The Beloved: I was a wall, and my breasts were like fortress towers. ¹  Then I found favor ²  in his eyes. ³ 

The Lover to His Beloved: O you who stay in the gardens, my companions are listening attentively ¹  for your voice; let me be the one to ²  hear it! ³ 

At that time ¹  the crops given by the Lord will bring admiration and honor; ²  the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight to those who remain in Israel. ³ 

A baby ¹  will play over the hole of a snake; ²  over the nest ³  of a serpent an infant ⁴  will put his hand. ⁵ 

For the fortified city ¹  is left alone; it is a deserted settlement and abandoned like the desert. Calves ²  graze there; they lie down there and eat its branches bare. ³ 

The Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ But go ¹  to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you.

And I will smash them like wine bottles against one another, children and parents alike. ¹  I will not show any pity, mercy, or compassion. Nothing will keep me from destroying them,’ ²  says the Lord.”

She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired ¹  – with all their idols.

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt.

You will eat the flesh of warriors ¹  and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.

You will also take the bull for the sin offering, and it will be burned in the appointed place in the temple, outside the sanctuary.

He will provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a gallon ¹  of olive oil for each ephah of grain. ² 

He will provide a grain offering: an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs as much as he wishes, ¹  and a gallon ²  of olive oil with each ephah of grain. ³ 

The king commanded ¹  Ashpenaz, ²  who was in charge of his court officials, ³  to choose ⁴  some of the Israelites who were of royal and noble descent ⁵  –

When the king spoke with them, he did not find among the entire group ¹  anyone like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, or Azariah. So they entered the king’s service. ² 

O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol! My anger burns against them! They will not survive much longer without being punished, ¹  even though they are Israelites!

I will make up for the years ¹  that the ‘arbeh-locust ²  consumed your crops ³  – the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust – my great army ⁴  that I sent against you.

and they cast lots for my people. They traded ¹  a boy for a prostitute; they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. ² 

They lie around on beds decorated with ivory, ¹  and sprawl out on their couches. They eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the middle of the pen.

With what should I ¹  enter the Lord’s presence? With what ²  should I bow before the sovereign God? ³  Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?