1 Chorus to Groom: What will you see in the Sulamitess, other than choruses of encampments?
2 Chorus to Bride: How beautiful are your footsteps in shoes, O daughter of a ruler! The joints of your thighs are like jewels, which have been fabricated by the hand of an artist.
3 Your navel is a round bowl, never lacking in curvature. Your abdomen is like a bundle of wheat, surrounded with lilies.
4 Your two breasts are like two young twin does.
5 Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes like the fish ponds at Heshbon, which are at the entrance to the daughter of the multitude. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looks out toward Damascus.
6 Your head is like Carmel, and the hairs of your head are like the purple of the king, bound into pleats.
7 Most beloved one, how beautiful you are, and how graceful in delights!
8 Your stature is comparable to the palm tree, and your breasts to clusters of grapes.
9 Groom: I said, I will ascend to the palm tree, and take hold of its fruit. And your breasts will be like clusters of grapes on the vine. And the fragrance of your mouth will be like apples.
10 Bride: Your throat is like the finest wine: wine worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and teeth to contemplate.
11 I am for my beloved, and his turning is to me.
12 Approach, my beloved. Let us go out into the field; let us linger in the villages.
13 Let us go up in the morning to the vineyards; let us see if the vineyard has flourished, if the flowers are ready to bear fruit, if the pomegranates have flourished. There I will give my breasts to you.
14 The mandrakes yield their fragrance. At our gates is every fruit. The new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for you.
1 Bride to Groom: Who will give you to me as my brother, feeding from the breasts of my mother, so that I may discover you outside, and may kiss you, and so that now no one may despise me?
2 I will take hold of you and lead you into my mother’s house. There you will teach me, and I will give you a cup of spiced wine, and of new wine from my pomegranates.
3 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.
4 Groom to Chorus: I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills.
5 Chorus to Groom: Who is she, who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?
6 Groom to Bride: Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated.
7 Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames.
8 A multitude of waters cannot extinguish love, nor can a river overwhelm it. If a man were to give all the substance of his house in exchange for love, he would despise it as nothing.
9 Chorus: Our sister is little and has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is called upon?
10 If she is a wall, let us build a rampart of silver upon it. If she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar.
11 Bride to Chorus: I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers, since, in his presence, I have become like one who has discovered peace.
12 The peaceful one had a vineyard, in that which held the peoples. He handed it on to the caretakers; a man brought, in exchange for its fruit, a thousand pieces of silver.
13 Groom: My vineyard is before me. The thousand is for your peacefulness, and two hundred is for those who care for its fruit.
14 Bride to Groom: Your friends are attentive to those who have been dwelling in the gardens. Cause me to heed your voice.
15 Flee away, my beloved, and become like the doe and the young stag upon the mountains of aromatic plants.
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1 And Jonathan saw that time was on his side, and he chose men, and he sent them to Rome, to confirm and renew the peace agreement with them.
2 And he sent letters to the Spartans, and to other places, according to the same form.
3 And they went to Rome and entered into the senate house, and they said, “Jonathan, the high priest, and the nation of the Jews, have sent us to renew the peace and alliance, as it was before.”
4 And they gave letters to them, to those in each place, so that they would lead them into the land of Judah with peace.
5 And this is a copy of the letters that Jonathan wrote to the Spartans:
6 Jonathan, the high priest, and the elders of the people, and the priests, and the rest of the people of the Jews, to the Spartans, their brothers: greetings.
7 Now, some time ago, letters were sent to Onias, the high priest from Arius, who reigned then among you, so that you would be our brothers, just as the copy that is written below states.
8 And Onias received the man whom you had sent with honor. And he received the letters, in which was conveyed the alliance and peace treaty.
9 We, though, have no need of these things, having for our solace the sacred books, which are in our hands.
10 We prefer to send to you, so as to renew the brotherhood and friendship, lest we should, in effect, become a stranger to you, for much time has passed since you sent to us.
11 Therefore, we will remember you, at all times without ceasing, in our solemnities and other days, when it is fitting, in the sacrifices that we offer, and in our observances, just as it is fitting and right to remember brothers.
