Old/New Testament
An [a]Excellent Song Which Was Solomon’s
1 1 The familiar talk and mystical communication of the spiritual love between Jesus Christ and his Church. 5 The domestical enemies that persecute the Church.
1 Let [b]him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.
2 Because of the [c]savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as an ointment poured out: therefore the [d]virgins love thee.
3 [e]Draw me: we will run after thee: the King hath brought me into his [f]chambers: we will rejoice and be glad in thee: we will remember thy love more than wine: the righteous do love thee.
4 I am [g]black, O daughters of Jerusalem, but comely, as the tents of [h]Kedar, and as the [i]curtains of Solomon.
5 Regard ye me not because I am [j]black: for the [k]sun hath looked upon me. The [l]sons of my mother were angry against me: they made me the keeper of the vines: but I [m]kept not mine own vine.
6 Show me, [n]O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest at noon: for why should I be as she that turneth aside to the stocks of [o]thy companions?
7 [p]If thou know not, O thou the fairest among women, get thee forth by the steps of the flock, and feed thy kids by the tents of the shepherds.
8 I have compared thee, O my love, to the troupe of horses in the [q]chariots of Pharaoh.
9 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of stones, and thy neck with chains.
10 We will make thee borders of gold with floods of silver.
11 [r]While the King was at his repast, my spikenard gave the smell thereof.
12 My well-beloved is as a bundle of myrrh unto me: he shall lie between my [s]breasts.
13 My well-beloved is as a cluster of camphire unto me in the vines of En Gedi.
14 My love, behold, thou art [t]fair: behold, thou art fair: thine eyes are like the doves.
15 My well-beloved, behold, thou art fair, and pleasant: also our [u]bed is green.
16 The beams of our house are cedars, our rafters are of fir.
2 3 The Church desireth to rest under the shadow of Christ. 8 She heareth his voice. 14 She is compared to the dove. 15 And the enemies to the foxes.
1 I am the rose of the field, and the lily of the valleys.
2 Like a lily among the thorns, so is my [v]love among the daughters.
3 [w]Like the apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my well-beloved among the sons of men: under his shadow had I delight, and sat down: and his fruit was sweet unto my mouth.
4 He brought me into the wine cellar, and love was his banner over me.
5 Stay me with flagons, and comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
6 His left hand is under mine head, and his right hand doth embrace me.
7 [x]I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor waken my love, until she please.
8 [y]It is the voice of my well-beloved: behold, he cometh leaping by the mountains, and skipping by the hills.
9 My well-beloved is like a roe, or a young hart: lo, he [z]standeth behind our wall, looking forth of the windows, showing himself through the [aa]grates.
10 My well-beloved spake and said unto me, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come thy way.
11 For behold, [ab]winter is past: the rain is changed, and is gone away.
12 The flowers appear in the earth: the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree hath brought forth her young figs: and the vines with their small grapes have cast a savor: arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
14 My dove, that art in the [ac]holes of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, show me thy sight, let me hear thy voice: for thy voice is sweet, and thy sight comely.
15 Take us the foxes, the [ad]little foxes, which destroy the vines: for our vines have small grapes.
16 My well-beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies,
17 Until the daybreak, and the shadows flee away: return, my well-beloved, and be like a [ae]roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
3 1 The Church desireth to be joined inseparably to Christ her husband. 6 Her deliverance out of the wilderness.
1 In my bed by [af]night I sought him that my soul loved: I sought him, but I found him not.
2 I will rise therefore now, and go about in the city, by the streets, and by the open places, and will [ag]seek him that my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
3 The [ah]watchmen that went about the city, found me: to whom I said, Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?
4 When I had passed a little from them, then I found him whom my soul loved: I took hold on him, and left him not, till I had brought him unto my mother’s house, into the chamber of her that conceived me.
5 [ai]I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor waken my love until she please.
6 Who is she that cometh up out of the [aj]wilderness like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and incense, and with all the [ak]spices of the merchant?
7 Behold his [al]bed, which is Solomon’s: threescore strong men are round about it, of the valiant men of Israel.
8 They all handle the sword, and are expert in war, everyone hath his sword upon his thigh for the fear [am]by night.
9 King Solomon made himself a [an]palace of the trees of Lebanon.
10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, and the pavement thereof of gold, the hangings thereof of purple, whose midst was paved with the love of the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 Come forth, ye [ao]daughters of Zion, and behold the King Solomon with the [ap]crown, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his marriage, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.
2 1 That the Apostles did nothing disagree from his Gospel, 3 he declareth by the example of Titus being uncircumcised, 11 and also by his . . . the same against Peter’s dissimulation. 17 And so he passeth to the handling of our free justification by Christ, etc.
1 Then [a]fourteen years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took with me Titus also.
2 And I went up by revelation, and declared unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but particularly to them that were the chief, lest by any means I should run, or had run [b]in vain:
3 But neither yet Titus which was with me, though he were a Grecian, was compelled to be circumcised,
4 To wit, for the [c]false brethren which were craftily sent in, and crept in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.
5 To whom we gave not place by [d]subjection for an hour, that the [e]truth of the Gospel might continue with [f]you.
6 But by them which seemed to be great, I was not taught (whatsoever they were in time passed, I am nothing the better: (A)God accepteth no man’s person) for they that are the chief, did add nothing to me above that I had.
7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the Gospel over the [g]uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the Gospel over the circumcision was unto Peter:
8 (For he that was mighty by Peter in the Apostleship over the circumcision, was also mighty by me toward the Gentiles.)
9 And when James, and Cephas, and John, knew of the grace that was given unto me, which are [h]counted to be pillars, they gave to me and to Barnabas the right [i]hands of fellowship, that we should preach unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision,
10 Warning only that we should remember the poor: which thing also I was diligent to do.
11 ¶ And when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to his [j]face: for he was to be condemned.
12 [k]For before that certain came from James, he ate with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
13 And the other Jews played the hypocrites likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas was [l]led away with them by that their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw, that they went not the [m]right way to the [n]truth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before all men, If thou being a Jew, livest as the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, why [o]constrainest thou the Gentiles to do like the Jews?
15 [p]We which are Jews [q]by nature, and not [r]sinners of the Gentiles,
16 Know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith [s]of Jesus Christ, even we, I say, have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law, because that by the works of the Law, [t]no flesh shall be justified.
17 (B)[u]If then while [v]we seek to be made righteous by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin? God forbid.
18 For if I build again the things that I have destroyed, I make myself a trespasser.
19 For I through the Law am dead to the [w]Law, that I might live unto God.
20 I am crucified with Christ, but I live, yet not [x]I anymore, but Christ liveth in me: and in that I now live in the [y]flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who hath loved me, and given himself for me.
21 [z]I do not abrogate the grace of God: for if righteousness be by the Law, then Christ died without a [aa]cause.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.