Old/New Testament

1 The Song of Songs, the most beautiful of them all, which is Solomon’s.

The First Song

The Woman

² “May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. ³ Your oils have a pleasing smell. Your name is like oil poured out. So the young women love you. ⁴ Take me away with you, and let us run together. The king has brought me into his room.

“We will have joy and be glad because of you. We will praise your love more than wine. They are right to love you.

⁵ “I am dark but beautiful, O people of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. ⁶ Do not look hard at me because I am dark, for the sun has burned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me, and made me take care of the grape-fields. But I have not taken care of my own grape-field. ⁷ Tell me, O you whom my soul loves. In what field do you feed your flock? Where do your sheep lie down at noon? Why should I need to look for you beside the flocks of your friends?”

King Solomon

⁸ “If you do not know, most beautiful among women, follow the path of the flock. And let your young goats eat in the field beside the tents of the shepherds.

⁹ “To me, my love, you are like my horse among the war-wagons of Pharaoh. ¹⁰ Your face is beautiful with the objects you wear, and your neck with the beautiful chain around it. ¹¹ We will make objects of gold and silver for you.”

The Woman

¹² “While the king was at his table, my perfume gave out its smell. ¹³ My loved one is like a jar of perfume to me, who lies all night between my breasts. ¹⁴ My loved one is to me like many henna flowers, in the grape-fields of Engedi.”

King Solomon

¹⁵ “How beautiful you are, my love! How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves.”

The Woman

¹⁶ “How beautiful you are, my love, and so pleasing! Our bed is green. ¹⁷ The pillars of our house are cedars. The pieces on our roof are pine.

2 “I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.”

King Solomon

² “Like a lily among the thorns, so is my loved one among the young women.”

The Woman

³ “Like a fruit tree among many trees, so is my loved one among the young men. With much joy I sat down in his shadow. And his fruit was sweet to my taste. ⁴ He brought me to his special large room for eating, and his colors over me were love. ⁵ Make me strong with cakes of dried grapes. Make me strong again with fruit, because I am sick with love. ⁶ Let his left hand be under my head and his right hand hold me close.”

King Solomon

⁷ “I tell you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and deer of the field, you must not wake up my love until it is pleasing to her.”

The Second Song

The Woman

⁸ “Listen, it is the voice of my loved one! See, he is coming! He is running over the mountains, jumping across the hills. ⁹ My love is like a gazelle or a young deer. See, he is standing behind our wall. He is looking through the windows, through the wood cross-pieces.

¹⁰ “My love speaks and says to me, ‘Get up, my love, my beautiful one, and come with me. ¹¹ For see, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. ¹² The flowers are coming through the ground. The time for singing has come. The voice of the turtle-dove has been heard in our land. ¹³ The fig tree has its fruits. The flowers on the vines spread their sweet smell. Get up, my love, my beautiful one, and come with me! ¹⁴ O my dove, hidden in the rock, in the secret place in the mountain-side, let me see you. Let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet, and you are beautiful.

¹⁵ ‘Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are destroying our grape-fields, for the flowers are on the vines. ¹⁶ My love is mine, and I am his. He lets his flock eat among the lilies. ¹⁷ Until the morning comes and the shadows hurry away, turn, my love. Be like a gazelle or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.’”

The Woman

3 “On my bed night after night I looked for him whom my soul loves. I looked for him but did not find him. ² ‘I must get up now and go about the city, in the streets and in the open places. I must look for him whom my soul loves.’ I looked for him but did not find him. ³ The men who watch over the city found me, and I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’ ⁴ I had just passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held on to him and would not let him go, until I had brought him to my mother’s house, and into the room of her who gave birth to me.”

King Solomon

⁵ “I tell you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the deer of the field, you must not wake up my love until it is pleasing to her.”

The Third Song

The Woman

⁶ “What is this coming up from the desert like smoke? It has the smell of special perfumes, with all the perfumes of the traders. ⁷ See, it is the traveling wagon of Solomon. Sixty of the strong men of Israel are around it. ⁸ All of them use the sword and are very able in war. Each man has his sword at his side, keeping watch against trouble in the night. ⁹ King Solomon has made for himself a beautiful wagon from the wood of Lebanon. ¹⁰ He made its long pieces of silver, its back of gold, and its seat of purple cloth. The inside of it was made beautiful by the daughters of Jerusalem. ¹¹ Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon as he wears the crown his mother put on his head on the day of his wedding, on the day his heart was glad.”

The Church Leaders in Jerusalem Say Paul Is a True Missionary

2 Fourteen years later I went again to Jerusalem. This time I took Barnabas. Titus went with us also. ² God showed me in a special way I should go. I spoke to them about the Good News that I preach among the people who are not Jews. First of all, I talked alone to the important church leaders. I wanted them to know what I was preaching. I did not want that which I was doing or would be doing to be wasted.

³ Titus was with me. Even being a Greek, he did not have to go through the religious act of becoming a Jew. ⁴ Some men who called themselves Christians asked about this. They got in our meeting without being asked. They came there to find out how free we are who belong to Christ. They tried to get us to be chained to the Law. ⁵ But we did not listen to them or do what they wanted us to do so the truth of the Good News might be yours.

⁶ Those who seemed to be important church leaders did not help me. They did not teach me anything new. What they were, I do not care. God looks on us all as being the same. ⁷ Anyway, they saw how I had been given the work of preaching the Good News to the people who are not Jews, as Peter had been given the work of preaching the Good News to the Jews. ⁸ For God helped Peter work with the Jews. He also helped me work with those who are not Jews. ⁹ James and Peter and John were thought of as being the head church leaders. They could see that God’s loving-favor had been given to me. Barnabas and I were joined together with them by shaking hands. Then we were sent off to work with the people who are not Jews. They were to work with the Jews. ¹⁰ They asked us to do only one thing. We were to remember to help poor people. I think this is important also.

¹¹ But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to stand up against him because he was guilty. ¹² Peter had been eating with the people who are not Jews. But after some men came who had been with James, he kept away from them. He was afraid of those who believe in the religious act of becoming a Jew. ¹³ Then the rest of the Jews followed him because they were afraid to do what they knew they should do. Even Barnabas was fooled by those who pretended to be someone they were not. ¹⁴ When I saw they were not honest about the truth of the Good News, I spoke to Peter in front of them all. I said, “If you are a Jew, but live like the people who are not Jews, why do you make the people who are not Jews live like the Jews?” ¹⁵ You and I were born Jews. We were not sinners from among the people who are not Jews. ¹⁶ Even so, we know we cannot become right with God by obeying the Law. A man is made right with God by putting his trust in Jesus Christ. For that reason, we have put our trust in Jesus Christ also. We have been made right with God because of our faith in Christ and not by obeying the Law. No man can be made right with God by obeying the Law. ¹⁷ As we try to become right with God by what Christ has done for us, what if we find we are sinners also? Does that mean Christ makes us sinners? No! Never! ¹⁸ But if I work toward being made right with God by keeping the Law, then I make myself a sinner. ¹⁹ The Law has no power over me. I am dead to the Law. Now I can live for God. ²⁰ I have been put up on the cross to die with Christ. I no longer live. Christ lives in me. The life I now live in this body, I live by putting my trust in the Son of God. He was the One Who loved me and gave Himself for me. ²¹ I say that we are not to put aside the loving-favor of God. If we could be made right with God by keeping the Law, then Christ died for nothing.