Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

118 Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good,
for his loyal love is forever.
² Let Israel say,
“His loyal love is forever.”

¹⁴ Yah^[a] is my strength and my song,^[b]
and he has become my salvation.^[c]
15 The sound of rejoicing and salvation^[d]
is in the tents of the righteous;
the right hand of Yahweh has done valiantly.
¹⁶ The right hand of Yahweh has exalted;
the right hand of Yahweh has done valiantly.
¹⁷ I will not die but live,
and tell of the works of Yah.^[e]
18 Yah has disciplined me severely,
but he did not consign^[f] me to death.
¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to Yah.^[g]
20 This is the gate of Yahweh,
through which the righteous will enter.
²¹ I will give thanks to you for you have answered me,
and you have become my salvation.^[h]
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
²³ This is from Yahweh;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day Yahweh has worked;^[i]
let us rejoice and be glad in him.^[j]

3 On my bed in the night,
    I sought^[a] him whom my heart^[b] loves.
I sought him, but I did not find him.
² Now I will arise, and I will go about in the city,
    in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my heart^[c] loves.
    I sought him, but I did not find him.
³ The sentinels who go about in the city found me.
    “Have you seen the one whom my heart^[d] loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed^[e] by them
    when I found him whom my heart^[f] loves.
I held him and I would not let him go
    until I brought him to the house of my mother,
        into the bedroom chamber of she who conceived me.

⁵ I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem,^[g]
    by the gazelles or by the does of the field,
do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!^[h]

⁶ What is this coming up from the desert
    like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
    from all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
⁷ Look! It is Solomon’s portable couch!^[i]
    Sixty mighty men surround it,^[j]
        the mighty men of Israel.
⁸ All of them wield swords;^[k]
    they are trained in warfare,^[l]
each with his sword at his thigh
    to guard against terror^[m] in the night.
⁹ King Solomon^[n] made for himself a sedan chair
    from the wood of Lebanon.
¹⁰ He made its column of silver, its back^[o] of gold, its seat of purple;
    its interior is inlaid with leather^[p] by the maidens of Jerusalem.^[q]
11 Come out and look, O maidens of Zion,^[r] at King Solomon,^[s]
    at the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
    on the day of the joy of his heart!