be eager for them. 18 But it is always a good thing to have someone eager in a good way—not just when I am present with you.
19 My children, I am suffering birth pains for you again until Christ is formed in you. 20 I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.
An Illustration: Hagar and Sarah
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you really listening to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman. 23 However, the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through a promise. 24 These things can be used as an illustration; namely, the women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery. This is Hagar. 25 You see,[b] this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free. She is our mother. 27 For it is written:
Rejoice, barren woman who does not give birth. Break forth and shout for joy, woman who does not suffer birth pains, because the barren woman has more children than does the woman who has a husband.[c]
28 Now you,[d] brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. 29 But just as back then the one who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so this is also the case now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, because the son of the slave woman will certainly not receive the inheritance with the son of the free woman.”[e] 31 For this same reason, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.