He has brought me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.

Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, for I'm weak with love.

I wish that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand were embracing me!

Swear to me, young women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, that you won't awaken or arouse love before its proper time!

The voice of my beloved! Look! He's coming, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, looking through the windows, gazing through the lattice.

My beloved spoke to me: "Get up, my darling, my beautiful one, and come on.

The fig tree has produced its fruit, the grapevines have blossomed and exude their fragrance. "Get up, my darling, my beautiful one, and come on.

My dove, in the hidden places of the rocks, in the secret places of the cliffs, show me your form, and let me hear your voice. For your voice is pleasant, and your shape is lovely.

My beloved belongs to me and I belong to him. He is the one who shepherds his flock among the lilies.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn around, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the rugged mountains.

Night after night on my bed, I sought the one I love; I sought him, but didn't find him.

The watchmen who go all around the city found me. I asked, "Have you seen the one I love?"

I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held him and wouldn't let him go until I brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

Swear to me, young women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, that you won't awaken or arouse love before its proper time!

Look at you! You are beautiful, my darling. Look at you! You are so beautiful. Your eyes behind your veil are doves, your hair is like a flock of goats coming down from Mt. Gilead.

My darling, you are altogether beautiful and there is no blemish in you.

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. May you journey from the top of Amana, from the tops of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountain lairs of leopards.

You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride. You have made my heart beat faster with one glance of your eyes, with one strand of your necklace.

How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride. How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than all kinds of spices.

Your lips drip honey, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The scent of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

My sister, my bride, is a locked garden a locked rock garden, a sealed up spring.

Awake, north wind, and come, south wind. Make my garden breathe out, let its fragrance flow. Let my beloved come into his garden, and let him eat its choicest fruits.

I've come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I've gathered my myrrh with my spices. I've eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I've drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink and become drunk with love.

I was asleep, but my heart was awake. There's a sound! My beloved is knocking. "Open up for me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night."

"I've taken off my clothes am I supposed to put them on again? I've washed my feet am I supposed to get them dirty again?"

My beloved reached out his hand for the latch. My feelings for him were aroused.

I got up to open the door, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handle of the lock.

I opened the door for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away; he was gone! My very life went out when he departed. I searched for him, but couldn't find him. I called out to him, but he didn't answer.

The watchmen making their rounds through the city found me. They beat me, they bruised me. Those guarding the walls took my cloak from me.

I charge you, young women of Jerusalem, "If you find my beloved, what are you to tell him? Tell him that I'm weak with love."

My beloved is dazzling, with a dark and healthy complexion, outstanding among ten thousand.

His mouth is sweetness, and all of him is desirable. This is my beloved, this is my friend, young women of Jerusalem!

Where did your beloved go, most beautiful of women? Where did your beloved turn, so we may look for him with you?

My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to graze his flock in the gardens and gather lilies.

I belong to my beloved, and my beloved belongs to me. He is the one who grazes his flock among the lilies.

You are beautiful, my darling, like Tirzah, lovely like Jerusalem, as awesome as an army with banners.

Turn your eyes from me, for they excite me. Your hair is like a flock of goats coming down from Mt. Gilead.

but my dove, my perfect one, is unique. She's unique to her mother, she's pure to the one who gave birth to her. Young women see her and call her blessed, queens and mistresses praise her.

Before I knew it, I imagined myself among the chariots of my noble people.

Return, return, Shulammite, return, return, so we may look at you! Why should you look at the Shulammite, like you watch the dance of the two camps?

I told myself, "I'll go up the palm tree, and take hold of its fruit. May your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the smell of your breath like apples.

May your mouth be like good wine. May it go down smoothly to my beloved, gliding gently over the lips of the sleeping ones.

I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.

Come, my beloved. Let us go out to the country, let us spend the night in the villages.

Let us go early to the vineyards, let us see whether the vine has budded, whether the blossom has opened, whether the pomegranates have bloomed. There I'll give you my love.

The mandrakes give off their fragrance, and over our doors are all the choice fruits, both old and new, that I've stored up for you, my beloved.

If only you were like a brother to me, like one who nursed at my mother's breasts. If I found you outside I would kiss you, and no one would view me with contempt.

I would lead you, I would bring you to the house of my mother who used to teach me. I would give you some spiced wine to drink, from the juice of my pomegranates.

Let his left hand be under my head, and let his right hand embrace me.

