Song of Songs 4; Song of Songs 5; Galatians 3

1 How beautiful you are, my darling. How very beautiful! Behind your veil, your eyes are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats streaming down Mount Gilead.

2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn [sheep] coming up from washing, each one having a twin, and not one missing.

3 Your lips are like a scarlet cord, and your mouth is lovely. Behind your veil, your brow is like a slice of pomegranate.

4 Your neck is like the tower of David, constructed in layers. A thousand bucklers are hung on it- all of them shields of warriors.

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

6 Before the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.

7 You are absolutely beautiful, my darling, with no imperfection in you.

8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride- with me from Lebanon! Descend from the peak of Amana, from the summit of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.

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

10 How delightful your love is, my sister, my bride. Your love is much better than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any balsam.

11 Your lips drip [sweetness like] the honeycomb, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

12 My sister, my bride, [you are] a locked garden- a locked garden and a sealed spring.

13 Your branches are a paradise of pomegranates with choicest fruits, henna with nard-

14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices.

15 [You are] a garden spring, a well of flowing water streaming from Lebanon.

16 Awaken, north wind- come, south wind. Blow on my garden, and spread the fragrance of its spices. Let my love come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits.

1 I have come to my garden-my sister, my bride. I gather my myrrh with my spices. I eat my honeycomb with my honey. I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink, be intoxicated with love!

2 I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My love is knocking! Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is drenched with dew, my hair with droplets of the night.

3 I have taken off my clothing. How can I put it back on? I have washed my feet. How can I get them dirty?

4 My love thrust his hand through the opening, and my feelings were stirred for him.

5 I rose to open for my love. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened to my love, but my love had turned and gone away. I was crushed that he had left. I sought him, but did not find him. I called him, but he did not answer.

7 The guards who go about the city found me. They beat and wounded me; they took my cloak from me- the guardians of the walls.

8 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you: if you find my love, tell him that I am lovesick.

9 What makes the one you love better than another, most beautiful of women? What makes him better than another, that you would give us this charge?

10 My love is fit and strong, notable among ten thousand.

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

12 His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, washed in milk and set like jewels.

13 His cheeks are like beds of spice, towers of perfume. His lips are lilies, dripping with flowing myrrh.

14 His arms are rods of gold set with topaz. His body is an ivory panel covered with sapphires.

15 His legs are alabaster pillars set on pedestals of pure gold. His presence is like Lebanon, as majestic as the cedars.

16 His mouth is sweetness. He is absolutely desirable. This is my love, and this is my friend, young women of Jerusalem.

1 You foolish Galatians! Who has hypnotized you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified?

2 I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?

4 Did you suffer so much for nothing-if in fact it was for nothing?

5 So then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

6 Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,

7 so understand that those who have faith are Abraham's sons.

8 Now the Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed in you.

9 So those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.

10 For all who [rely on] the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue doing everything written in the book of the law.

11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.

12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them.

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

15 Brothers, I'm using a human illustration. No one sets aside even a human covenant that has been ratified, or makes additions to it.

16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say "and to seeds," as though referring to many, but and to your seed, referring to one, who is Christ.

17 And I say this: the law, which came 430 years later, does not revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.

18 For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.

19 Why the law then? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. [The law] was ordered through angels by means of a mediator.

20 Now a mediator is not for just one person, but God is one.

21 Is the law therefore contrary to God's promises? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly be by the law.

22 But the Scripture has imprisoned everything under sin's power, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.

24 The law, then, was our guardian described such a slave. This slave was not a teacher. until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.

25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, described such a slave. This slave was not a teacher.

26 for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.