For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” ²  by the Korahites, a well-written poem, ³  a love song. My heart is stirred by a beautiful song. ⁴  I say, “I have composed this special song ⁵  for the king; my tongue is as skilled as the stylus of an experienced scribe.” ⁶ 

Come out, O maidens of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon! He is wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, on the most joyous day of his life! ¹ 

The Beloved to Her Lover: Set me like a cylinder seal ¹  over your heart, ²  like a signet ³  on your arm. ⁴  For love is as strong as death, ⁵  passion ⁶  is as unrelenting ⁷  as Sheol. Its flames burst forth, ⁸  it is a blazing flame. ⁹ 

So look, the sovereign master ¹  is bringing up against them the turbulent and mighty waters of the Euphrates River ²  – the king of Assyria and all his majestic power. It will reach flood stage and overflow its banks. ³ 

The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ¹  the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout. Yet the harvest will disappear ²  in the day of disease and incurable pain.

¹ Your dead will come back to life; your corpses will rise up. Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ²  For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ³  and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁴ 

Look, the sovereign master ¹  sends a strong, powerful one. ²  With the force of a hailstorm or a destructive windstorm, ³  with the might of a driving, torrential rainstorm, ⁴  he will knock that crown ⁵  to the ground with his hand. ⁶ 

It shatters in pieces like a clay jar, so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ¹  Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ²  to scoop a hot coal from a fire ³  or to skim off water from a cistern.” ⁴ 

You will sing as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival. You will be happy like one who plays a flute as he goes to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock who shelters Israel. ¹ 

The Lord will give a mighty shout ¹  and intervene in power, ²  with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ³  with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

Then you will look and smile, ¹  you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ²  For the riches of distant lands ³  will belong to you and the wealth of nations will come to you.

For just as the ground produces its crops and a garden yields its produce, so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ¹  to grow, and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ² 

When you see this, you will be happy, ¹  and you will be revived. ²  The Lord will reveal his power to his servants and his anger to his enemies. ³ 

All of this is because ¹  the Lord who rules over all ²  has said: ‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem and build up a siege ramp against its walls. ³  This is the city which is to be punished. ⁴  Nothing but oppression happens in it. ⁵ 

I will weep for the grapevines of Sibmah just like the town of Jazer weeps over them. ¹  Their branches once spread as far as the Dead Sea. ²  They reached as far as the town of Jazer. ³  The destroyer will ravage her fig, date, ⁴  and grape crops.

In the shadows of the walls of Heshbon those trying to escape will stand helpless. For a fire will burst forth from Heshbon. Flames will shoot out from the former territory of Sihon. They will burn the foreheads of the people of Moab, the skulls of those war-loving people. ¹ 

I will increase the number of people and animals on you; they will increase and be fruitful. ¹  I will cause you to be inhabited as in ancient times, and will do more good for you than at the beginning of your history. ²  Then you will know that I am the Lord.

On that day ¹  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ²  and the hills will flow with milk. ³  All the dry stream beds ⁴  of Judah will flow with water. A spring will flow out from the temple ⁵  of the Lord, watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ⁶ 

Seek the Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out ¹  like fire against Joseph’s ²  family; ³  the fire ⁴  will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. ⁵ 

All these strong ones ¹  are scattering; they have sought permission to go and walk about over the earth.” The Lord had said, “Go! Walk about over the earth!” So they are doing so.