The Daily Audio Bible
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Love
1 This is Solomon's most beautiful song.
The young woman:
2 Please kiss me with your lips!
Your love makes me happier than wine does.
3 You have put perfume on your body.
It has a lovely smell.
The sound of your name causes pleasure everywhere,
like sweet perfume.
All the young women love you!
4 Take me away with you. Come quickly.
I want the king to take me into his rooms.[a]
The woman's friends:[b]
We are very happy!
You make us happy.
We praise your love,
because it is better than wine.
The young woman:
I agree! The young women are right to praise you like that.
5 Young women of Jerusalem, my skin is dark but I am beautiful.[c]
My skin is dark, like the tents of Kedar.
It is beautiful, like the curtains of King Solomon's tent.
6 The sun has caused my skin to become dark.
Please do not look at me as if I am strange.
My brothers were angry with me.
They caused me to work outside in the sun.
I took care of the vineyards,
and I could not take care of my own vineyard, my body.
7 I love you, my dear one.[d]
Tell me where you take your sheep to eat grass.
Where will you take them to rest at midday?
I do not want to look for you everywhere
among the sheep of your friends.
They might not understand what I am doing.
The man and the woman praise each other
The young man:
8 You are the most beautiful woman of all.
If you do not know where to find me,
follow the marks from the feet of my sheep.
Take your young goats to eat grass
among the tents of the shepherds.
9 My dear friend, you are very beautiful.
You seem to me like a beautiful horse that pulls one of Pharaoh's chariots.
10 Your face is beautiful with jewels.
A necklace makes your neck beautiful too.
11 We will use gold to make ear rings for you,
and we will add pieces of silver.
The young woman:[e]
12 While the king was eating a meal,
the sweet smell of my perfume was in the air.
13 My lover is like a bag of myrrh
that lies between my breasts.
14 He is like a group of henna flowers
that grow in the vineyards at En Gedi.[f]
The young man:
15 My dear friend, I see that you are very beautiful!
Yes, you are beautiful
and your eyes are like doves.
The young woman:
16 My lover, I see that you are very handsome!
Yes, you are lovely!
This field of fresh, green grass is our comfortable bed.
17 The cedar trees above us are the beams of our bedroom.[g]
The pine trees cover us like a roof.
The young woman:
2 I am a wild flower of Sharon.
I am a lily from the valleys.[h]
The young man:
2 Among the other young women,
my dear friend is like a lily
that grows among thorn bushes.[i]
The young woman:[j]
3 Among the other young men,
my lover is like an apple tree
that grows among the trees of the forest.[k]
I love to sit in his shade.
His fruit is sweet when I taste it.
4 He has taken me to the room for feasts.
Everyone can see that he loves me.
5 I am weak with love.
So give me raisins to make me strong.
Give me apples to me to keep me awake.
6 His left hand is under my head.
His right hand brings me near to him.
7 Promise this to me, young women of Jerusalem:
Do not cause our love to wake up.
Do not cause it to become too strong
until the time is right.
The gazelles and the wild deer will know about your promise.
8 Listen! I hear the voice of my lover!
Look! He is coming!
He moves quickly across the mountains.
He runs across the hills.
9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young male deer.
Look! There he is!
He is standing behind our wall.
He is looking through the window.
He wants to see into the room.
10 My lover said this to me:
‘My beautiful friend, I love you.
Get up now and come with me.
11 Look! The winter time has finished.
The heavy rains have stopped.
12 Flowers are appearing everywhere.
It is now the season to sing happy songs.
We can hear the voices of doves around us.
13 New fruit is growing on the fig trees.
There are flowers on the vines,
and their sweet smell is in the air.
I love you, my beautiful friend.
Please get up now and come with me!’
The young man:
14 My dear friend, you are like a dove that is hiding among the rocks.
You hide from me in the mountains.
Show your face to me
because it is lovely.
Let me hear your voice
because it has a sweet sound.
