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Expressions of Praise

7How graceful are your feet in sandals,
   O queenly maiden!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
   the work of a master hand.
² Your navel is a rounded bowl
   that never lacks mixed wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat,
   encircled with lilies.
³ Your two breasts are like two fawns,
   twins of a gazelle.
⁴ Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
   by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
   overlooking Damascus.
⁵ Your head crowns you like Carmel,
   and your flowing locks are like purple;
   a king is held captive in the tresses.^*

⁶ How fair and pleasant you are,
   O loved one, delectable maiden!^*
7 You are stately^* as a palm tree,
   and your breasts are like its clusters.
⁸ I say I will climb the palm tree
   and lay hold of its branches.
O may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
   and the scent of your breath like apples,
⁹ and your kisses^* like the best wine
   that goes down^* smoothly,
   gliding over lips and teeth.^*

¹⁰ I am my beloved’s,
   and his desire is for me.
¹¹ Come, my beloved,
   let us go forth into the fields,
   and lodge in the villages;
¹² let us go out early to the vineyards,
   and see whether the vines have budded,
whether the grape blossoms have opened
   and 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,
   which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

8O that you were like a brother to me,
   who nursed at my mother’s breast!
If I met you outside, I would kiss you,
   and no one would despise me.
² I would lead you and bring you
   into the house of my mother,
   and into the chamber of the one who bore me.^*
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
   the juice of my pomegranates.
³ O that his left hand were under my head,
   and that his right hand embraced me!
⁴ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
   do not stir up or awaken love
   until it is ready!

Homecoming

⁵ Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
   leaning upon her beloved?

Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother was in labour with you;
   there she who bore you was in labour.

⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart,
   as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
   passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
   a raging flame.
⁷ Many waters cannot quench love,
   neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
   all the wealth of one’s house,
   it would be utterly scorned.

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 upon her a battlement of silver;
but if she is a door,
   we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
¹⁰ I was a wall,
   and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
   as one who brings^* peace.
¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
   he entrusted the vineyard to keepers;
   each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
¹² My vineyard, my very own, is for myself;
   you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
   and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!

¹³ O you who dwell in the gardens,
   my companions are listening for your voice;
   let me hear it.

¹⁴ Make haste, my beloved,
   and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
   upon the mountains of spices!

Psalm 25

Prayer for Guidance and for Deliverance

Of David.
¹ To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
² O my God, in you I trust;
   do not let me be put to shame;
   do not let my enemies exult over me.
³ Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
   let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

⁴ Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
   teach me your paths.
⁵ Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
   for you are the God of my salvation;
   for you I wait all day long.

⁶ Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
   for they have been from of old.
⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
   according to your steadfast love remember me,
   for your goodness’ sake, O Lord!

⁸ Good and upright is the Lord;
   therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
⁹ He leads the humble in what is right,
   and teaches the humble his way.
¹⁰ All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
   for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

¹¹ For your name’s sake, O Lord,
   pardon my guilt, for it is great.
¹² Who are they that fear the Lord?
   He will teach them the way that they should choose.

¹³ They will abide in prosperity,
   and their children shall possess the land.
¹⁴ The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
   and he makes his covenant known to them.
¹⁵ My eyes are ever towards the Lord,
   for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me,
   for I am lonely and afflicted.
¹⁷ Relieve the troubles of my heart,
   and bring me^* out of my distress.
¹⁸ Consider my affliction and my trouble,
   and forgive all my sins.

¹⁹ Consider how many are my foes,
   and with what violent hatred they hate me.
²⁰ O guard my life, and deliver me;
   do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
²¹ May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
   for I wait for you.

²² Redeem Israel, O God,
   out of all its troubles.

Paul’s Ministry in Thessalonica

2You yourselves know, brothers and sisters,^* that our coming to you was not in vain, ²but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. ³For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, ⁴but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. ⁵As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; ⁶nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, ⁷though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle^* among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. ⁸So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

9 You remember our labour and toil, brothers and sisters;^* we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. ¹⁰You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was towards you believers. ¹¹As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, ¹²urging and encouraging you and pleading that you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

13 We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers. ¹⁴For you, brothers and sisters,^* became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets,^* and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone ¹⁶by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last.^*

Paul’s Desire to Visit the Thessalonians Again

17 As for us, brothers and sisters,^* when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face. ¹⁸For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, wanted to again and again—but Satan blocked our way. ¹⁹For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? ²⁰Yes, you are our glory and joy!