Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

45 My heart is composing a goodly matter; I speak of the verses which I have made concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

² Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into Thy lips; therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever.

⁶ Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the scepter of Thy Kingdom is a righteous scepter.

⁷ Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.

⁸ All Thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made Thee glad.

⁹ Kings’ daughters were among Thy honorable women; at Thy right hand stood the queen in gold of Ophir.

1 The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

² “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine.

³ Because of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the virgins love thee.

⁴ Draw me, we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into his chambers.” “We will be glad and rejoice in thee; we will remember thy love more than wine; the upright love thee.”

⁵ “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

⁶ Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

⁷ Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon; for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?”

⁸ “If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹ I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.

¹⁰ Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.”

¹¹ “We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.”

¹² “While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

¹³ A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night between my breasts.

¹⁴ My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna in the vineyards of Engedi.”

¹⁵ “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.”

¹⁶ “Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant. Also our bed is green.

¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.

² My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations,

³ knowing this: that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

⁴ But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

⁵ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.

⁶ But let him ask in faith, never wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

⁷ For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

⁸ A doubleminded man is unstable in all his ways.