15 Catch the foxes for us!
Our vines now have flowers
and they will soon give us fruit.
So catch the little foxes before they destroy our vineyards.[l]
The young woman:
16 My lover belongs to me,
and I belong to him.
He moves among the lilies with his sheep.
17 Turn back to me, my lover.
Stay until dawn comes and the shadows have gone,
Be like a gazelle or a young male deer
that plays among the mountains' rocks.
A young woman's dream
The young woman:[m]
3 All night I lay on my bed.
I wanted my lover to come to me.
I looked for him but he did not appear.
2 I thought, ‘I will get up now and I will go into the city.
I will look everywhere for my lover.
I will look in all the streets.
I will look in all the market places.’
So I looked for him,
but I did not find him.
3 The city guards found me
as they walked in the streets of the city.
I asked them,
‘Have you seen the man that I love?’
4 Just then, as I left them, I found my lover!
I hugged him and I would not let him go.
I took him to my mother's house.
I took him into my mother's bedroom.
That is where my life started, inside my mother's body.
5 Promise this to me, young women of Jerusalem:
Do not cause our love to wake up.
Do not cause it to become too strong
until the time is right.
The gazelles and the wild deer will know about your promise.
A royal wedding
6 Who is this who is coming from the desert?[n]
It seems that smoke is rising into the air!
There is a lovely smell of myrrh and incense.[o]
It is the smell of all the spices that a trader sells.
7 Look! They are carrying King Solomon on a throne![p]
60 soldiers are travelling with it.[q]
They are Israel's bravest soldiers.
8 All of them have swords.
They all know how to fight well.
Their swords are ready for them to use.
They are ready for any danger that comes in the night.
9 King Solomon made the throne for himself.
He used wood from Lebanon to make it.[r]
10 He used silver to make the posts for it.
He used gold to make its back.
Its seat has valuable purple cloth to cover it.
The young women of Jerusalem made it beautiful inside,
to show their love.
11 Young women of Zion,
come out to see King Solomon![s]
He is wearing his crown.
His mother put the crown on him on his wedding day.
It was the happiest day of his life!
A new wife
The young man:
4 My dear friend, how beautiful you are!
Yes, you are very beautiful!
Your eyes behind your veil are like doves.
Your hair is like a group of goats
that are coming down from Mount Gilead.[t]
2 Your teeth are very white like a group of sheep.
They are like sheep after someone has cut off their dirty wool
and they are coming from the pool of water.
Each tooth is one of a pair.
Not one of them is alone.
3 Your lips are like bright red strings.
Your mouth is lovely.
The sides of your face are beautiful,
like the halves of a pomegranate.
I see them through your veil.[u]
4 Your neck is like the great tower of King David.[v]
It is round and strong.
Your necklace is like the shields of 1,000 brave soldiers
that hang from the stones of the tower.
5 Your breasts are perfect,
like two young gazelles that are twins.
They feed themselves among the lilies.
6 I will go to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.
I will stay among them until the dawn comes
and the shadows go away.
7 You are completely beautiful, my dear friend.
Your body is perfect in every way.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride.
Yes, come with me from Lebanon.
Come down from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir.
Come down from the highest part of Hermon.[w]
Come away from those mountains where lions live,
and where there are leopards.
A wedding night
9 I love you so much that I never want to leave you,
my sister and my bride.[x]
When you looked at me only once
and I saw one jewel in your necklace,
I knew that I could never leave you.
10 Your love for me is wonderful,
my sister and my bride.
I enjoy your love even more than I enjoy wine.
Your perfume has a smell
that is more lovely than any spice!
11 Your lips taste very sweet to me, my bride.
They taste like honey that falls from the honeycomb.
Milk and honey are under your tongue.
The smell of your clothes
is like the cedar trees of Lebanon.
12 My sister and my bride, you are like a garden for me
that is locked to other men.
You are like a spring or a fountain
that other people may not drink water from.
13 Your body is like a special garden.
It is full of pomegranate trees with their sweet fruit.