12 And so, we rejoice at your glory.
13 But many tribulations and many wars have surrounded us, and the kings who are around us have fought against us.
14 But we are not willing to trouble you, nor the rest of our allies and friends, about these battles.
15 For we have assistance from heaven, and we have been delivered, and our enemies have been humbled.
16 And so, we have chosen Numenius, the son of Antiochus, and Antipater, the son of Jason, and we have sent them to the Romans, to renew the former peace treaty and alliance with them.
17 And so, we have commanded them to also come to you, and to greet you, and to deliver our letters to you, about the renewal of our brotherhood.
18 And now, you would do well to respond to us about these things.”
19 And this is a copy of the letters that he sent to Onias:
20 Arius, king of the Spartans, to Onias, the great priest: greetings.
21 It is found in scripture, about the Spartans and the Jews, that they are brothers, and that they are of the family of Abraham.
22 And since we know these things, you would do well to write to us about your peace.
23 But we also have written back to you that our cattle and our possessions are yours, and yours are ours. And so, we have commanded that these things should be announced to you.”
24 And Jonathan heard that the leaders from Demetrius had returned again with a greater army than before, so as to fight against him.
25 And so, he departed from Jerusalem, and he met them in the region of Hamath. For he did not give them time to enter into his own region.
26 And he sent spies into their camp, and, returning, they reported that they planned to come upon them in the night.
27 And when the sun had set, Jonathan instructed his men to stand watch, and to be in arms, ready to fight, all night long, and he stationed guards around the camp.
28 And the adversaries heard that Jonathan was prepared, with his own, for warfare. And they were struck with fear and dread in their heart. And they kindled fires in their camp.
29 But Jonathan, and those who were with him, did not know about it until morning. For they saw the lights burning.
5 My soul hath hoped in the Lord.
6 From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
7 Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
1 Lord, my heart is not exalted: nor are my eyes lofty. Neither have I walked in great matters, nor in wonderful things above me.
2 If I was not humbly minded, but exalted my soul: As a child that is weaned is towards his mother, so reward in my soul.
3 Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth now and for ever.
1 James, servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes of the dispersion, greetings.
2 My brothers, when you have fallen into various trials, consider everything a joy,
3 knowing that the proving of your faith exercises patience,
4 and patience brings a work to perfection, so that you may be perfect and whole, deficient in nothing.
5 But if anyone among you is in need of wisdom, let him petition God, who gives abundantly to all without reproach, and it shall be given to him.
6 But he should ask with faith, doubting nothing. For he who doubts is like a wave on the ocean, which is moved about by the wind and carried away;
7 then a man should not consider that he would receive anything from the Lord.
8 For a man who is of two minds is inconstant in all his ways.
9 Now a humble brother should glory in his exaltation,
10 and a rich one, in his humiliation, for he will pass away like the flower of the grass.
11 For the sun has risen with a scorching heat, and has dried the grass, and its flower has fallen off, and the appearance of its beauty has perished. So also will the rich one wither away, according to his paths.
12 Blessed is the man who suffers temptation. For when he has been proven, he shall receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
13 No one should say, when he is tempted, that he was tempted by God. For God does not entice toward evils, and he himself tempts no one.
14 Yet truly, each one is tempted by his own desires, having been enticed and drawn away.
15 Thereafter, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. Yet truly sin, when it has been consummated, produces death.
16 And so, do not choose to go astray, my most beloved brothers.
17 Every excellent gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor any shadow of alteration.
18 For by his own will he produced us through the Word of truth, so that we might be a kind of beginning among his creatures.
19 You know this, my most beloved brothers. So let every man be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to anger.
20 For the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God.
21 Because of this, having cast away all uncleanness and an abundance of malice, receive with meekness the newly-grafted Word, which is able to save your souls.
22 So be doers of the Word, and not listeners only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a listener of the Word, but not also a doer, he is comparable to a man gazing into a mirror upon the face that he was born with;
24 and after considering himself, he went away and promptly forgot what he had seen.
25 But he who gazes upon the perfect law of liberty, and who remains in it, is not a forgetful hearer, but instead a doer of the work. He shall be blessed in what he does.
26 But if anyone considers himself to be religious, but he does not restrain his tongue, but instead seduces his own heart: such a one’s religion is vanity.
27 This is religion, clean and undefiled before God the Father: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulations, and to keep yourself immaculate, apart from this age.
