The Daily Audio Bible
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1 This song of songs, more wonderful than any other, was composed by King Solomon:
The Girl:[a] 2 “Kiss me again and again, for your love is sweeter than wine. 3 How fragrant your cologne, and how great your name! No wonder all the young girls love you! 4 Take me with you; come, let’s run!”
The Girl: “The king has brought me into his palace. How happy we will be! Your love is better than wine. No wonder all the young girls love you!”
The Girl: 5 “I am dark but beautiful, O girls of Jerusalem, tanned as the dark tents of Kedar.”
King Solomon: “But lovely as the silken tents of Solomon!”
The Girl: 6 “Don’t look down on me, you city girls,[b] just because my complexion is so dark—the sun has tanned me. My brothers were angry with me and sent me out into the sun to tend the vineyards, but see what it has done to me!”
The Girl: 7 “Tell me, O one I love, where are you leading your flock today? Where will you be at noon? For I will come and join you there instead of wandering like a vagabond among the flocks of your companions.”
King Solomon: 8 “If you don’t know, O most beautiful woman in all the world, follow the trail of my flock to the shepherds’ tents, and there feed your sheep and their lambs. 9 What a lovely filly you are,[c] my love! 10 How lovely your cheeks are, with your hair[d] falling down upon them! How stately your neck with that long string of jewels. 11 We shall make you gold earrings and silver beads.”
The Girl: 12 “The king lies on his bed, enchanted by the fragrance of my perfume. 13 My beloved one is a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.”
King Solomon: 14 “My beloved is a bouquet of flowers in the gardens of Engedi. 15 How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful! Your eyes are soft as doves’. 16 What a lovely, pleasant thing you are, lying here upon the grass, 17 shaded by the cedar trees and firs.”
2 The Girl: “I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley.”
King Solomon: 2 “Yes, a lily among thorns, so is my beloved as compared with any other girls.”
The Girl: 3 “My lover is an apple tree, the finest in the orchard as compared with any of the other youths. I am seated in his much-desired shade and his fruit is lovely to eat. 4 He brings me to the banquet hall, and everyone can see how much he loves me. 5 Oh, feed me with your love—your ‘raisins’ and your ‘apples’—for I am utterly lovesick. 6 His left hand is under my head and with his right hand he embraces me. 7 O girls of Jerusalem, I adjure you by the gazelles and deer in the park, that you do not awaken my lover.[e] Let him sleep!”
The Girl: 8 “Ah, I hear him—my beloved! Here he comes, leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills. 9 My beloved is like a gazelle or young deer. Look, there he is behind the wall, now looking in at the windows.
10 “My beloved said to me, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 12 The flowers are springing up and the time of the singing of birds has come. Yes, spring is here.[f] 13 The leaves are coming out,[g] and the grapevines are in blossom. How delicious they smell! Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.’
14 “My dove is hiding behind some rocks, behind an outcrop of the cliff. Call to me and let me hear your lovely voice and see your handsome face.
15 “The little foxes are ruining the vineyards. Catch them, for the grapes are all in blossom.
16 “My beloved is mine and I am his. He is feeding among the lilies! 17 Before the dawn comes and the shadows flee away, come to me, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.”
3 The Girl: “One night my lover was missing from my bed. I got up to look for him but couldn’t find him. 2 I went out into the streets of the city and the roads to seek him, but I searched in vain. 3 The police stopped me, and I said to them, ‘Have you seen him anywhere, this one I love so much?’ 4 It was only a little while afterwards that I found him and held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my childhood home, into my mother’s old bedroom. 5 I adjure you, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and deer of the park, not to awake my lover. Let him sleep.”
The Young Women of Jerusalem: 6 “Who is this sweeping in from the deserts like a cloud of smoke along the ground, smelling of myrrh and frankincense and every other spice that can be bought? 7 Look, it is the chariot[h] of Solomon with sixty of the mightiest men of his army surrounding it. 8 They are all skilled swordsmen and experienced bodyguards. Each one has his sword upon his thigh to defend his king against any onslaught in the night. 9 For King Solomon made himself a chariot from the wood of Lebanon. 10 Its posts are silver, its canopy gold, the seat is purple; and the back is inlaid with these words: ‘With love from the girls of Jerusalem!’”
The Girl: 11 “Go out and see King Solomon, O young women of Zion; see the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, his day of gladness.”
4 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. 2 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[i] behind your locks. 4 Your neck is stately[j] as the tower of David, jeweled with a thousand heroes’ shields. 5 Your breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle, feeding among the lilies. 6 Until the morning dawns and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. 7 You are so beautiful, my love, in every part of you.
8 “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride. We will look down from the summit of the mountain, from the top of Mount Hermon,[k] where the lions have their dens and panthers prowl. 9 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. 11 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.
12 “My darling bride is like a private garden, a spring that no one else can have, a fountain of my own. 13-14 You are like a lovely orchard bearing precious fruit,[l] 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. 15 You are a garden fountain, a well of living water, refreshing as the streams from the Lebanon mountains.”
The Girl: 16 “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.”
16 I am thankful to God that he has given Titus the same real concern for you that I have. 17 He is glad to follow my suggestion that he visit you again—but I think he would have come anyway, for he is very eager to see you! 18 I am sending another well-known brother with him, who is highly praised as a preacher of the Good News in all the churches. 19 In fact, this man was elected by the churches to travel with me to take the gift to Jerusalem. This will glorify the Lord and show our eagerness to help each other. 20 By traveling together we will guard against any suspicion, for we are anxious that no one should find fault with the way we are handling this large gift. 21 God knows we are honest, but I want everyone else to know it too. That is why we have made this arrangement.
22 And I am sending you still another brother, whom we know from experience to be an earnest Christian. He is especially interested as he looks forward to this trip because I have told him all about your eagerness to help.
23 If anyone asks who Titus is, say that he is my partner, my helper in helping you, and you can also say that the other two brothers represent the assemblies here and are splendid examples of those who belong to the Lord.
24 Please show your love for me to these men and do for them all that I have publicly boasted you would.
50 The mighty God, the Lord, has summoned all mankind from east to west!
2 God’s glory-light shines from the beautiful Temple[a] on Mount Zion. 3 He comes with the noise of thunder,[b] surrounded by devastating fire; a great storm rages round about him. 4 He has come to judge his people. To heaven and earth he shouts, 5 “Gather together my own people who by their sacrifice upon my altar have promised to obey me.”[c] 6 God will judge them with complete fairness, for all heaven declares that he is just.
7 O my people, listen! For I am your God. Listen! Here are my charges against you: 8 I have no complaint about the sacrifices you bring to my altar, for you bring them regularly. 9 But it isn’t sacrificial bullocks and goats that I really want from you. 10-11 For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! 12 If I were hungry, I would not mention it to you—for all the world is mine and everything in it. 13 No, I don’t need your sacrifices of flesh and blood. 14-15 What I want from you is your true thanks; I want your promises fulfilled. I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you and you can give me glory.
16 But God says to evil men: Recite my laws no longer and stop claiming my promises, 17 for you have refused my discipline, disregarding my laws. 18 You see a thief and help him, and spend your time with evil and immoral men. 19 You curse and lie, and vile language streams from your mouths. 20 You slander your own brother. 21 I remained silent—you thought I didn’t care—but now your time of punishment has come, and I list all the above charges against you. 22 This is the last chance for all of you who have forgotten God, before I tear you apart—and no one can help you then.
23 But true praise is a worthy sacrifice; this really honors me. Those who walk my paths will receive salvation from the Lord.
22-23 Don’t rob the poor and sick! For the Lord is their defender. If you injure them, he will punish you.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.