Song of Solomon 4; Song of Solomon 5; Galatians 3

Song of Solomon 4

1 How beautiful you are, my love! How your eyes shine with love behind your veil. Your hair dances like a flock of goats bounding down the hills of Gilead.

2 Your teeth are as white as sheep that have just been shorn and washed. Not one of them is missing; they are all perfectly matched.

3 Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; how lovely they are when you speak. Your cheeks glow behind your veil.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David, round and smooth, with a necklace like a thousand shields hung around it.

5 Your breasts are like gazelles, twin deer feeding among lilies.

6 I will stay on the hill of myrrh, the hill of incense, until the morning breezes blow and the darkness disappears.

7 How beautiful you are, my love; how perfect you are!

8 Come with me from the Lebanon Mountains, my bride; come with me from Lebanon. Come down from the top of Mount Amana, from Mount Senir and Mount Hermon, where the lions and leopards live.

9 The look in your eyes, my sweetheart and bride, and the necklace you are wearing have stolen my heart.

10 Your love delights me, my sweetheart and bride. Your love is better than wine; your perfume more fragrant than any spice.

11 The taste of honey is on your lips, my darling; your tongue is milk and honey for me. Your clothing has all the fragrance of Lebanon.

12 My sweetheart, my bride, is a secret garden, a walled garden, a private spring;

13 there the plants flourish. They grow like an orchard of pomegranate trees and bear the finest fruits. There is no lack of henna and nard,

14 of saffron, calamus, and cinnamon, or incense of every kind. Myrrh and aloes grow there with all the most fragrant perfumes.

15 Fountains water the garden, streams of flowing water, brooks gushing down from the Lebanon Mountains.

16 Wake up, North Wind. South Wind, blow on my garden; fill the air with fragrance. Let my lover come to his garden and eat the best of its fruits.

Song of Solomon 5

1 I have entered my garden, my sweetheart, my bride. I am gathering my spices and myrrh; I am eating my honey and honeycomb; I am drinking my wine and milk. Eat, lovers, and drink until you are drunk with love!

2 While I slept, my heart was awake. I dreamed my lover knocked at the door. Let me come in, my darling, my sweetheart, my dove. My head is wet with dew, and my hair is damp from the mist.

3 I have already undressed; why should I get dressed again? I have washed my feet; why should I get them dirty again?

4 My lover put his hand to the door, and I was thrilled that he was near.

5 I was ready to let him come in. My hands were covered with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, as I grasped the handle of the door.

6 I opened the door for my lover, but he had already gone. How I wanted to hear his voice! I looked for him, but couldn't find him; I called to him, but heard no answer.

7 The sentries patrolling the city found me; they struck me and bruised me; the guards at the city wall tore off my cape.

8 Promise me, women of Jerusalem, that if you find my lover, you will tell him I am weak from passion.

9 Most beautiful of women, is your lover different from everyone else? What is there so wonderful about him that we should give you our promise?

10 My lover is handsome and strong; he is one in ten thousand.

11 His face is bronzed and smooth; his hair is wavy, black as a raven.

12 His eyes are as beautiful as doves by a flowing brook, doves washed in milk and standing by the stream.

13 His cheeks are as lovely as a garden that is full of herbs and spices. His lips are like lilies, wet with liquid myrrh.

14 His hands are well-formed, and he wears rings set with gems. His body is like smooth ivory, with sapphires set in it.

15 His thighs are columns of alabaster set in sockets of gold. He is majestic, like the Lebanon Mountains with their towering cedars.

16 His mouth is sweet to kiss; everything about him enchants me. This is what my lover is like, women of Jerusalem.

Galatians 3

1 You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross!

2 Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it?

3 How can you be so foolish! You began by God's Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power?

4 Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something!

5 Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?

6 Consider the experience of Abraham; as the scripture says, "He believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

7 You should realize, then, that the real descendants of Abraham are the people who have faith.

8 The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: "Through you God will bless all people."

9 Abraham believed and was blessed; so all who believe are blessed as he was.

10 Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, "Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!"

11 Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, "Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live."

12 But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, as the scripture says, "Whoever [does] everything the Law requires will live."

13 But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, "Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse."

14 Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.

15 My friends, I am going to use an everyday example: when two people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no one can break it or add anything to it.

16 Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural "descendants," meaning many people, but the singular "descendant," meaning one person only, namely, Christ.

17 What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise.

18 For if God's gift depends on the Law, then it no longer depends on his promise. However, it was because of his promise that God gave that gift to Abraham.

19 What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and it was meant to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between.

20 But a go-between is not needed when only one person is involved; and God is one.

21 Does this mean that the Law is against God's promises? No, not at all! For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it.

22 But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.

23 But before the time for faith came, the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners until this coming faith should be revealed.

24 And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith.

25 Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us.

26 It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus.

27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.

28 So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.

29 If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.