Others
    
    Where has your beloved gone,
        O most beautiful among women?
    Where has your beloved turned,
        that we may seek him with you?
    
    
        She
    
    My beloved has gone down to his garden
        to the beds of spices,
    to graze in the gardens
        and to gather lilies.
    I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
        he grazes among the lilies.
    
    
        He
    
    You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
        lovely as Jerusalem,
        awesome as an army with banners.
    Turn away your eyes from me,
        for they overwhelm me—
    Your hair is like a flock of goats
        leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
    Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
        that have come up from the washing;
    all of them bear twins;
        not one among them has lost its young.
    Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
        behind your veil.
    There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
        and virgins without number.
    My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
        the only one of her mother,
        pure to her who bore her.
    The young women saw her and called her blessed;
        the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
    
    
    “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
        beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
        awesome as an army with banners?”
    
    
    She
    
    I went down to the nut orchard
        to look at the blossoms of the valley,
    to see whether the vines had budded,
        whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
    Before I was aware, my desire set me
        among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.
    
    
    Others
    
    Return, return, O Shulammite,
        return, return, that we may look upon you.
    
    
    He
    
    Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
        as upon a dance before two armies?
    
    
    How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
        O noble daughter!
    Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
        the work of a master hand.
    Your navel is a rounded bowl
        that never lacks mixed wine.
    Your belly is a heap of wheat,
        encircled with lilies.
    Your two breasts are like two fawns,
        twins of a gazelle.
    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,
        which looks toward Damascus.
    Your head crowns you like Carmel,
        and your flowing locks are like purple;
        a king is held captive in the tresses.
    
    
    How beautiful and pleasant you are,
        O loved one, with all your delights!
    Your stature is like a palm tree,
        and your breasts are like its clusters.
    I say I will climb the palm tree
        and lay hold of its fruit.
    Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
        and the scent of your breath like apples,
    and your mouth like the best wine.
    
    
    She
    
    It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
        gliding over lips and teeth.
    
    
    I am my beloved’s,
        and his desire is for me.
    
    
        Come, my beloved,
        let us go out into the fields
        and lodge in the villages;
    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.
    The mandrakes give forth fragrance,
        and beside our doors are all choice fruits,
    new as well as old,
        which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.
    
    
        Oh that you were like a brother to me
        who nursed at my mother’s breasts!
    If I found you outside, I would kiss you,
        and none would despise me.
    I would lead you and bring you
        into the house of my mother—
        she who used to teach me.
    I would give you spiced wine to drink,
        the juice of my pomegranate.
    His left hand is under my head,
        and his right hand embraces me!
    I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
        that you not stir up or awaken love
        until it pleases.
    
    
    Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
        leaning on her beloved?
    
    
    Under the apple tree I awakened you.
    There your mother was in labor with you;
        there she who bore you was in labor.
    
    
    Set me as a seal upon your heart,
        as a seal upon your arm,
    for love is strong as death,
        jealousy is fierce as the grave.
    Its flashes are flashes of fire,
        the very flame of the LORD.
    Many waters cannot quench love,
        neither can floods drown it.
    If a man offered for love
        all the wealth of his house,
        he would be utterly despised.
    
    
        Others
    
    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?
    If she is a wall,
        we will build on her a battlement of silver,
    but if she is a door,
        we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
    
    
    She
    
    I was a wall,
        and my breasts were like towers;
    then I was in his eyes
        as one who finds peace.
    
    
    Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
        he let out the vineyard to keepers;
        each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
    My vineyard, my very own, is before me;
        you, O Solomon, may have the thousand,
        and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.
    
    
    He
    
    O you who dwell in the gardens,
        with companions listening for your voice;
        let me hear it.
    
    
    She
    
    Make haste, my beloved,
        and be like a gazelle
    or a young stag
        on the mountains of spices. (ESV)

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

  On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old. (ESV)