Bible Reading Plan

Song of Solomon 5:2–16 (Listen)

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

She

2   I slept, but my heart was awake.
  A sound! My beloved is knocking.
  “Open to me, my sister, my love,
    my dove, my perfect one,
  for my head is wet with dew,
    my locks with the drops of the night.”
3   I had put off my garment;
    how could I put it on?
  I had bathed my feet;
    how could I soil them?
4   My beloved put his hand to the latch,
    and my heart was thrilled within me.
5   I arose to open to my beloved,
    and my hands dripped with myrrh,
  my fingers with liquid myrrh,
    on the handles of the bolt.
6   I opened to my beloved,
    but my beloved had turned and gone.
  My soul failed me when he spoke.
  I sought him, but found him not;
    I called him, but he gave no answer.
7   The watchmen found me
    as they went about in the city;
  they beat me, they bruised me,
    they took away my veil,
    those watchmen of the walls.
8   I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
    if you find my beloved,
  that you tell him
    I am sick with love.

Others

9   What is your beloved more than another beloved,
    O most beautiful among women?
  What is your beloved more than another beloved,
    that you thus adjure us?

The Bride Praises Her Beloved

She

10   My beloved is radiant and ruddy,
    distinguished among ten thousand.
11   His head is the finest gold;
    his locks are wavy,
    black as a raven.
12   His eyes are like doves
    beside streams of water,
  bathed in milk,
    sitting beside a full pool.¹
13   His cheeks are like beds of spices,
    mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.
  His lips are lilies,
    dripping liquid myrrh.
14   His arms are rods of gold,
    set with jewels.
  His body is polished ivory,²
    bedecked with sapphires.³
15   His legs are alabaster columns,
    set on bases of gold.
  His appearance is like Lebanon,
    choice as the cedars.
16   His mouth⁴ is most sweet,
    and he is altogether desirable.
  This is my beloved and this is my friend,
    O daughters of Jerusalem.

Song of Solomon 6:1–3 (Listen)

Others

6:1   Where has your beloved gone,
    O most beautiful among women?
  Where has your beloved turned,
    that we may seek him with you?

Together in the Garden of Love

She

2   My beloved has gone down to his garden
    to the beds of spices,
  to graze¹ in the gardens
    and to gather lilies.
3   I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
    he grazes among the lilies.

Psalm 147 (Listen)

He Heals the Brokenhearted

147:1   Praise the LORD!
  For it is good to sing praises to our God;
    for it is pleasant,¹ and a song of praise is fitting.
2   The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3   He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
4   He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
5   Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
6   The LORD lifts up the humble;²
    he casts the wicked to the ground.
7   Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre!
8   He covers the heavens with clouds;
    he prepares rain for the earth;
    he makes grass grow on the hills.
9   He gives to the beasts their food,
    and to the young ravens that cry.
10   His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11   but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12   Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
13   For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
14   He makes peace in your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15   He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
16   He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
17   He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
    who can stand before his cold?
18   He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19   He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and rules³ to Israel.
20   He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his rules.⁴
  Praise the LORD!

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