The Beloved to the Maidens: I am dark but lovely, O maidens ¹  of Jerusalem, dark ²  like the tents of Qedar, ³  lovely ⁴  like the tent curtains ⁵  of Salmah. ⁶ 

The Beloved to Her Lover: Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! ¹  Oh, ²  how delightful ³  you are! The lush foliage ⁴  is our canopied bed; ⁵ 

“Who ¹  is this who appears ²  like the dawn? ³  Beautiful as the moon, ⁴  bright ⁵  as the sun, awe-inspiring ⁶  as the stars in procession?” ⁷ 

A voice says, “Cry out!” Another asks, ¹  “What should I cry out?” The first voice responds: ²  “All people are like grass, ³  and all their promises ⁴  are like the flowers in the field.

Many foreign rulers ¹  will ruin the land where I planted my people. ²  They will trample all over my chosen land. ³  They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland.

I also swore ¹  to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them to the land I had given them – a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

When ¹  Jesus learned of this, he said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She ²  has done a good service for me.

But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good service for me.

The ¹  angel ²  came ³  to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, ⁴  the Lord is with you!” ⁵ 

And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The glory of the heavenly body is one sort and the earthly another.

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory.

For all flesh ¹  is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass; ²  the grass withers and the flower falls off,

For in the same way the holy women who hoped in God long ago adorned themselves by being subject to their husbands,

And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.

And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, ¹  you accomplish nothing ²  by wearing a beautiful dress, ³  decking yourself out in jewels of gold, and putting on eye shadow! ⁴  You are making yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers spurn you. They want to kill you. ⁵ 

I will give you into their hands and they will destroy your chambers and tear down your pavilions. They will strip you of your clothing and take your beautiful jewelry and leave you naked and bare.

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 

א (Alef) Alas! ¹  The Lord ²  has covered Daughter Zion ³  with his anger. ⁴  He has thrown down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he did not protect ⁵  his temple ⁶  when he displayed his anger. ⁷ 

to make artistic designs ¹  for work with gold, with silver, and with bronze,

with the best ¹  of the ancient mountains and the harvest produced by the age-old hills;