Whatever you find to do with your hands, ¹  do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, ²  the place where you will eventually go. ³ 

So remember ¹  your Creator in the days of your youth – before ²  the difficult ³  days come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

The Beloved to the Maidens: I adjure you, ¹  O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does ²  of the open fields: ³  Do not awaken or arouse ⁴  love ⁵  until it pleases! ⁶ 

The Adjuration Refrain The Beloved to the Maidens: ¹ I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: “Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

The Lover to His Beloved: Oh, ²  you are beautiful, my darling! ³  Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. ⁴  Your hair is like a flock of female goats descending ⁵  from Mount Gilead.

But you have been thrown out of your grave like a shoot that is thrown away. ¹  You lie among ²  the slain, among those who have been slashed by the sword, among those headed for ³  the stones of the pit, ⁴  as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁵ 

He will wind you up tightly into a ball and throw you into a wide, open land. ¹  There you will die, and there with you will be your impressive chariots, ²  which bring disgrace to the house of your master. ³ 

you whom I am bringing back ¹  from the earth’s extremities, and have summoned from the remote regions – I told you, “You are my servant.” I have chosen you and not rejected you.

Now, this is what the Lord says, the one who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I will protect ¹  you. I call you by name, you are mine.

Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid! ¹  Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it? You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me? There is no other sheltering rock; ²  I know of none.

With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it, saying, ‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’

You are tired out from listening to so much advice. ¹  Let them take their stand – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make monthly predictions – let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! ² 

You will say ¹  to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those who are in dark dungeons, ²  ‘Emerge.’ ³  They will graze beside the roads; on all the slopes they will find pasture.

Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys ¹  his servant? Whoever walks in deep darkness, ²  without light, should trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

Yet do not depart quickly or leave in a panic. ¹  For the Lord goes before you; the God of Israel is your rear guard.

For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, Lord, are our father; you have been called our protector from ancient times. ¹ 

Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ¹  Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ² 

Moreover, you will come away from Egypt with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame ¹  because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful and you will not gain any help from them. ² 

So, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will assuredly ¹  make these people stumble to their doom. ²  Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction. ³  Friends and neighbors will die.’

So I, the Lord, say this: ¹  ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.