Daily Reading

16 Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit.

1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; / I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; / I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; / I have drunk my wine with my milk. / Eat, O friends; / Drink, and drink deeply, O beloved ones!

2 I sleep, but my heart is awake. / A sound! My beloved is knocking. / Open to me, my sister, my love, / My dove, my perfect one; / For my head is drenched with dew, / My locks with the drops of night.

3 I have put off my garment; / How can I put it on again? / I have washed my feet; / How can I dirty them again?

4 My beloved put his hand into the opening of the door, / And my inner parts yearned for him.

5 I rose up to open to my beloved; / And my hands dripped with myrrh, / My fingers with liquid myrrh, / Upon the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened to my beloved, / But my beloved had withdrawn; he was gone. / My soul failed when he spoke; / I sought him, but found him not; / I called him — he answered me not.

7 The watchmen who go about the city found me. / They struck me; they wounded me; / The keepers of the walls took my veil from me.

8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / If you find my beloved, / What shall you tell him? / That I am sick with love.

9 What is your beloved more than some other’s beloved, / O you most beautiful among women? / What is your beloved more than some other’s beloved, / That you adjure us so?

10 My beloved is dazzling white yet ruddy, / Distinguished among ten thousand.

11 His head is the finest gold; / His locks are wavy, / As black as a raven.

12 His eyes are like doves / Beside the streams of water, / Bathed in milk, / Fitly set.

13 His cheeks are like a bed of spices, / Mounds of sweetly fragrant herbs; / His lips are lilies, / Dripping with liquid myrrh.

14 His hands are tubes of gold, / Set with beryl; / His belly is an ivory work, / Overlaid with sapphires.

15 His legs are pillars of white marble, / Set upon bases of gold; / His appearance is like Lebanon, / As excellent as the cedars.

16 His mouth is sweetness itself, / And he is altogether desirable. / This is my beloved, and this is my friend, / O daughters of Jerusalem.

1 Where has your beloved gone, / O you most beautiful among women? / Where has your beloved turned, / That we may seek him with you?

2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, / To the beds of spices, / To feed in the gardens / And gather lilies.

3 I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine; / He pastures his flock among the lilies.

4 You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, / As lovely as Jerusalem, / As terrible as an army with banners.

5 Turn your eyes away from me, / For they overwhelm me. / Your hair is like a flock of goats / That repose on Gilead.

6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes / That have come up from the washing, / All of which have borne twins, / And none of them is bereaved of her young.

7 Your cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate / Behind your veil.

8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines / And virgins without number.

9 My dove, my perfect one, is but one; / She is the only one of her mother; / She is the choice one of her who bore her. / The daughters saw her, and they called her blessed; / The queens and the concubines, / They also praised her.

10 Who is this woman who looks forth like the dawn, / As beautiful as the moon, / As clear as the sun, / As terrible as an army with banners?

11 I went down to the orchard of nuts / To see the freshness of the valley, / To see whether the vine had budded, / Whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

12 Before I was aware, / My soul set me among the chariots of my noble people.

13 Return, return, O Shulammite; / Return, return, that we may gaze at you. / Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, / As upon the dance of two camps?

1 How beautiful are your footsteps in sandals, / O prince’s daughter! / Your rounded thighs are like jewels, / The work of the hands of a skilled artist.

2 Your navel is a round goblet / That never lacks mixed wine; / Your belly is a heap of wheat, / Fenced in by lilies.

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

4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory; / Your eyes, like the pools in Heshbon / By the gate of Bath-rabbim; / Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, / Which faces Damascus.

5 Your head upon you is like Carmel, / And the locks of your head like purple. / The king is fettered by your tresses.

6 How beautiful and how pleasant in delights / You are, O love!

7 This your stature is like a palm tree, / And your breasts are like the clusters.

8 I said, I will climb the palm tree; / I will take hold of its branches; / And let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, / And the fragrance of your nose like apples,

9 And the roof of your mouth like the best wine — Going down smoothly for my beloved, / Gliding through the lips of those who sleep.

10 I am my beloved’s, / And his desire is for me.

11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields; / Let us lodge in the villages.

12 Let us rise up early for the vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has budded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love.

13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, / And over our doors are all choice fruits, / New as well as old. / These, my beloved, I have stored up for you.

1 Oh that you were like a brother to me, / Who nursed at my mother’s breasts! / If I found you outside, I would kiss you, / And none would despise me.

2 I would lead you and bring you / Into my mother’s house, / Who has instructed me; / I would make you drink spiced wine / From the juice of my pomegranate.

3 His left hand would be under my head, / And his right hand would embrace me.

4 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / Do not rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases.

5 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, / Leaning on her beloved? / I awakened you under the apple tree: / There your mother was in labor with you; / There she was in labor and brought you forth.

6 Set me as a seal on your heart, / As a seal on your arm; / For love is as strong as death, / Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; / Its flashes are the flashes of fire, / A flame of Jehovah.

7 Many waters cannot quench love, / Nor do floods drown it. / If a man gave all the substance of his house for love, / It would be utterly despised.

8 We have a little sister, / And she has no breasts: / What shall we do for our sister / On the day when she is spoken for?

9 If she is a wall, / We will build on her a battlement of silver; / And if she is a door, / We will enclose her with boards of cedar.

10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; / Then I was in his eyes like one who has found peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon: / He let out the vineyard to keepers; / Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. / You will have the thousand, O Solomon; / And those who keep its fruit, two hundred.

13 O you who dwell in the gardens, / My companions listen for your voice; / Let me hear it.

14 Make haste, my beloved, / And be like a gazelle or a young hart / Upon the mountains of spices.

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ,

4 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love,

5 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved;

7 In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace,

8 Which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and prudence,

9 Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself,

10 Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him;

11 In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

12 That we would be to the praise of His glory who have first hoped in Christ,

13 In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise,

14 Who is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.

15 Therefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and your love to all the saints,

16 Do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,

17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him,

18 The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

19 And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength,

20 Which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies,

21 Far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come;

22 And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church,

23 Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.