Ecclesiastes 11; Ecclesiastes 12; Song of Songs 1; Song of Songs 2; Song of Songs 3; Song of Songs 4; Song of Songs 5; Song of Songs 6; Song of Songs 7; Song of Songs 8; Isaiah 1; Isaiah 2; Isaiah 3

Ecclesiastes 11

1 Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.

2 Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

3 If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

6 Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

7 Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

8 However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.

9 You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

10 So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 12

1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—

2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;

3 when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim;

4 when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint;

5 when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets.

6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well,

7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.“Everything is meaningless!”

9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.

10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd.

12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Song of Songs 1

1 Solomon’s Song of Songs.

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.

3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you!

4 Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you ; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!

5 Dark am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.

6 Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect.

7 Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?

8 If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.

9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.

10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

11 We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.

12 While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.

14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.

15 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

16 How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.

17 The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

Song of Songs 2

1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

2 Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women.

3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

4 Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love.

5 Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.

6 His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.

7 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

8 Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

10 My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.

11 See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

12 Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”

14 My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

15 Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.

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

17 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.

Song of Songs 3

1 All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.

2 I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.

3 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”

4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

5 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?

7 Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,

8 all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.

9 King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.

10 Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior inlaid with love. Daughters of Jerusalem,

11 come out, and look, you daughters of Zion. Look on King Solomon wearing a crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.

Song of Songs 4

1 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone.

3 Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built with courses of stone ; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.

5 Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.

6 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.

7 You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of leopards.

9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!

11 Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

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

13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard,

14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.

15 You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.

16 Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.

Song of Songs 5

1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends, and drink; drink your fill of love.

2 I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! 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.”

3 I have taken off my robe— must I put it on again? I have washed my feet— must I soil them again?

4 My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him.

5 I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure.I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer.

7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!

8 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you— if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love.

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

10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.

11 His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.

12 His eyes are like doves by the water streams, washed in milk, mounted like jewels.

13 His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh.

14 His arms are rods of gold set with topaz. His body is like polished ivory decorated with lapis lazuli.

15 His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.

16 His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.

Song of Songs 6

1 Where has your beloved gone, most beautiful of women? Which way did your beloved turn, that we may look for him with you?

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

3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he browses among the lilies.

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

5 Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead.

6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is missing.

7 Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.

8 Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number;

9 but my dove, my perfect one, is unique, the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her.

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

11 I went down to the grove of nut trees to look at the new growth in the valley, to see if the vines had budded or the pomegranates were in bloom.

12 Before I realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people.

13 Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, that we may gaze on you! Why would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of Mahanaim?

Song of Songs 7

1 How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of an artist’s hands.

2 Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies.

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

4 Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are the pools of 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. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses.

6 How beautiful you are and how pleasing, my love, with your delights!

7 Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.

8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples,

9 and your mouth like the best wine. May the wine go straight to my beloved, flowing gently over lips and teeth.

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

11 Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages.

12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom— there I will give you my love.

13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my beloved.

Song of Songs 8

1 If only you were to me like a brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.

2 I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house— she who has taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates.

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

4 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth.

6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

8 We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?

9 If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. Thus I have become in his eyes like one bringing contentment.

11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver.

12 But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.

13 You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!

14 Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains.

Isaiah 1

1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

4 Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

5 Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.

6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

8 Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.

9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.

14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.

17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;

20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

21 See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her— but now murderers!

22 Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.

23 Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.

24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes and avenge myself on my enemies.

25 I will turn my hand against you;I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.

26 I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

27 Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.

28 But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.

29 “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.

30 You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water.

31 The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”

Isaiah 2

1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

3 Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

5 Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

6 You, LORD, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and embrace pagan customs.

7 Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.

8 Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

9 So people will be brought low and everyone humbled— do not forgive them.

10 Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORDand the splendor of his majesty!

11 The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

12 The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled),

13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan,

14 for all the towering mountains and all the high hills,

15 for every lofty tower and every fortified wall,

16 for every trading shipand every stately vessel.

17 The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

18 and the idols will totally disappear.

19 People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORDand the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.

20 In that day people will throw away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.

21 They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from the fearful presence of the LORDand the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.

22 Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?

Isaiah 3

1 See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water,

2 the hero and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder,

3 the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

4 “I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.”

5 People will oppress each other— man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored.

6 A man will seize one of his brothers in his father’s house, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!”

7 But in that day he will cry out, “I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.”

8 Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.

9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

10 Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.

11 Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done.

12 Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path.

13 The LORD takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people.

14 The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: “It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses.

15 What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

16 The LORD says, “The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles.

17 Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the LORD will make their scalps bald.”

18 In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces,

19 the earrings and bracelets and veils,

20 the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms,

21 the signet rings and nose rings,

22 the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses

23 and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.

24 Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.

25 Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle.

26 The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.