Song of Solomon 6

⁹How is your beloved better than others, O most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another, that you charge us so?

⁸If you do not know, O fairest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and graze your young goats near the tents of the shepherds.

⁸O Hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are You like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays but a night?

¹²May the Lord repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”

²Like a lily among the thorns is my darling among the maidens.

⁹but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the favorite of the mother who bore her. The maidens see her and call her blessed; the queens and concubines sing her praises.

¹⁰Who is this who shines like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, as majestic as the stars in procession?

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are like lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.

¹⁷For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

⁷Tell me, O one I love, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest them at midday? Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸If you do not know, O fairest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and graze your young goats near the tents of the shepherds.

²⁰and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

²⁴Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

²¹For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

²²But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know.

¹⁶My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

¹⁰I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.

¹⁰For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.

¹⁰Who is this who shines like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, as majestic as the stars in procession?

²Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and departed for Tirzah, and as soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.

²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

¹⁴O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the crevices of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your countenance is lovely.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

¹Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go!

²⁶Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷“What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.

¹⁰Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

¹How beautiful you are, my darling—how very beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.

²Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin, and not one of them is lost.

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she said, “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

²⁸“O woman,” Jesus answered, “your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

²Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin, and not one of them is lost.

¹⁹Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.

³⁰And throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

³Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, and your mouth is lovely. Your brow behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.

¹⁴In colorful garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions are brought before you.

³He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

⁹The daughters of kings are among your honored women; the queen stands at your right hand, adorned with the gold of Ophir.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

⁹After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

¹⁴O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the crevices of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your countenance is lovely.

⁹The daughters of kings are among your honored women; the queen stands at your right hand, adorned with the gold of Ophir.

¹³Leah said, “How happy I am! For the women call me happy.” So she named him Asher.

⁹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,

²I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”

²⁸Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband praises her as well:

²⁹“Many daughters have done noble things, but you surpass them all!”

⁴You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as majestic as troops with banners.

¹And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

²⁶if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

²There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

⁵There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

⁴is like the light of the morning at sunrise of a cloudless dawn, the glistening after the rain on the sprouting grass of the earth.’

¹²Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my love.

²He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!

³“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.

¹²My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.

¹³Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,

¹I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; drink freely, O beloved.

²My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.

³⁶Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”

²⁰So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

⁸How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!

⁹I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man—the Holy One among you—and I will not come in wrath.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the Lord my God.

¹⁹After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

²When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

⁷Then He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.

²⁹Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.

¹⁷For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.

¹²Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will not be angry forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the Lord.