The Beloved to the Maidens: My beloved has gone down to his garden, ¹  to the flowerbeds of balsam spices, ²  to graze ³  in the gardens, and to gather lilies. ⁴ 

The time is coming when Jacob will take root; ¹  Israel will blossom and grow branches. The produce ²  will fill the surface of the world. ³ 

I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily, he will send down his roots like a cedar of ¹  Lebanon.

Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay ¹  one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? ² 

Therefore, as flaming fire ¹  devours straw, and dry grass disintegrates in the flames, so their root will rot, and their flower will blow away like dust. ²  For they have rejected the law of the Lord who commands armies, they have spurned the commands ³  of the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

and if a man actually has sexual intercourse with her so that her menstrual impurity touches him, ¹  then he will be unclean seven days and any bed he lies on will be unclean.

the one who is sick in her menstruation, the one with a discharge, whether male or female, ¹  and a man ²  who has sexual intercourse with an unclean woman.’”

On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ¹  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ² 

Images of bulls were under it all the way around, ten every eighteen inches ¹  all the way around. The bulls were in two rows and had been cast with “The Sea.”

Let us rise early to go to the vineyards, to see if the vines have budded, to see if their blossoms have opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom – there I will give you my love.

From the abundance of milk they produce, ¹  he will have sour milk for his meals. Indeed, everyone left in the heart of the land will eat sour milk and honey.

For you ignore ¹  the God who rescues you; you pay no attention to your strong protector. ²  So this is what happens: You cultivate beautiful plants and plant exotic vines. ³ 

People will reside again ¹  in his shade; they will plant and harvest grain in abundance. ²  They will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ¹  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ²  won’t he clothe you even more, ³  you people of little faith?

“Woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ² 

And if ¹  this is how God clothes the wild grass, ²  which is here ³  today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ⁴  how much more ⁵  will he clothe you, you people of little faith!

Let it richly bloom; ¹  let it rejoice and shout with delight! ²  It is given the grandeur ³  of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the grandeur of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

When ¹  the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines; when the olive trees do not produce, ²  and the fields yield no crops; ³  when the sheep disappear ⁴  from the pen, and there are no cattle in the stalls,