Swear to me, young women of Jerusalem, that you won't awaken or arouse love before its proper time!

Set me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, passion as intense as Sheol. The flames of love are flames of fire, a blaze that comes from the LORD.

I was a wall and my breasts were like towers. Then I became like one who finds peace in his eyes.

My vineyard belongs to me and is at my disposal. The 1,000 are for you, Solomon, and 200 are for those who take care of its fruit.

You who sit in the gardens, companions are listening for your voice, but let me hear it.

Come quickly, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Listen, you heavens, and let the earth pay attention, because the LORD has spoken: "I reared children and brought them to adulthood, but then they rebelled against me.

The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's feeding trough, but Israel doesn't know, and my people don't understand.

"Oh, you sinful nation! You people burdened down by iniquity! You offspring of those who keep practicing what is evil! You corrupt children! "They've abandoned the LORD; they've despised the Holy One of Israel; in their estrangement, they've walked away from me.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.

"When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts?

Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly.

As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They've become a burden to me; I've grown weary of carrying that burden.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity."

"Wash yourselves, and make yourselves clean; remove your evil behavior from my presence; stop practicing what is evil.

When I turn my attention to you, I'll refine your dross as in a furnace. I'll remove all your alloy.

Let me restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you'll be called "The Righteous City' and "The Faithful City of Zion'.

Many groups of people will come, commenting, "Come! Let's go up to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us his ways. Then let's walk in his paths." "Instruction will proceed from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

"But at that time, he'll protest! He'll say, "I won't be your healer. I have neither food nor clothing in my house! You're not going to make me a leader of the people!'

"As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, your leaders are misleading you they're giving you confusing directions."

How dare you crush my people as you grind down the face of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

I will sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: "The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

"So now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, won't you please, between me and my vineyard.

What more could I do in my vineyard, that I haven't already done? When I expected it to produce good grapes, why did it yield wild ones?

"Now, let me tell you, won't you please, what I'm going to do to my vineyard. "I'm going to take away its protective hedge, and it will be devoured; I'll break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

Therefore my people go into exile because they lack understanding; my honored men go hungry, and the crowd is parched with thirst.

who say: "Let God be quick, let him speed up his work so we may see it! Let it happen! let the plan of the Holy One of Israel draw near, so we may recognize it!'"

"How terrible it will be for me!" I cried, "because I am ruined! I'm a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies!"

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a burning coal in his hand that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

He touched my mouth and said, "Look! Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sins atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the LORD as he was asking, "Whom will I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am!" I replied. "Send me."

In reply, the LORD announced, "Please listen, you household of David. Is it such a minor thing for you to try the patience of men? Must you also try the patience of my God?

The LORD also told me, "Take a large tablet and write on it with a stylus pen, "For Maher-shalal-hash-baz'.

Then I will call Uriah the priest and Jeberechiah's son Zechariah as reliable witnesses to testify on my behalf."

After this, I was intimate with the prophetess and she conceived. Later, she bore a son, and then the LORD told me, "Call him "Maher-shalal-hash-baz,'

The LORD spoke to me again:

For this is what the LORD spoke to me, as his forceful hand was resting on me, and as he was warning me not to live the way this people were living:

"Bind up the testimony, and seal up the teaching among my disciples.

I'll wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I'll put my trust in him.

Watch out! I and the children whom the LORD has given me are a sign and a wonder in Israel from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, who resides on Mount Zion."

to deprive the needy of justice and to rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may become their spoil and so that they may plunder orphans!

"How terrible it will be for Assyria, the rod of my anger! The club is in their hands!

I'm sending my fury against a godless nation, and I'll command him against the people with whom I'm angry to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

"Because this is what he is saying: "My commanders are all kings, are they not?

As my hand has reached to the idolatrous kingdoms whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

He keeps bragging: "I've done it by the strength of my hand, and by my wisdom, because I'm so clever. I removed the boundaries of nations, and plundered their treasures; like a bull I brought down those who sat on thrones.

My hand has found, as if in a nest, the wealth of the people; and as one gathers eggs that have been abandoned, so I have gathered all the inhabitants of the earth. Nothing moved a wing, opened its mouth, or chirped.'

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies says: "My people, you who live in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrians, of the rod that beats you, who lift up their club against you as the Egyptians did.

In just a little while, my fury will come to an end, and my anger then will be directed to their destruction.

They will neither harm nor destroy on my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."