There are wonderful fruits to enjoy.
There are also henna and nard.
14 There are nard, saffron, calamus, cinnamon
and many different spices.
There are myrrh, aloes
and all the best spices.[y]
15 You are like a spring of water in a garden.
You are like a well that has fresh water.
The water runs down from Lebanon's mountains.
The young woman:
16 Wake up, north wind! Come now, south wind!
Blow on my garden!
Make the sweet smell of its spices move in the air.
May my lover come into his garden now!
Let him taste its wonderful fruits!
Paul is sending Titus to Corinth
16 Titus wants to help you just as much as we do. We thank God that he has made Titus ready to do that. 17 He was very happy when we asked him to come to you. He himself already wanted to help you. So he really decided to visit you for himself. 18 We are sending another man with Titus. He is also a believer. The Christians in all the other churches praise this man. They say that he works hard to tell people the good news about Christ. 19 Those Christians in the other churches have also chosen this man to travel with us. They want him to help us when we take this gift. Our work will show that the Lord is great. It will also show that we are ready to help.
20 We want to be very careful about this large gift of money. That is why the other believer will come with us. We do not want anyone to say that we have done something wrong. 21 Our purpose is to do only what is right. We want the Lord to see that, and people must see it as well.[a]
22 We will also send another believer along with the other men. This man has always shown us that we can trust him. He has wanted to help in many different ways. Now that he is very sure about you, he wants to help even more.
23 As for Titus himself, he works along with me, to help you. The other believers are coming on behalf of the churches that sent them. They want to show that Christ is great. 24 So show these men that you love them. Then all the churches will be sure about you. They will know that we were right to be proud of you.
Asaph wrote this psalm.
God is our judge[a]
50 God, the great God, the Lord, is speaking.
He is calling everybody on the earth,
from where the sun rises in the east,
to where it goes down in the west.
2 God is shining out from Zion,
that most beautiful place.
3 Our God is coming,
and he does not come quietly!
A fire burns up everything that is in front of him.
There is a great storm all round him.
4 He calls to the skies above,
and to the earth below.
They must watch while he judges his people.
5 He says, ‘Bring my people to me.
They are the people who offered sacrifices to me,
to agree our covenant.’
6 The skies above show that God is righteous,
and God himself is the judge.
Selah.
7 He says, ‘Listen to me, my people,
and I will speak to you.
I have something to say against you, Israel.
I am God, your God.
8 You offer sacrifices and burnt offerings to me all the time
but that is not why I speak against you.
9 I do not need a bull from your farm,
or goats from your fields.
10 All the wild animals of the forest belong to me!
All the cows on a thousand hills belong to me!
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
as well as all the insects.
12 Even if I did become hungry,
I would not tell you.
All the world belongs to me,
and everything that is in it.
13 Do I eat the meat of bulls? No!
Do I drink the blood of goats? No!
14 Say “thank you” to me as your offering.
Do whatever you have promised to do for me,
the Most High God.
15 Pray to me when you are in trouble.
Then I will rescue you,
and you will praise me.’[b]
16 But God says this to the wicked people:
‘It is useless for you to speak about my commands,
or about my covenant.
17 For you hate my teaching,
and you refuse to accept my message.
18 If you see a robber,
you run to help him!
You become friends with adulterers.
19 You speak about evil things,
and you are always telling lies.
20 You say bad things about your own brother,
and you speak against your own family!
21 You did all these things,
and I said nothing.
So you thought that I was as bad as you are.
But now I am warning you!
I will tell you clearly
what you have done wrong.
22 So think carefully about this,
all you people who have turned away from me.
If not, I will tear you into pieces,
and nobody will be able to save you.
23 If anyone wants to praise me,
they should say “thank you” to me as their offering.
If anyone obeys my commands,
I will show them my power to save people.’
22 1. Do not cheat poor people just because they are poor. Do not attack helpless people in court.
23 The Lord will speak on their behalf. He will punish anyone who cheats them.
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