Old/New Testament
6 Where is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among nashim? Where is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee?
2 Dodi (my beloved) is gone down into his gan (garden), to the beds of spices, to feed in the ganim (gardens), and to gather shoshanim (lilies).
3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine; he feedeth among the shoshanim.
4 Thou art yafeh, O my love, as Tirtzah, lovely as Yerushalayim, awe-inspiring as bannered troops on the march.
5 Turn away thine eyes from me, for they overwhelm me; thy hair is as an eder of goats that descend from Gil‘ad.
6 Thy teeth are as an eder harechalim (flock of ewes) which go up from the washing, whereof every one is matched, and there is not one missing among them.
7 As a half pomegranate is thy temple within thy veil.
8 There are threescore melakhot (queens), and fourscore pilagshim (concubines), and alamot (young unmarried virgins) without number [T.N. Alamot is plural of almah, "virgin," alamot, "virgins;" see Shir HaShirim 1:3; Yeshayah 7:14; Bereshis 24:43; Shemot 2:8; Mishlei 30:19 where the word means explicitly or implicitly "virgin" and where "young woman" is not an adequate rendering, in this case, since the King was hardly interested in only young women in his harem, but demanded "virgins"; the older Jewish translations like Harkavy’s so translated the word as "virgin" in this verse until it became politically incorrect to do so in later, more liberal Jewish translations into English].
9 My yonah (dove), tammati (my perfect one, my undefiled) is unique; she is the only one of her em (mother), she is the barah (choice one) of her that bore her. The banot saw her, they called her blessed; yea, the melakhot and the pilagshim [see 6:8] praise her.
10 Who is she that looks forth like the shachar (dawn), yafeh as the levanah (moon), clear as the sun, and aweinspiring as bannered troops on the march?
11 I went down into the grove of nut trees to see the blossoms of the valley, and to see whether hagefen (the vine) flourished and the pomegranates bloomed.
12 Before I was aware, my nefesh lifted me up to the merkevot of ammi (my people) of one, a royal one.
13 (7:1) Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may gaze upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the mecholat Machanayim (dance of the Machanayim [see Bereshis 32:3]).
7 How beautiful are thy feet in sandals, O prince’s daughter! Thy graceful legs are like jewels, ma’aseh yedei amon (the work of the hands of an artist, see Prov 8:30).
2 (7:3) Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not wine: thy waist is like a mound of chittim (wheat) encircled by shoshanim (lilies).
3 (7:4) Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a gazelle.
4 (7:5) Thy tzavar (neck) is like a migdal of ivory; thine eyes like the pools of Cheshbon, by the sha’ar (gate) of Bat-Rabbim; thy nose is like the migdal of the Levanon which looketh toward Damascus.
5 (7:6) Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like royal tapestry; Melech is held captive in its tresses.
6 (7:7) How fair and how pleasant art thou, O Ahavah, for delights!
7 (7:8) This thy stature is like a tamar (palm tree), and thy breasts eshkolot (clusters [of fruit]).
8 (7:9) I said, I will climb up to the tamar, I will take hold of the branches thereof; now also thy breasts shall be as eshkelot hagefen (clusters of the vine), and the scent of thy breath like apples;
9 (7:10) And the roof of thy mouth like the best yayin of dodi (my beloved), that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.
10 (7:11) I am my beloved’s, and to me goeth forth his teshukah (desire).
11 (7:12) Come, dodi (my beloved), let us go forth into the sadeh; let us lodge in the villages.
12 (7:13) Let us get up early to the kramim (vineyards); let us see if the gefen budded, whether the tender grape appears, and the pomegranates bloom; there will I give thee my love.
13 (7:14) The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our doors are all manner of pleasant fruits, chadashim (new ones) and yeshanim (old ones), which I have stored up and kept for thee, O dodi (my beloved). [T.N. Just as there are different classes of women in the harem—so there are different residences in the book of Esther, for the malkah, for the pilegesh and for the almah or betulah; cf Song 6:8 and Esther chp 2.]
8 O that thou were like my brother, that nursed the breasts of immi (my mother)! Then, if I should find thee outside, I would kiss thee; yea, and no one would look down on me.
2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into bais immi [see 3:4]. Thou wouldest instruct me; I would cause thee to drink of spiced yayin and the nectar of my pomegranate.
3 His left hand should be under my rosh, and his right hand embrace me.
4 I charge you, O banot Yerushalayim, that ye arouse nor awake HaAhavah (the Love) till it pleases [i,e., until its own time, see 2:7; 3:5] .
5 Who is this that cometh up from the midbar, leaning upon her beloved? Under the tapuach (apple tree) I awakened thee; it was there thy em conceived thee; there she who brought thee forth conceived thee.
6 Set me as a chotam (seal) upon thine lev, as a chotam upon thine zero’a (arm); for ahavah is strong as mavet (death); kinah (jealousy) as unyielding as Sheol; the flames thereof are flames of eish, the flame of Hashem.
7 Mayim rabbim (many waters) cannot quench HaAhavah, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the wealth of his bais for ahavah, it would be utterly scorned.
8 We have an achot ketannah (little sister), and she hath as yet no breasts. What shall we do for achoteinu (our sister) in the day when she shall be spoken for?
