Old/New Testament
1 “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For your love is better than wine.
2 “Because of the savor of your good ointments, your name is as an ointment poured out. Therefore, the virgins love you.
3 “Draw me close.” “We will run after you.” “The king has brought me into his chambers.” “We will rejoice and be glad in you. We will remember your love more than wine.” “The righteous do love you.”
4 “I am black, O daughters of Jerusalem, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
5 “Do not see me because I am black. For the Sun has looked upon me. The sons of my mother were angry at me. They made me the keeper of the vines. But I did not keep my own vine.”
6 “Show me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you lie at noon. For why should I be as she who turns aside to the flocks of your companions?”
7 “If you do not know, O you, the fairest among women, go forth by the steps of the flock, and feed your kids by the tents of the shepherds.
8 “I have compared you, O my love, to the troupe of horses in the chariots of Pharaoh.
9 “Your cheeks are comely, with rows of stones, and your neck with chains.”
10 “We will make you borders of gold with floods of silver.”
11 “While the king was at his repast, my spikenard gave its smell.
12 “My well-beloved is as a bundle of myrrh to me. He shall lie between my breasts.
13 “My well-beloved is as a cluster of henna to me in the vines of En Gedi.”
14 “My love, behold, you are fair. Behold, you are fair. Your eyes are like doves.”
15 “My well-beloved. Behold, you are fair and pleasant. Also, our bed is green.
16 “The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are fir.”
2 “I am the rose of the field, the lily of the valleys.”
2 “Like a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”
3 “Like the apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my well-beloved among the sons of men. Under his shadow I had delight and sat down. And his fruit was sweet to my mouth.”
4 “He brought me into the wine cellar. And love was his banner over me.
5 “Sustain me with raisins, and comfort me with apples. For I am lovesick.
6 “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.
7 “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the does of the field, that you neither stir up nor awaken my love until she pleases.”
8 “It is the voice of my well-beloved. Behold, he comes leaping by the mountains, and skipping by the hills.
9 “My well-beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag. Lo, he stands behind our wall, looking forth from the windows, showing himself through the grates.
10 “My well-beloved spoke and said to me, ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come your way.
11 ‘For behold, winter has passed. The rain has ended and has gone away.
12 ‘The flowers appear on the Earth. The time of the singing of birds has come. And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
13 ‘The fig tree has brought forth her young figs. And the vines, with small grapes, have cast a savor. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.’
14 “My dove, who is in the holes of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me catch sight of you. Let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet and your face comely.”
15 “Take us, the foxes, the little foxes who destroy the vines. For our vines have small grapes.”
16 “My well-beloved is mine, and I am his. He feeds among the lilies,
17 “until the day breaks and the shadows flee away. Return, my well-beloved! Be like a gazelle, or a young stag upon the mountains of Bether!”
3 “In my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loved. I sought him, but I did not find him.
2 “I will rise now and go around in the city, by the streets, and by the open places, and will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I did not find him.
3 “The watchmen who went around the city found me. I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
4 “When I had passed a little from them, then I found him whom my soul loved. I took hold of him and did not leave him until I had brought him to my mother’s house, into her chamber who had conceived me.
5 “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the does of the field, that you neither stir up nor awaken my love until she pleases.
6 “Who is she who comes up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense, and with all the spices of the merchant?
7 “Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s! Sixty strong men of the valiant men of Israel are all around it.
8 “They all handle the sword and are expert in war. Everyone has his sword upon his thigh for the fear at night.
9 “King Solomon made himself a palace from the trees of Lebanon.
10 He made its pillars of silver, its pavement of gold, and its hangings of purple, whose midst was paved with the love of the daughters of Jerusalem.
11 “Come forth, you daughters of Zion, and behold the king, Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his marriage, and on the day of the gladness of his heart!”
2 Then, 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 to them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles (but privately to those who were the chief, lest by any means I should run - or had run - in vain).
3 But not even Titus - who was with me, though he were a Grecian - was compelled to be circumcised,
4 This was because of the false brethren who were craftily sent in; and crept in privately to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into bondage.
5 But we gave them no place, not even for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.
6 But by those who seemed to be great, I was not taught (whatever they were in time past, I am nothing the better; God accepts no man’s person) For those who are the chief have added nothing to me above what I had.
7 But on the contrary, when they saw that the Gospel was committed to me over the uncircumcision, as the Gospel over the circumcision was to Peter:
8 (For he who 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 to me - who are counted as pillars - they gave to me and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should preach to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision,
10 warning only that we should remember the poor (which I was also diligent to do).
11 And when Peter had come to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. For he was to be condemned.
12 For before certain ones came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they had come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
13 And the other Jews likewise played the hypocrites with him. So much so that Barnabas was led away with them by their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they did not go the right way to the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter before all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, why constrain the Gentiles to do like the Jews?
15 “We, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,
16 “know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith 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, by the works of the Law, no flesh shall be justified.
17 “If then, while we seek to be made righteous by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin? Absolutely not!
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 Law, that I might live to God.
20 “I am crucified with Christ, but I live; yet not I anymore, but Christ lives in me. And, in that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God, Who has loved me and given Himself for me.
21 “I do not abrogate the grace of God. For if righteousness is by the Law, then Christ died for nothing.”
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