for they have overcome me.
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
that lie along the side of Gilead.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes,
which have come up from the washing,
of which every one has twins;
not one is bereaved among them.
7 Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
8 There are sixty queens, eighty concubines,
and virgins without number.
9 My dove, my perfect one, is unique.
She is her mother’s only daughter.
She is the favorite one of her who bore her.
The daughters saw her, and called her blessed.
The queens and the concubines saw her, and they praised her.
10 Who is she who looks out as the morning,
beautiful as the moon,
clear as the sun,
and awesome as an army with banners?
11 I went down into the nut tree grove,
to see the green plants of the valley,
to see whether the vine budded,
and the pomegranates were in flower.
12 Without realizing it,
my desire set me with my royal people’s chariots.
Friends
13 Return, return, Shulammite!
Return, return, that we may gaze at you.
Lover
Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite,
as at the dance of Mahanaim?
7
1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
the work of the hands of a skillful workman.
2 Your body is like a round goblet,
no mixed wine is wanting.
Your waist is like a heap of wheat,
set about with lilies.
3 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
that are twins of a roe.
4 Your 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.
5 Your head on you is like Carmel.
The hair of your head like purple.
The king is held captive in its tresses.
6 How beautiful and how pleasant you are,
love, for delights!
7 This, your stature, is like a palm tree,
your breasts like its fruit.
8 I 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.
9 Your mouth is like the best wine,
that goes down smoothly for my beloved,
gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.
Beloved
10 I am my beloved’s.
His desire is toward me.
11 Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field.
Let’s lodge in the villages.
12 Let’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.
13 The mandrakes produce fragrance.
At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old,
which I have stored up for you, my beloved.
8
1 Oh that you were like my brother,
who nursed from the breasts of my mother!
If I found you outside, I would kiss you;
yes, and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you, bringing you into the house of my mother,
who would instruct me.
I would have you drink spiced wine,
of the juice of my pomegranate.
3 His left hand would be under my head.
His right hand would embrace me.
4 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
that you not stir up, nor awaken love,
until it so desires.
Friends
5 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness,
leaning on her beloved?
Beloved
Under the apple tree I awakened you.
There your mother conceived you.
There she was in labor and bore you.
6 Set 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 the LORD.‡
7 Many 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.
Brothers
8 We 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?
9 If 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
10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers,
then I was in his eyes like one who found peace.
11 Solomon 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.
12 My own vineyard is before me.
The thousand are for you, Solomon,
two hundred for those who tend its fruit.
Lover
13 You who dwell in the gardens, with friends in attendance,
let me hear your voice!
Beloved
14 Come away, my beloved!
Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!
† 1:15 “Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
† 8:6 Sheol is the place of the dead.
‡ 8:6 When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name
§ 8:11 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 1000 shekels is about 10 kilograms or about 22 pounds.
Lamentations
The Lamentations of Jeremiah
1
1 How the city sits solitary,
that was full of people!
She has become as a widow,
who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
has become a slave!
2 She weeps bitterly in the night.
Her tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
They have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction
and because of great servitude.
She dwells among the nations.
She finds no rest.
All her persecutors overtook her in her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
because no one comes to the solemn assembly.
All her gates are desolate.
Her priests sigh.
Her virgins are afflicted,
and she herself is in bitterness.
5 Her adversaries have become the head.
Her enemies prosper;
for the LORD† has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
6 All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion.
Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture.
They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries
all her pleasant things that were from the days of old;
when her people fell into the hand of the adversary,
and no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her.
They mocked at her desolations.
8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned.
Therefore she has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
because they have seen her nakedness.
Yes, she sighs and turns backward.
9 Her filthiness was in her skirts.
She didn’t remember her latter end.
Therefore she has come down astoundingly.
She has no comforter.
“See, LORD, my affliction;
for the enemy has magnified himself.”
10 The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things;
for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,
concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
11 All her people sigh.
They seek bread.
They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul.
“Look, LORD, and see,
for I have become despised.”
12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
which is brought on me,
with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
13 “From on high has he sent fire into my bones,
and it prevails against them.
He has spread a net for my feet.
He has turned me back.
He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.
14 “The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand.
They are knit together.
They have come up on my neck.
He made my strength fail.
The Lord‡ has delivered me into their hands,
against whom I am not able to stand.
15 “The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me.
He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men.
The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.
16 “For these things I weep.
My eye, my eye runs down with water,
because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.
My children are desolate,
because the enemy has prevailed.”
17 Zion spreads out her hands.
There is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob,
that those who are around him should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
18 “The LORD is righteous,
for I have rebelled against his commandment.
Please hear all you peoples,
and see my sorrow.
My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
19 “I called for my lovers,
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city,
while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.
20 “Look, LORD; for I am in distress.
My heart is troubled.
My heart turns over within me,
for I have grievously rebelled.
Abroad, the sword bereaves.
At home, it is like death.
21 “They have heard that I sigh.
There is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble.
They are glad that you have done it.
You will bring the day that you have proclaimed,
and they will be like me.
22 “Let all their wickedness come before you.
Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions.
For my sighs are many,
and my heart is faint.
2
1 How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger!
He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth,
and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob
without pity.
He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah.
He has brought them down to the ground.
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger.
He
