Song of Songs 7, 8
1 Return, return, O Shulamite;
Return, return, and we will look at you.
The Groom
What will you see in the Shulamite,
She who comes as the troops of armies?
2 Why are your feet beautiful in your sandals,
O daughter of Nadab?
The curves of your thighs are like small necklaces,
The work of a skilled craftsman.
3 Your navel is like an elaborate bowl,
Not lacking mixed wine.
Your stomach is like a heap of wheat
Set about with lilies.
4 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
The twins of a gazelle.
5 Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
And your eyes are like pools in Heshbon
By the gates of a daughter of many.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
Pointing towards Damascus.
6 Your head crowns you like Carmel,
And the locks of your hair are like a purple garment.
The king is held captive by your curls.
7 How beautiful and how sweet you are, O love,
With your delights!
8 This greatness of yours is like the palm tree,
And your breasts like a cluster of grapes.
9 I said, “I will climb up the palm tree,
And grasp hold of its high branches.”
Indeed your breasts shall be like clusters of the vine,
And the fragrance of your nose like apples,
10 And your mouth like a good wine
That goes down smoothly for my beloved,
Fit for my lips and teeth.
The Bride
11 I am my beloved’s
And his desire is towards me.
12 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field;
Let us lodge in the villages;
13 Let us rise early in the morning in the vineyards;
Let us see if the vine has flowered,
If the blossoms have appeared,
If the pomegranates have blossomed.
There I will give you my breasts.
14 The mandrakes have put forth an aroma,
And fruits of all kinds, new and old,
Are at our doors.
O my beloved, I have kept them for you.
1 Who would have granted you, my brother,
To nurse at my mother’s breasts?
I would have found you outside;
I would have kissed you,
And no one would despise me.
2 Then I would take you along
And lead you to my mother’s house,
Into the chamber of her who conceived me;
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
The juice of my pomegranates.
3 His left hand would be under my head,
And his right hand would embrace me.
4 I implore you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the hosts and powers of the field,
Do not rouse nor wake my love
Until he wishes.
Companions
5 Who is she who comes up, is made white,
And leans on her beloved?
The Groom
Under an apple tree I raised you up.
There your mother travailed in labor for you;
There she who travailed in labor for you
Gave you birth.
6 Set me as a seal upon your heart,
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy as cruel as Hades.
Her sparks are sparks of fire,
Even the flames thereof.
7 Much water will not be able to quench love,
Nor will rivers drown it.
If a man should give all his possessions for love,
Men would utterly despise them.
Companions
8 Our sister is small and has no breasts;
What will we do for our sister
In the day when she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall, let us build silver battlements upon her;
And if she is a door, let us carve cedar panels for her.
The Bride
10 I am a wall, and my breasts are as towers;
I was in his eyes as one who found peace.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon;
He entrusted his vineyard to keepers.
A man was to bring a thousand silver coins for its fruit.
12 My vineyard before me is mine;
O Solomon, you shall have a thousand,
And those who keep its fruit, two hundred.
The Groom
13 You who dwell in the gardens,
The companions give heed to your voice;
Cause me to hear.
The Bride
14 Escape, my beloved, and be like the gazelle
Or the fawn of a deer
On the mountains of spices.
Psalm 51
1 For the End; concerning understanding; by David;
2 When Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul and said, “David went to the house of Abimelech.”
3 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man,
And in lawlessness all the day long?
4 Your tongue devises wrongdoing;
You work deceit like a sharpened razor.
5 You love evil rather than good,
Wickedness rather than speaking righteousness.
6 You love all the words of destruction;
You love a deceitful tongue.
7 Therefore, God shall destroy you completely;
He shall pluck you up and remove you from your dwelling,
And uproot you from the land of the living.
(Pause)
8 The righteous also shall see and fear,
And shall laugh at him, saying,
9 “Behold, this man did not make God his helper,
But hoped in the abundance of his riches;
And he was made powerful in his vanity.”
10 But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God;
I hope in God’s mercy
Forever and unto ages of ages.
11 I will give thanks to You forever for what You did,
And I will wait on Your name;
For it is good in the sight of Your holy ones.
Proverbs 11:1–5
1 Deceitful scales are an abomination before the Lord,
But a righteous weight is acceptable to Him.
2 Wherever arrogance enters, there also is dishonor,
But the mouth of the humble meditates on wisdom.
3 When a righteous man dies, he leaves regret,
But the destruction of the ungodly is immediate and brings joy.
4 Righteousness cuts straight and blameless paths,
But ungodliness embraces wrongdoing.
5 The righteousness of upright men delivers them,
But lawless men are taken to their destruction.
1 Corinthians 10:1–13
1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3 all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell;
9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;
10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.