The Living Bible (217 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
King Solomon:
“How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful! Your eyes are those of doves. Your hair falls across your face like flocks of goats that frisk across the slopes of Gilead.
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Your teeth are white as sheep’s wool, newly shorn and washed; perfectly matched, without one missing.
3
Your lips are like a thread of scarlet—and how beautiful your mouth. Your cheeks are matched loveliness
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behind your locks.
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4
Your neck is stately
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as the tower of David, jeweled with a thousand heroes’ shields.
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Your breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle, feeding among the lilies.
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Until the morning dawns and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
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You are so beautiful, my love, in every part of you.
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“Come with me from Lebanon, my bride. We will look down from the summit of the mountain, from the top of Mount Hermon,
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where the lions have their dens and panthers prowl.
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You have ravished my heart, my lovely one, my bride; I am overcome by one glance of your eyes, by a single bead of your necklace.
10
How sweet is your love, my darling, my bride. How much better it is than mere wine. The perfume of your love is more fragrant than all the richest spices.
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Your lips, my dear, are made of honey. Yes, honey and cream are under your tongue, and the scent of your garments is like the scent of the mountains and cedars of Lebanon.
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“My darling bride is like a private garden, a spring that no one else can have, a fountain of my own.
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You are like a lovely orchard bearing precious fruit,
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with the rarest of perfumes; nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, and perfume from every other incense tree, as well as myrrh and aloes, and every other lovely spice.
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You are a garden fountain, a well of living water, refreshing as the streams from the Lebanon mountains.”
The Girl:
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“Come, north wind, awaken; come, south wind, blow upon my garden and waft its lovely perfume to my beloved. Let him come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits.”
King Solomon:
“I am here in my garden, my darling, my bride! I gather my myrrh with my spices and eat my honeycomb with my honey. I drink my wine with my milk.”
The Young Women of Jerusalem:
“Oh, lover and beloved, eat and drink! Yes, drink deeply!”
The Girl:
2
“One night as I was sleeping, my heart awakened in a dream. I heard the voice of my beloved; he was knocking at my bedroom door. ‘Open to me, my darling, my lover, my lovely dove,’ he said, ‘for I have been out in the night and am covered with dew.’
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“But I said, ‘I have disrobed. Shall I get dressed again? I have washed my feet, and should I get them soiled?’
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“My beloved tried to unlatch the door, and my heart was thrilled within me.
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I jumped up to open it, and my hands dripped with perfume, my fingers with lovely myrrh as I pulled back the bolt.
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I opened to my beloved, but he was gone. My heart stopped. I searched for him but couldn’t find him anywhere. I called to him, but there was no reply.
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The guards found me and struck and wounded me. The watchman on the wall tore off my veil.
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I adjure you, O women of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved one, tell him that I am sick with love.”
The Young Women of Jerusalem:
9
“O woman of rare beauty, what is it about your loved one that is better than any other, that you command us this?”
The Girl:
10
“My beloved one is tanned and handsome, better than ten thousand others!
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His head is purest gold, and he has wavy, raven hair.
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His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, deep and quiet.
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His cheeks are like sweetly scented beds of spices. His lips are perfumed lilies, his breath like myrrh.
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His arms are round bars of gold set with topaz; his body is bright ivory encrusted with jewels.
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His legs are as pillars of marble set in sockets of finest gold, like cedars of Lebanon; none can rival him.
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His mouth is altogether sweet, lovable in every way. Such, O women of Jerusalem, is my beloved, my friend.”
The Young Women of Jerusalem:
“O rarest of beautiful women, where has your loved one gone? We will help you find him.”
The Girl:
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“He has gone down to his garden, to his spice beds, to pasture his flock and to gather the lilies.
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I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. He pastures his flock among the lilies!”
King Solomon:
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“O my beloved, you are as beautiful as the lovely land of Tirzah, yes, beautiful as Jerusalem, and how you capture my heart.
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5
Look the other way, for your eyes have overcome me! Your hair, as it falls across your face, is like a flock of goats frisking down the slopes of Gilead.
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Your teeth are white as freshly washed ewes, perfectly matched and not one missing.
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Your cheeks are matched loveliness
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behind your hair.
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I have sixty other wives, all queens, and eighty concubines, and unnumbered virgins available to me;
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but you, my dove, my perfect one, are the only one among them all, without an equal! The women of Jerusalem were delighted when they saw you, and even the queens and concubines praise you.
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‘Who is this,’ they ask, ‘arising as the dawn, fair as the moon, pure as the sun, so utterly captivating?’”
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The Girl:
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“I went down into the orchard of nuts and out to the valley to see the springtime there, to see whether the grapevines were budding or the pomegranates were blossoming yet.
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Before I realized it, I was stricken with terrible homesickness and wanted to be back among my own people.”
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The Young Women of Jerusalem:
13
“Return, return to us, O maid of Shulam. Come back, come back, that we may see you once again.”
The Girl:
“Why should you seek a mere Shulammite?”
King Solomon:
“Because you dance so beautifully.”
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King Solomon:
“How beautiful your tripping feet, O queenly maiden. Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the most skilled of craftsmen.
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Your navel is lovely as a goblet filled with wine. Your waist
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is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.
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Your two breasts are like two fawns, yes, lovely twins.
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4
Your neck is stately as an ivory tower, your eyes as limpid pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is shapely
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like the tower of Lebanon overlooking Damascus.
5
“As Mount Carmel crowns the mountains, so your hair is your crown. The king is held captive in your queenly tresses.
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“Oh, how delightful you are; how pleasant, O love, for utter delight!
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You are tall and slim like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters of dates.
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I said, I will climb up into the palm tree and take hold of its branches. Now may your breasts be like grape clusters, the scent of your breath like apples,
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and your kisses as exciting as the best of wine, smooth and sweet, causing the lips of those who are asleep to speak.”
The Girl:
10
“I am my beloved’s and I am the one he desires.
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Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and stay in the villages.
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Let us get up early and go out to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates are in flower. And there I will give you my love.
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There the mandrakes give forth their fragrance, and the rarest fruits are at our doors, the new as well as old, for I have stored them up for my beloved.”