Day 253 of 365

¹How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince's daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman.

²Your body is like a round goblet, no mixed wine is wanting. Your waist is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies.

³Your two breasts are like two fawns, that are twins of a roe.

⁴Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.

⁵Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.

⁶How beautiful and how pleasant you are, love, for delights!

⁷This, your stature, is like a palm tree, your breasts like its fruit.

⁸I said, "I will climb up into the palm tree. I will take hold of its fruit." Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the smell of your breath like apples, Beloved

⁹Your mouth like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.

¹⁰I am my beloved's. His desire is toward me.

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

¹²Let's go early up to the vineyards. Let's see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love.

¹³The mandrakes give forth fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.

¹Oh that you were like my brother, who sucked the breasts of my mother! If I found you outside, I would kiss you; yes, and no one would despise me.

²I would lead you, bringing you into my mother's house, who would instruct me. I would have you drink spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate.

³His left hand would be under my head. His right hand would embrace me.

⁴I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires. Friends

⁵Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I aroused you. There your mother conceived you. There she was in labor and bore you.

⁶Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yah.

⁷Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned. Friends

⁸We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is to be spoken for?

⁹If she is a wall, we will build on her a turret of silver. If she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. Beloved

¹⁰I am a wall, and my breasts like towers, then I was in his eyes like one who found peace.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

¹²My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon; two hundred for those who tend its fruit. Lover

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

¹⁴Come away, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!

¹The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

³The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib; but Israel doesn't know, my people do not consider.

⁴Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

⁵Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven't been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.

⁷Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

⁸The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.

⁹Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

¹¹"What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?," says the Lord. "I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

¹²When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

¹³Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies.

¹⁴My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

¹⁷Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow."

¹⁸"Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

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

²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."

²¹How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

²²Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

²³Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

²⁴Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, says: "Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself of my enemies;

²⁵and I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin.

²⁶I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called 'The city of righteousness, a faithful town.'

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.

²⁸But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

²⁹For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.

³⁰For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

³¹The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them."

¹Praise the Lord, my soul! All that is within me, praise his holy name!

²Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his benefits;

³who forgives all your sins; who heals all your diseases;

⁴who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies;

⁵who satisfies your desire with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶The Lord executes righteous acts, and justice for all who are oppressed.

⁷He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the children of Israel.

⁸The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.

⁹He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever.

¹⁰He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities.

¹¹For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.

¹²As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³Like a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

¹⁴For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

¹⁶For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.

¹⁷But the Lord's loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children's children;

¹⁸to those who keep his covenant, to those who remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹The Lord has established his throne in the heavens. His kingdom rules over all.

²⁰Praise the Lord, you angels of his, who are mighty in strength, who fulfill his word, obeying the voice of his word.

²¹Praise the Lord, all you armies of his, you servants of his, who do his pleasure.

²²Praise the Lord, all you works of his, in all places of his dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul!

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

²that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.

⁷Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove your way far from her. Do not come near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house.

¹¹You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹²and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

¹³neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly."

¹⁵Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving doe and a graceful deer- let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

²⁰For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. He examines all his paths.

²²The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

²³He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.