SONG OF SOLOMON 1

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The Young Shulammite Bride and Jerusalem’s Daughters  1:1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.
2 “May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

For your love is better than wine.

3 “Your oils have a pleasing fragrance,

Your name is like purified oil;

Therefore the maidens love you.

4 “Draw me after you and let us run together!

The king has brought me into his chambers.”

“We will rejoice in you and be glad;

We will extol your love more than wine.

Rightly do they love you.”

5 “I am black but lovely,

O daughters of Jerusalem,

Like the tents of Kedar,

Like the curtains of Solomon.

6 “Do not stare at me because I am swarthy,

For the sun has burned me.

My mother’s sons were angry with me;

They made me caretaker of the vineyards,

But I have not taken care of my own vineyard.

7 “Tell me, O you whom my soul loves,

Where do you pasture your flock,

Where do you make it lie down at noon?

For why should I be like one who veils herself

Beside the flocks of your companions?”

Solomon, the Lover, Speaks8 “If you yourself do not know,

Most beautiful among women,

Go forth on the trail of the flock

And pasture your young goats

By the tents of the shepherds.

9 “To me, my darling, you are like

My mare among the chariots of Pharaoh.

10 “Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,

Your neck with strings of beads.”

11 “We will make for you ornaments of gold

With beads of silver.”

12 “While the king was at his table,

My perfume gave forth its fragrance.

13 “My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh

Which lies all night between my breasts.

14 “My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms

In the vineyards of Engedi.”

15 “How beautiful you are, my darling,

How beautiful you are!

Your eyes are like doves.”

16 “How handsome you are, my beloved,

And so pleasant!

Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!

17 “The beams of our houses are cedars,

Our rafters, cypresses.

SONG OF SOLOMON 2

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The Bride’s Admiration2:1 “I am the rose of Sharon,

The lily of the valleys.”

2 “Like a lily among the thorns,

So is my darling among the maidens.”

3 “Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

So is my beloved among the young men.

In his shade I took great delight and sat down,

And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

4 “He has brought me to his banquet hall,

And his banner over me is love.

5 “Sustain me with raisin cakes,

Refresh me with apples,

Because I am lovesick.

6 “Let his left hand be under my head

And his right hand embrace me.”

7 “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,

That you do not arouse or awaken my love

Until she pleases.”

8 “Listen! My beloved!

Behold, he is coming,

Climbing on the mountains,

Leaping on the hills!

9 “My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.

Behold, he is standing behind our wall,

He is looking through the windows,

He is peering through the lattice.

10 “My beloved responded and said to me,

‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along.

11 ‘For behold, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

12 ‘The flowers have already appeared in the land;

The time has arrived for pruning the vines,

And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.

13 ‘The fig tree has ripened its figs,

And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,

And come along!’”

14 “O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,

In the secret place of the steep pathway,

Let me see your form,

Let me hear your voice;

For your voice is sweet,

And your form is lovely.”

15 “Catch the foxes for us,

The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards,

While our vineyards are in blossom.”

16 “My beloved is mine, and I am his;

He pastures his flock among the lilies.

17 “Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away,

Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle

Or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.”

PROVERBS 1

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The Usefulness of Proverbs  1:1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

2 To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

3 To receive instruction in wise behavior,

Righteousness, justice and equity;

4 To give prudence to the naive,

To the youth knowledge and discretion,

5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning,

And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

6 To understand a proverb and a figure,

The words of the wise and their riddles.

7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The Enticement of Sinners8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction

And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;

9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head

And ornaments about your neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice you,

Do not consent.

11 If they say, “Come with us,

Let us lie in wait for blood,

Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,

Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;

13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth,

We will fill our houses with spoil;

14 Throw in your lot with us,

We shall all have one purse,”

15 My son, do not walk in the way with them.

Keep your feet from their path,

16 For their feet run to evil

And they hasten to shed blood.

17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net

In the sight of any bird;

18 But they lie in wait for their own blood;

They ambush their own lives.

19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence;

It takes away the life of its possessors.

Wisdom Warns20 Wisdom shouts in the street,

She lifts her voice in the square;

21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;

At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:

22 “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded?

And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing

And fools hate knowledge?

23 “Turn to my reproof,

Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;

I will make my words known to you.

24 “Because I called and you refused,

I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;

25 And you neglected all my counsel

And did not want my reproof;

26 I will also laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your dread comes,

27 When your dread comes like a storm

And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,

When distress and anguish come upon you.

28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,

29 Because they hated knowledge

And did not choose the fear of the LORD.

30 “They would not accept my counsel,

They spurned all my reproof.

31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way

And be satiated with their own devices.

32 “For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,

And the complacency of fools will destroy them.

33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely

And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

PSALM 101

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The Psalmist’s Profession of Uprightness.A Psalm of David.
101:1 I will sing of lovingkindness and justice,

To You, O LORD, I will sing praises.

2 I will give heed to the blameless way.

When will You come to me?

I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

3 I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;

I hate the work of those who fall away;

It shall not fasten its grip on me.

4 A perverse heart shall depart from me;

I will know no evil.

5 Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy;

No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.

6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me;

He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.

7 He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;

He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me.

8 Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land,

So as to cut off from the city of the LORD all those who do iniquity.

PSALM 102

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Prayer of an Afflicted Man for Mercy on Himself and on Zion.A Prayer of the Afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD.
102:1 Hear my prayer, O LORD!

And let my cry for help come to You.

2 Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;

Incline Your ear to me;

In the day when I call answer me quickly.

3 For my days have been consumed in smoke,

And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.

4 My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away,

Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.

5 Because of the loudness of my groaning

My bones cling to my flesh.

6 I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;

I have become like an owl of the waste places.

7 I lie awake,

I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop.

8 My enemies have reproached me all day long;

Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.

9 For I have eaten ashes like bread

And mingled my drink with weeping

10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath,

For You have lifted me up and cast me away.

11 My days are like a lengthened shadow,

And I wither away like grass.

12 But You, O LORD, abide forever,

And Your name to all generations.

13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion;

For it is time to be gracious to her,

For the appointed time has come.

14 Surely Your servants find pleasure in her stones

And feel pity for her dust.

15 So the nations will fear the name of the LORD

And all the kings of the earth Your glory.

16 For the LORD has built up Zion;

He has appeared in His glory.

17 He has regarded the prayer of the destitute

And has not despised their prayer.

18 This will be written for the generation to come,

That a people yet to be created may praise the LORD.

19 For He looked down from His holy height;

From heaven the LORD gazed upon the earth,

20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner,

To set free those who were doomed to death,

21 That men may tell of the name of the LORD in Zion

And His praise in Jerusalem,

22 When the peoples are gathered together,

And the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.

23 He has weakened my strength in the way;

He has shortened my days.

24 I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days,

Your years are throughout all generations.

25 “Of old You founded the earth,

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

26 “Even they will perish, but You endure;

And all of them will wear out like a garment;

Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

27 “But You are the same,

And Your years will not come to an end.

28 “The children of Your servants will continue,

And their descendants will be established before You.”