The Daily Audio Bible
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1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.(A)
Colloquy of the Young Woman and Friends
2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine;(B)
3 your anointing oils are fragrant;
your name is perfume poured out;
therefore the maidens love you.(C)
4 Draw me after you; let us make haste.
The king has brought me into his chambers.
We will exult and rejoice in you;
we will extol your love more than wine;
rightly do they love you.(D)
5 I am black and beautiful,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Solomon.(E)
6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark,
because the sun has gazed on me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
they made me keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have not kept!(F)
7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon,
for why should I be like one who is veiled
beside the flocks of your companions?(G)
8 If you do not know,
O fairest among women,
follow the tracks of the flock
and pasture your kids
beside the shepherds’ tents.(H)
Colloquy of the Young Man, Friends, and the Young Woman
9 I compare you, my love,
to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.(I)
10 Your cheeks are comely with ornaments,
your neck with strings of jewels.(J)
11 We will make you ornaments of gold,
studded with silver.
12 While the king was on his couch,
my nard gave forth its fragrance.
13 My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh
that lies between my breasts.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of En-gedi.(K)
15 Ah, you are beautiful, my love;
ah, you are beautiful;
your eyes are doves.(L)
16 Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved,
truly lovely.
Our couch is green;
17 the beams of our house are cedar;
our rafters[a] are pine.(M)
2 I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.(N)
2 As a lily among brambles,
so is my love among maidens.
3 As an apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.(O)
4 He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his intention toward[b] me was love.(P)
5 Sustain me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.(Q)
6 O that his left hand were under my head
and that his right hand embraced me!(R)
7 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!(S)
Springtime Rhapsody
8 The voice of my beloved!
Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.(T)
9 My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.(U)
10 My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away,(V)
11 for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.(W)
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.(X)
14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face;
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.(Y)
15 Catch us the foxes,
the little foxes,
that ruin the vineyards—
for our vineyards are in blossom.”(Z)
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.(AA)
17 Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
or a young stag on the cleft mountains.[c](AB)
Love’s Dream
3 Upon my bed at night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.[d](AC)
2 “I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.”
I sought him but found him not.(AD)
3 The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”(AE)
4 Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him and would not let him go
until I brought him into my mother’s house
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.(AF)
5 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!(AG)
The Young Man and His Party Approach
6 Who is that coming up from the wilderness
like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?(AH)
7 Look, it is the litter of Solomon!
Around it are sixty mighty men
of the mighty men of Israel,
8 all equipped with swords
and expert in war,
each with his sword at his thigh
because of alarms by night.(AI)
9 King Solomon made himself a palanquin
from the wood of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold, its seat of purple;
its interior was inlaid with stone.
Daughters[e] of Jerusalem,(AJ)
11 come out and look[f]
at King Solomon,
at the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
on the day of the gladness of his heart.
The Young Woman’s Beauty Extolled
4 How beautiful you are, my love,
how very beautiful!
Your eyes are doves
behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats,
moving down the slopes of Gilead.(AK)
2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
that have come up from the washing,
all of which bear twins,
and not one among them is bereaved.(AL)
3 Your lips are like a crimson thread,
and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
behind your veil.(AM)
4 Your neck is like the tower of David,
built in courses;
on it hang a thousand bucklers,
all of them shields of warriors.(AN)
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle,
that feed among the lilies.(AO)
6 Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
I will hasten to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.(AP)
7 You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no flaw in you.(AQ)
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;
come with me from Lebanon.
Depart[g] from the peak of Amana,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the dens of lions,
from the mountains of leopards.(AR)
9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.(AS)
10 How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!(AT)
11 Your lips distill nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.(AU)
12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a garden[h] locked, a fountain sealed.(AV)
13 Your channel[i] is an orchard of pomegranates
with all choicest fruits,
henna with nard,(AW)
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes,
with all chief spices—(AX)
15 a garden fountain, a well of living water,
and flowing streams from Lebanon.(AY)
16 Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden
that its fragrance may be wafted abroad.
Let my beloved come to his garden
that he may eat its choicest fruits.(AZ)
Commendation of Titus
16 But thanks be to God, who put in the heart of Titus the same eagerness for you that I myself have. 17 For he not only accepted our appeal, but since he is more eager than ever, he is going to you of his own accord. 18 With him we are sending the brother who is praised among all the churches for his work for the gospel,(A) 19 and not only that, but he has also been appointed by the churches to travel with us while we are administering this generous undertaking[a] for the glory of the Lord himself[b] and to show our goodwill.(B) 20 We are making this arrangement lest anyone blame us about this generous gift that we are administering, 21 for we are setting our minds on what is right not only before the Lord but also before the people.(C) 22 And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found eager in many matters but who is now more eager than ever because of his great confidence in you. 23 As for Titus, he is my partner and coworker in your service; as for our brothers, they are messengers[c] of the churches, the glory of Christ.(D) 24 Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you to them.(E)
Psalm 50
The Acceptable Sacrifice
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.(A)
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.(B)
3 Our God comes and does not keep silent;
before him is a devouring fire
and a mighty tempest all around him.(C)
4 He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:(D)
5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”(E)
6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. Selah(F)
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.(G)
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.(H)
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.(I)
10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.(J)
11 I know all the birds of the air,[a]
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all that is in it is mine.(K)
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,[b]
and pay your vows to the Most High.(L)
15 Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”(M)
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?(N)
17 For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.(O)
18 You make friends with a thief when you see one,
and you keep company with adulterers.(P)
19 You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your kin;
you slander your own mother’s child.(Q)
21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.(R)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.