1 Bride: May he kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.
2 Groom to Bride: So much better than wine are your breasts, fragranced with the finest perfumes.
3 Bride to Groom: Your name is oil that has been poured out; therefore, the maidens have loved you. Draw me forward.
4 Chorus to Bride: We will run after you in the odor of your perfumes.
5 Bride to Chorus: The king has led me into his storerooms.
6 Chorus to Bride: We will exult and rejoice in you, remembering your breasts above wine.
7 Groom to Bride: The righteous love you.
8 Bride to Chorus: O daughters of Jerusalem: I am black, but shapely, like the tabernacles of Kedar, like the tents of Solomon.
9 Do not be concerned that I am dark, for the sun has changed my color.
10 The sons of my mother have fought against me. They have made me the keeper of the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept.
11 Bride to Groom: Reveal to me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you recline at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions.
12 Groom to Bride: If you yourself do not know, O most beautiful among women, then go out and follow after the steps of the flocks, and pasture your young goats beside the tabernacles of the shepherds.
13 O my love, I have compared you to my company of horsemen against the chariots of Pharaoh.
14 Your cheeks are beautiful, like those of a turtledove. Your neck is like a bejeweled collar.
15 Chorus to Bride: We will fashion for you chains of gold, accented with reddened silver.
16 Bride to Chorus: While the king was taking his rest, my aromatic ointment sent forth its odor.
17 My beloved is a bundle of myrrh to me. He shall abide between my breasts.
18 My beloved is a cluster of Cyprus grapes to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi.
19 Groom to Bride: Behold, you are beautiful, O my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are those of a dove.
20 Bride to Groom: Behold, you are handsome, O my beloved, and graceful. Our bed is flourishing.
21 Groom to Bride: The timbers of our houses are of cedar; our ceilings are of cypress.
1 Bride: I am a flower of the open field and a lily of the steep valleys.
2 Groom: Like a lily among the thorns, so is my loved one among the daughters.
3 Bride to Chorus: Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat beneath the shadow of the one whom I desired, and his fruit was sweet to my palate.
4 He brought me into the storeroom of wine. He set charity in order within me.
5 Prop me up with flowers. Close me in with apples. For I languish through love.
6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.
7 Groom to Chorus: I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the does and the stags of the open field, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, even for as long as she wills.
8 Bride to Chorus: The voice of my beloved! Behold, he arrives leaping along the mountains, jumping across the hills.
9 My beloved is like a doe and like a young stag.
10 Lo, he stands beyond our wall, gazing through the windows, watching through the lattices.
11 Lo, my beloved speaks to me:
12 Groom to Bride: Rise up, quickly, my love, my dove, my shapely one, and advance.
13 For winter has now past; the rain has decreased and gone away.
14 The flowers have appeared in our land; the time for pruning has arrived. The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.
15 The fig tree has brought forth its green figs; the flowering vines bestow their odor. Rise up, my love, my brilliant one, and advance.
16 My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollows of the wall, reveal to me your face. Let your voice sound in my ears. For your voice is sweet, and your face is graceful.
17 Chorus to Groom and Bride: Capture for us the little foxes, which are tearing down the vines; for our vineyard has flourished.
18 Bride to Chorus: My beloved is for me, and I am for him. He pastures among the lilies, until the day rises and the shadows decline.
19 Bride to Groom: Return, O my beloved. Be like a doe and like a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.
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44 And Jonathan sent three thousand strong men to him at Antioch. And they came to the king, and the king was delighted at their arrival.
45 And those who were of the city gathered together, one hundred and twenty thousand men, and they wanted to execute the king.
46 And the king fled into the royal court. And those who were of the city, occupied the passageways of the city, and they began to fight.
47 And the king called the Jews to his assistance. And they came together before him at the same time, and then they all dispersed themselves throughout the city.
48 And they killed, in that day, one hundred thousand men, and they set fire to the city, and they seized many spoils in that day, and they freed the king.
49 And those who were of the city saw that the Jews had taken the city, just as they wanted, and they were weakened in their resolve, and they cried out to the king with supplication, saying,
50 Grant us a pledge, and let the Jews cease from assailing us and the city.
51 And they threw down their arms, and they made peace. And the Jews were glorified in the sight of the king and in the sight of all who were in his realm. And they became renowned in the kingdom, and they returned to Jerusalem, holding many spoils.
52 And so king Demetrius sat on the throne of his kingdom. And the land was quieted in his sight.
53 And he falsified everything whatsoever that he had said. And he alienated himself from Jonathan, and he did not repay him according to the benefits that he had received in tribute from him. And he vexed him greatly.
54 But after this, Trypho returned, and with him was Antiochus, the adolescent boy, and he reigned, and he put a diadem on himself.
55 And there assembled before him all the troops, which Demetrius had dispersed, and they fought against him. And he turned his back and fled.
56 And Trypho took the elephants, and he obtained Antioch.
57 And young Antiochus wrote to Jonathan, saying: “I confirm you in the priesthood, and I appoint you over the four cities, so as to be among the king’s friends.”
58 And he sent him vessels of gold for his ministry, and he gave him the authority to drink from gold, and to be clothed in purple, and to have a golden clasp.
59 And he appointed his brother Simon as governor, from the borders of Tyre, all the way to the borders of Egypt.
60 Then Jonathan went out, and he passed through the cities across the river. And all the armies of Syria were gathered together in assistance to him, and he came to Askalon, and those from the city met him honorably.
61 And he went from there to Gaza. And those who were in Gaza closed themselves in. And so he besieged it, and he burned all that was around the city, and he plundered it.
62 And those of Gaza petitioned Jonathan, and he pledged to them with his right hand, and he accepted their sons as hostages and sent them to Jerusalem. And he traveled through the country, as far as Damascus.
63 And Jonathan heard that the leaders of Demetrius were acting treacherously at Kadesh, which is in Galilee, with a great army, intending to remove him from the affairs of the kingdom.
1 Often have they fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say.
2 Often have they fought against me from my youth: but they could not prevail over me.
3 The wicked have wrought upon my back: they have lengthened their iniquity.
4 The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners:
5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion.
6 Let them be as grass on the tops of houses: which withered before it be plucked up:
7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand: nor he that gathereth sheaves his bosom.
8 And they that have passed by have not said: The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we have blessed you in the name of the Lord.
18 But you have not drawn near to a tangible mountain, or a burning fire, or a whirlwind, or a mist, or a storm,
19 or the sound of a trumpet, or a voice of words. Those who had experienced these things excused themselves, lest the Word be spoken to them.
20 For they could not bear what was said, and so, if even a beast would have touched the mountain, it would have been stoned.
21 And what was seen was so terrible that even Moses said: “I am terrified, and so, I tremble.”
22 But you have drawn near to mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of Angels,
23 and to the Church of the first-born, those who have been inscribed in the heavens, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect,
24 and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament, and to a sprinkling of blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
25 Be careful not to reject the One who is speaking. For if those who rejected him who was speaking upon the earth were not able to escape, so much more we who might turn away from the One who is speaking to us from heaven.
26 Then, his voice moved the earth. But now, he makes a promise, saying: “There is still one more time, and then I will move, not only the earth, but also heaven itself.”
27 And so, in saying, “There is still one more time,” he declares the transfer of the moveable things of creation, so that those things which are immoveable may remain.
28 Thus, in receiving an immoveable kingdom, we have grace. So, through grace, let us be of service, by pleasing God with fear and reverence.
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
