Song of Songs 5, 6
The Groom
1 I came into my garden, O my sister, my bride;
I harvested my myrrh with my spices;
I ate my bread with my honey
And drank my wine with my milk.
O friends, eat and drink,
And O brothers, drink abundantly.
The Bride
2 I sleep, but my heart keeps watch;
The voice of my beloved—he knocks at the door!
“Open to me, my sister, my companion,
My dove, my perfect one;
For my head is wet with dew,
And my locks of hair with the drops of the night.”
3 I have taken off my tunic; how can I put it back on?
I have washed my feet; how can I dirty them?
4 My beloved put his hand by the opening of the door,
And my heart was stirred by him.
5 I arose to open to my beloved;
My hands dripped with myrrh,
My fingers with choice myrrh,
Upon the handles of the door.
6 I opened it for my beloved,
But my beloved had passed by.
My soul went after him because of his word,
And I sought him, but did not find him;
I called him, but he did not answer me.
7 The watchmen who encircled the city found me.
They struck and wounded me;
The guards of the walls removed my veil.
8 I implore you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the hosts and powers of the field,
If you find my beloved, what should you tell him?
That I am wounded with love.
Companions
9 What is your beloved more than another beloved,
My beautiful one among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
That you implore us?
The Bride
10 My beloved is a shining and fiery light,
Chosen from countless thousands.
11 His head is like refined gold;
His locks of hair are shiny and black,
Like a raven’s feathers.
12 His eyes are like those of doves
Sitting by pools of water,
Having eyes bathed in milk and fitly set.
13 His cheeks are like bowls of spices
Pouring forth perfumes.
His lips are lilies dripping choice myrrh.
14 His hands are like elaborate gold
Set with precious stones.
His stomach is like an ivory tablet
Inlaid with sapphire stones.
15 His legs are like pillars of marble
Established on golden feet.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
Choice as the cedar trees.
16 His mouth is most sweet and altogether desirable.
This is my beloved, my companion,
O daughters of Jerusalem!
Companions
1 Where has your beloved gone,
You beautiful one among women?
Where has your beloved turned his attention?
For we will seek him with you.
The Bride
2 My beloved has gone down to his garden,
To the beds of spice,
To shepherd his sheep in the gardens
And to gather lilies.
3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine,
He who shepherds his sheep among the lilies.
The Groom
4 You are beautiful, my companion,
You are my good pleasure;
You are as beautiful as Jerusalem;
You are as awesome as an army set in array.
5 Turn away your eyes from before me,
For they have ravished me.
Your hair is like flocks of goats
Coming down from Gilead.
6 Your teeth are as flocks of sheep
That are sheared,
Which came up from the washing.
All of them bear twins,
And none among them is barren.
7 Your lips are like scarlet thread,
And your manner of speech is lovely.
Your cheeks outside your veil
Are like the rind of a pomegranate.
8 There are sixty queens
And eighty concubines,
And maidens without number.
9 My dove, my perfect one is the only one;
And she is the only one of her mother,
The choice of the one who bore her.
The daughters saw her
And considered her blessed.
The queens and the concubines will also praise her.
10 Who is she who looks forth as the early morning,
Beautiful as the moon,
Choice as the sun,
Awesome as armies set in array?
Bride
11 I went down to the orchard of nut trees
To see the fruits of the valley,
To see if the vineyard had blossomed
And if the pomegranates had put forth blossoms.
There I will give my breasts to you:
12 My soul did not know it.
It made me as the chariots of Amminadab.
Psalm 50:11–21
11 Turn Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my transgressions.
12 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
13 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
14 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me with Your guiding Spirit.
15 I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And the ungodly shall turn back to You.
16 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall greatly rejoice in Your righteousness.
17 O Lord, You shall open my lips,
And my mouth will declare Your praise.
18 For if You desired sacrifice, I would give it;
You will not be pleased with whole burnt offerings.
19 A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,
A broken and humbled heart God will not despise.
20 Do good, O Lord, in Your good pleasure to Zion,
And let the walls of Jerusalem be built;
21 Then You will be pleased with a sacrifice of righteousness,
With offerings and whole burnt offerings;
Then shall they offer young bulls on Your altar.
Proverbs 10:28–33
28 The fear of the Lord increases days,
But the years of the ungodly will be shortened.
29 Gladness continues for the righteous,
But the hope of the ungodly perishes.
30 The fear of the Lord is the stronghold of a holy man,
But destruction is for those who work evil.
31 A righteous man will never fail,
But the ungodly shall not inhabit the earth.
32 The mouth of a righteous man distills wisdom,
But the tongue of an unrighteous man utterly destroys.
33 The lips of righteous men distill grace,
But the mouth of the ungodly is perverse.
1 Corinthians 9
1 Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 My defense to those who examine me is this:
4 Do we have no right to eat and drink?
5 Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?
7 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?
8 Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also?
9 For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about?
10 Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11 If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?
12 If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.
13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?
14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
15 But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void.
16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!
17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
18 What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.
Serving All Men
19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;
20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;
21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law;
22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.
Striving for a Crown
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.