Old/New Testament
Women of Jerusalem
6 “Where has your loved one gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your loved one turned, that we may look for him with you?”
The Woman
2 “My love has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices. He has gone to feed his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies. 3 I am my love’s, and my love is mine, he who feeds his flock among the lilies.”
The Fifth Song
King Solomon
4 “You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my love, as beautiful as Jerusalem. You are to be feared as an army with flags. 5 Turn your eyes away from me, for they trouble me. Your hair is like a flock of goats that has come down from Gilead. 6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which has come up from the washing. All of them give birth to two lambs at a time, and not one of them has lost her young. 7 The sides of your forehead are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your face-covering. 8 There are sixty queens, and eighty women kept who act like wives, and there are too many young women to number who have never had a man. 9 But my dove, my perfect one, is special. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the pure child of the one who gave birth to her. The young women saw her and knew she was honored. The queens and the women who act as wives praised her, saying, 10 ‘Who is this that looks out like the first light of day? She is as beautiful as the full moon, as pure as the sun. She is to be feared as an army with flags.’”
The Woman
11 “I went down to the field of nut trees to see the flowers of the valley, to see if the vines or the pomegranates had flowers. 12 Before I knew it, I wanted to be over the war-wagons of the princes of my people.”
Women of Jerusalem
13 “Return, return, O Shulammite! Return, return, that we may look upon you!”
The Woman
“Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance in front of two armies?”
King Solomon
7 “How beautiful are your feet in their shoes, O daughter! Your legs are like stones of much worth, the work of an able workman. 2 Your navel is like a beautiful glass full of wine. Your stomach is like gathered grain with lilies around it. 3 Your two breasts are like two young deer, the two young ones of a gazelle. 4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. 5 Your head crowns you like Carmel. Your flowing hair is like strings of purple. The king is held by the beauty of your hair. 6 How beautiful and how pleasing you are, my love! How happy you make me! 7 You stand like a palm tree. And your breasts are like its fruit. 8 I said, ‘I will go to the top of the palm tree. I will take hold of its branches.’ O, may your breasts be like the fruit of the vine, and the sweet smell of your breath like pleasing fruit. 9 And may your mouth be like the best wine.”
The Woman
“For my love, it is smooth going down, flowing through the lips while sleeping.
10 “I am my love’s, and he wants me. 11 Come, my love, let us go to the country. Let us spend the night in the villages. 12 Let us get up early and go to the grape-fields. Let us see if the buds are on the vines, and if its flowers have opened. Let us see if the pomegranates have flowers. There I will give you my love. 13 The mandrakes have given out their sweet smell. And over our doors are all the best fruits, both new and old, which I have saved for you, my love.
8 “O that you were like a brother to me, who nursed from my mother’s breasts! If I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would hate me. 2 I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, who used to teach me. I would give you wine with spices to drink, made from my pomegranates. 3 Let his left hand be under my head, and his right hand hold me close.”
King Solomon
4 “I tell you, O daughters of Jerusalem. You must not wake up my love, until it is pleasing to her.”
The Sixth Song
Women of Jerusalem
5 “Who is this coming up from the desert, resting on her loved one?”
The Woman
“I woke you up under the fruit tree. There your mother suffered and gave birth to you. 6 Put me over your heart and on your arm, never to be taken off. For love is as strong as death. Jealousy is as hard as the grave. Its bright light is like the light of fire, the very fire of the Lord. 7 Many waters cannot put out love. Rivers cannot cover it. If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would all be hated.”
The Woman’s Brothers
8 “We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What should we do for our sister on the day when she is promised in marriage? 9 If she is a wall, we should build on her a tower of silver. But if she is a door, we should cover her with strong pieces of cedar wood.”
The Woman
10 “I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers. Then I was in his eyes as one who finds peace.”
The Woman’s Brothers
11 “Solomon has a grape-field at Baal-hamon. He put the grape-field into the care of certain men. Each one was to bring 1,000 pieces of silver for its fruit. 12 My own grape-field is for myself. The 1,000 pieces of silver are for you, Solomon. And 200 are for those who take care of its fruit.”
13 “O you who sit in the gardens, my friends are listening for your voice. Let me hear it.”
The Woman
14 “Hurry, my love. Be like a gazelle or a young deer on the mountains of spices.”
Sons of God
4 Let me say this another way. A young child who will get all the riches of his family is not different from a servant who is owned by the family. And yet the young child owns everything. 2 While he is young, he is cared for by men his father trusts. These men tell the child what he can and cannot do. The child cannot do what he wants to do until he has become a certain age. 3 We were as children also held by the Law. We obeyed the Law in our religious worship. 4 But at the right time, God sent His Son. A woman gave birth to Him under the Law. 5 This all happened so He could buy with His blood and make free all those who were held by the Law. Then we might become the sons of God. 6 Because you are the sons of God, He has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The Spirit cries, “Father!” 7 So now you are no longer a servant who is owned by someone. You are a son. If you are a son, then you will receive what God has promised through Christ.
8 During the time when you did not know God, you worshiped false gods. 9 But now that you know God, or should I say that you are known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak old Law? Why do you want to do those religious acts of worship that will keep you from being free? Why do you want to be held under the power of the Law again? 10 You do special things on certain days and months and years and times of the year. 11 I am afraid my work with you was wasted.
Living by the Law or Being Free
12 I ask you, Christian brothers, stay free from the Law as I am. Even if I am a Jew, I became free from the Law, just as you who are not Jews. You did no wrong to me. 13 You know I preached the Good News to you the first time because of my sickness. 14 Even though I was hard to look at because of my sickness, you did not turn away from me. You took me in as an angel from God. You took me in as you would have taken in Christ Jesus Himself. 15 What has become of the happiness you once had? You would have taken out your own eyes if you could have and given them to me. 16 Do you hate me because I have told you the truth? 17 Those false teachers are trying to turn your eyes toward them. They do not want you to follow my teaching. What they are doing is not good. 18 It is good when people help you if they do not hope to get something from it. They should help you all the time, not only when I am with you. 19 My children, I am suffering birth pain for you again. I will suffer until Christ’s life is in your life. 20 I wish I could be with you now. I wish I could speak to you in a more gentle voice, but I am troubled about you.
21 Listen! If you want to be under the Law, why do you not listen to what it says? 22 The Holy Writings say that Abraham had two sons. One was born from a woman servant (Hagar) who was owned by someone. She had to do what she was told. The other son was born from a woman (Sarah) who was free to work and live as she desired. (A) 23 The son born from the woman servant who was owned by someone was like any other birth. The son born from the free woman was different. That son had been promised by God. 24 Think of it like this: These two women show God’s two ways of working with His people. The children born from Hagar are under the Law given on Mount Sinai. They will be servants who are owned by someone and will always be told what to do! 25 Hagar is known as Mount Sinai in the country of Arabia. She is as Jerusalem is today, because she and her children are not free to do what they want to do. 26 But the Jerusalem of heaven is the free woman, and she is our mother. 27 The Holy Writings say, “Woman, be happy, you who have had no children. Cry for joy, you who have never had the pains of having a child, for you will have many children. Yes, you will have more children than the one who has a husband.” (B) 28 Christian brothers, we are like Isaac. We are the children God promised. 29 At that time the son born as other children are born made it hard for the son born by the Holy Spirit. It is the same way now. 30 But what do the Holy Writings say? They say, “Put the woman servant who is owned by someone and her son out of your home. The son of that woman servant will never get any of the riches of the family. It will all be given to the son of the free woman.” (C) 31 Christian brothers, we are not children of the woman servant who was owned by someone (Hagar). We are children of the free woman (Sarah).
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