The Bride Praises Her Beloved (SNG 5:9-6:1)

She

[5:10] My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.

[5:11] His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.

[5:12] His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool.

[5:13] His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh.

[5:14] His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires.

[5:15] His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.

[5:16] His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Others

[6:1] Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other (SNG 6:3-7:10)

He

[6:4] You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.

[6:5] Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me— Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead.

[6:6] Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young.

[6:7] Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

[6:8] There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.

[6:9] My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

[6:10] “Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?”

She

[6:11] I went down to the nut orchard to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vines had budded, whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

[6:12] Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.

Others

[6:13] Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?

[7:1] How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand.

[7:2] Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies.

[7:3] Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

[7:4] Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus.

[7:5] Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple; a king is held captive in the tresses.

[7:6] How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights!

[7:7] Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters.

[7:8] I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples,

[7:9] and your mouth like the best wine.

She

It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth.

[7:10] I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love (SNG 7:11-13)

[7:11] Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages;

[7:12] let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.

[7:13] The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

Longing for Her Beloved (SNG 8:1-7)

[8:1] Oh that you were like a brother to me who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and none would despise me.

[8:2] I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother— she who used to teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate.

[8:3] His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!

[8:4] I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

[8:5] Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor.

[8:6] Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.

[8:7] Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.

Final Advice (SNG 8:7-14)

Others

[8:8] We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?

[8:9] If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver, but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

[8:10] I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who finds peace.

[8:11] Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon; he let out the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

[8:12] My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.

He

[8:13] O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it.

She

[8:14] Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

The Wickedness of Judah (ISA 1:2-20)

[1:2] Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

[1:3] The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

[1:4] Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

[1:5] Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

[1:6] From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.

[1:7] Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.

[1:8] And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

[1:9] If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

[1:10] Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

[1:11] “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

[1:12] “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

[1:13] Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

[1:14] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

[1:15] When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

[1:16] Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,

[1:17] learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

[1:18] “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

[1:19] If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

[1:20] but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Unfaithful City (ISA 1:21-31)

[1:21] How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

[1:22] Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.

[1:23] Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

[1:24] Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.

[1:25] I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.

[1:26] And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”

[1:27] Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

[1:28] But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

[1:29] For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen.

[1:30] For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water.

[1:31] And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.

The Mountain of the Lord (ISA 2:1-5)

[2:1] The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

[2:2] It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

[2:3] and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

[2:4] He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

[2:5] O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.