The Maidens to The Beloved: Why is your beloved better than others, ¹  O most beautiful of women? Why is your beloved better than others, that you would command us in this manner?

The Beloved about Her Lover: I am my beloved’s, and he desires me! ¹ 

Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹ 

The Beloved about Her Lover: I am my lover’s ¹  and my lover is mine; ²  he grazes among the lilies.

The Maidens to the Beloved: Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned? Tell us, ¹  that we may seek him with you. ² 

I ¹  will sing to my love – a song to my lover about his vineyard. ²  My love had a vineyard on a fertile hill. ³ 

As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ¹  ‘My beloved.’” ² 

Our dear friend Luke the physician and Demas greet you.

My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms ¹  in the vineyards of En-Gedi. ² 

The Beloved to the Maidens: My beloved ¹  is dazzling ²  and ruddy; ³  he stands out ⁴  in comparison to ⁵  all other men. ⁶ 

The Beloved to Her Lover: Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside; let us spend the night in the villages.

So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

From ¹  the elder, ²  to Gaius ³  my dear brother, whom I love in truth. ⁴ 

The Beloved about Her Lover: Listen! ¹  My lover is approaching! ²  Look! ³  Here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills!

The Beloved about Her Lover: My lover is mine and I am his; he grazes among the lilies. ¹ 

And ¹  a voice from heaven said, ²  “This is my one dear Son; ³  in him ⁴  I take great delight.” ⁵ 

And a voice came from heaven: “You are my one dear Son; ¹  in you I take great delight.” ² 

I am not writing these things to shame you, but to correct you as my dear children.

to the praise of the glory of his grace ¹  that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. ²