Song of Songs 6; Song of Songs 7; Song of Songs 8; Galatians 4

Song of Songs 6

1 Where has your love gone, most beautiful of women? Which way has he turned? We will seek him with you.

2 My love has gone down to his garden, to beds of spice, to feed in the gardens and gather lilies.

3 I am my love's and my love is mine; he feeds among the lilies.

4 You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, lovely as Jerusalem, awe-inspiring as an army with banners.

5 Turn your eyes away from me, for they captivate me. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead.

6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes coming up from washing, each one having a twin, and not one missing.

7 Behind your veil, your brow is like a slice of pomegranate.

8 There are 60 queens and 80 concubines and young women without number.

9 But my dove, my virtuous one, is unique; she is the favorite of her mother, perfect to the one who gave her birth. Women see her and declare her fortunate; queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises:

10 Who is thiswho shines like the dawn- as beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awe-inspiring as an army with banners?

11 I came down to the walnut grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding and the pomegranates blooming.

12 Before I knew it, my desire put me [among] the chariots of my noble people.

13 Come back, come back, Shulammite! Come back, come back, that we may look at you! Why are you looking at the Shulammite, as you [look] at the dance of the two camps?

Song of Songs 7

1 How beautiful are your sandaled feet, princess! The curves of your thighs are like jewelry, the handiwork of a master.

2 Your navel is a rounded bowl; it never lacks mixed wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat surrounded by lilies.

3 Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory, your eyes like pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus.

5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, the hair of your head like purple cloth- a king could be held captive in your tresses.

6 How beautiful you are and how pleasant, [my] love, with such delights!

7 Your stature is like a palm tree; your breasts are clusters [of fruit].

8 I said, "I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its fruit." May your breasts be like clusters of grapes, and the fragrance of your breath like apricots.

9 Your mouth is like fine wine- flowing smoothly for my love gliding past my lips and teeth!

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

11 Come, my love, let's go to the field; let's spend the night among the henna blossoms.

12 Let's go early to the vineyards; let's see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.

13 The mandrakes give off a fragrance, and at our doors is every delicacy- new as well as old. I have treasured them up for you, my love.

Song of Songs 8

1 If only I could treat you like my brother, one who nursed at my mother's breasts, I would find you in public and kiss you, and no one would scorn me.

2 I would lead you, I would take you, to the house of my mother who taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink from my pomegranate juice.

3 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me.

4 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.

5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on the one she loves? I awakened you under the apricot tree. There your mother conceived you; there she conceived and gave you birth.

6 Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death; ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol. Love's flames are fiery flames- the fiercest of all.

7 Mighty waters cannot extinguish love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned.

8 Our sister is young; she has no breasts. What will we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

9 If she is a wall, we will build a silver parapet on it. If she is a door, we will enclose it with cedar planks.

10 I am a wall and my breasts like towers. So in his eyes I have become like one who finds peace.

11 Solomon owned a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased the vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for his fruit 1,000 pieces of silver.

12 I have my own vineyard. The 1,000 are for you, Solomon, but 200 for those who guard its fruits.

13 You who dwell in the gardens- companions are listening for your voice- let me hear you!

14 Hurry [to me], my love, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Galatians 4

1 Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.

2 Instead, he is under guardians and stewards until the time set by his father.

3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elemental forces of the world.

4 But when the completion of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!"

7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

8 But in the past, when you didn't know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

9 But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?

10 You observe [special] days, months, seasons, and years.

11 I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

12 I beg you, brothers: become like me, for I also became like you. You have not wronged me;

13 you know that previously I preached the gospel to you in physical weakness,

14 and though my physical condition was a trial for you, you did not despise or reject me. On the contrary, you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus [Himself].

15 What happened to this blessedness of yours? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

17 They are enthusiastic about you, but not for any good. Instead, they want to isolate you so you will be enthusiastic about them.

18 Now it is always good to be enthusiastic about good-and not just when I am with you.

19 My children, again I am in the pains of childbirth for you until Christ is formed in you.

20 I'd like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I don't know what to do about you.

21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don't you hear the law?

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman.

23 But the one by the slave was born according to the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

24 These things are illustrations, for the women represent the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery-this is Hagar.

25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

27 For it is written: Rejoice, O barren woman who does not give birth. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate are many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

29 But just as then the child born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so also now.

30 But what does the Scripture say? Throw out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never inherit with the son of the free woman.

31 Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.