The Lover to His Beloved: ¹  I went down to the orchard of walnut trees, ²  to look for the blossoms of the valley, ³  to see if the vines had budded or if the pomegranates were in bloom.

You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. ¹ 

Like a vine he will let his sour grapes fall, ¹  and like an olive tree he will shed his blossoms. ² 

That will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves.

The godly ¹  grow like a palm tree; they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon. ² 

A person’s life is like grass. ¹  Like a flower in the field it flourishes,

The trees of the Lord ¹  receive all the rain they need, ²  the cedars of Lebanon which he planted,

The one who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous ¹  will flourish like a green leaf. ² 

Other seed fell among the thorns, ¹  and they grew up with it and choked ²  it.

Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.

When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled ¹  hunter, a man of the open fields, but Jacob was an even-tempered man, living in tents. ² 

and in the place of the boil there is a white swelling or a reddish white bright spot, he must show himself to the priest. ¹ 

Certainly ¹  no man who has a physical flaw is to approach: a blind man, or one who is lame, or one with a slit nose, ²  or a limb too long,

You, by your power, ¹  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ²  you crushed ³  the people living there ⁴  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁵ 

Before the kindling is even placed under your pots, ¹  he ²  will sweep it away along with both the raw and cooked meat. ³ 

I planted you in the land like a special vine of the very best stock. Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes? ¹ 

The Lord commanded the enemy, ¹  “March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. ²  But do not destroy them completely. Strip off their branches for these people do not belong to the Lord. ³ 

She reared one of her cubs; he became a young lion. He learned to tear prey; he devoured people. ¹ 

Consider Assyria, ¹  a cedar in Lebanon, ²  with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade, and extremely tall; its top reached into the clouds.

“‘But you, mountains of Israel, will grow your branches, and bear your fruit for my people Israel; for they will arrive soon. ¹