9 If she be a chomah (wall), we will build upon her a pinnacle of kesef; and if she be a delet (door), we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
10 I am a chomah (wall), and my breasts, like migdalot; then was I in his eyes like one that findeth shalom.
11 Sh’lomo had a kerem (vineyard) at Baal-Hamon; he gave over the kerem (vineyard) unto caretakers; each had to pay a thousand pieces of kesef for the p’ri (fruit) thereof.
12 My kerem (vineyard), which is mine, is at my own disposal [see 7:13 (12)]; thou, O Sh’lomo, the thousand are for thee, and two hundred for those that tend the p’ri thereof!
13 Thou that dwellest in the ganim (gardens), the chaverim are listening for thy voice; cause me to hear it.
14 Make haste, dodi (my beloved), and be thou like to a gazelle or a young deer upon the mountains where spices grow.
4 Now I say this: for however much time as the yoresh (heir) has not attained his majority (the state or time of being of full legal age, or his religious majority, his Bar Mitzvah), he differs nothing from an eved, though being Ba’al Bayit of all the nachalah (inheritance).
2 And he is under shomrim (guardians) and omnot (governesses) until the time previously appointed by the Ba’al Bayit.
3 So also we, when we were immature, had been enslaved under the yesodot (rudiments) of the Olam Hazeh.
4 But when the fullness of time had come, Hashem sent forth his Ben HaElohim [Moshiach, 2Sm 7:14; Ps 2:7; 89:27], born of an isha (Gn 3:15; Isa 7:14; Mic 5:2), born under the Torah,
5 That Moshiach might bring the Geulah (Redemption) to the ones under the Torah, that we might receive the Ma’amad HaBanim (the standing as sons), the bechirah adoption.
6 And because you are banim, Hashem sent forth the Ruach of His Ben HaElohim into your levavot, crying "Abba, Avinu!"
7 So you are no longer an eved but a ben; and if a ben, also a yoresh through Hashem.
8 But, formerly, when you did not have da’as (knowledge) of Hashem, you were avadim serving that which is by nature not HaEl Ha’Amiti (the true G-d).
9 But, now, having known Hashem, or rather having been known by Hashem, how is it that you are returning to the weak and beggarly yesodot (rudiments) of the Olam Hazeh to which again you want to renew your service as avadim?
10 You [Galatian Goyim] observe yamim (days) and chodashim (months, new moons) and mo’adim (fixed times, festivals) and shanim.
11 I fear for you, lest somehow efsher (perhaps) I have labored for you lashav (in vain).
12 Become as I am, because I also became as you are, Achim B’Moshiach. I implore you. You did me no wrong.
13 And you know that it was due to chulshat habasar (weakness of the flesh, sickness) that I first preached the Besuras HaGeulah to you,
14 and your nisayon (trial) in my basar you did not despise nor did you loathe, but as a malach Hashem you received me, as Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua himself.
15 Where then is your birkat Shomayim? For I testify to you that if possible, having torn out your eynayeem (eyes), you would have made a mattanah (gift) of them to me.
16 So, then, have I become your oyev (enemy) by telling you HaEmes?
17 They (the mohalim haGoyim) are zealously courting you, but not in a good way; rather, they desire to cut you off and shut you out, in order that you may be zealous for them.
18 Now it is tov ma’od to be zealous in a good thing all the time, and not only during my presence with you.
19 My yeladim, for whom again I suffer chevlei leydah (birth pains) until Moshiach is formed in you,
20 Would that I were present with you just now and could change my tone, because I am baffled by you.
21 Tell me, you Goyim who wish to be under the Torah, do you not possess "shema" hearing of the Torah?
22 For the Torah says that Avraham Avinu had shnei banim (two sons), one of shifchah (the slave woman) and one of the gevirah.
23 But the one of the slave woman has been born according to the basar, and the one of the free woman has been born through the havtachah (promise).
24 Now these things can be taken derech mashal (figuratively); for these are two beritot (covenants, see 3:17), one from Mount Sinai bearing banim for avdut (slavery, bondage): this is Hagar.
25 Now, Hagar is the Mount Sinai in Arabia; and corresponds to the Yerushalayim of the present, for she is in avdut with her banim.
26 But the Yerushalayim above is a Bat Chorin (daughter of freedom), the Imma lechulanu (the Mother of us all TEHILLIM 87:5-6; SHEMOT 25:40; YESHAYEH 49:20f; 54:1-13).
27 For it has been written, RANNI AKARAH LO YALADAH PITZCHI RINNAH V’TZAHALI LO CHALAH KI RABBIM BENEI SHOMEMAH MIB’NEI VE’ULAH ("Sing, rejoice, O barren, the one not giving birth, break forth into song and shout for joy, the one not suffering birth pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than the one having the husband" YESHAYEH 54:1).
28 But you, Achim b’Moshiach, are Bnei HaHavtacha (Sons of the Promise), like Yitzchak. [BERESHIS 18:10]
29 But just as at that time the one born according to the basar was bringing redifah (persecution) on the one born according to the Ruach HaKodesh, so it is now also.
30 But what does the Kitvei HaKodesh say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for never will the son of the slave woman inherit with my son, the son of the free woman" BERESHIS 21:10)
31 Therefore, Achim B’Moshiach, we are not Bnei “HAAMAH” (Sons of the Slave Woman) but Bnei HaKhofshi’yah (Sons of Lady Freedom, the Freedwoman).
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