One Year Bible.

The Bride Confesses Her Love

¹This is Solomon’s Song of Songs.

The Bride

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

For your love is more delightful than wine.

³The fragrance of your perfume is pleasing;

your name is like perfume poured out.

No wonder the maidens adore you.

⁴Take me away with you— let us hurry!

May the king bring me to his chambers.

The Friends

We will rejoice and delight in you;

we will praise your love more than wine.

The Bride

It is only right that they adore you.

⁵I am dark, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem,

like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not stare because I am dark,

for the sun has gazed upon me.

My mother’s sons were angry with me;

they made me a keeper of the vineyards,

but my own vineyard I have neglected.

⁷Tell me, O one I love,

where do you pasture your sheep?

Where do you rest them at midday?

Why should I be like a veiled woman

beside the flocks of your companions?

The Friends

⁸If you do not know, O fairest of women,

follow the tracks of the flock,

and graze your young goats

near the tents of the shepherds.

The Bridegroom

⁹I compare you, my darling,

to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

¹⁰Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments,

your neck with strings of jewels.

The Friends

¹¹We will make you ornaments of gold,

studded with beads of silver.

The Bride

¹²While the king was at his table,

my perfume spread its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh

resting between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms

in the vineyards of En-gedi.

The Bridegroom

¹⁵How beautiful you are, my darling!

Oh, how very beautiful!

Your eyes are like doves.

The Bride

¹⁶How handsome you are, my beloved!

Oh, how delightful!

The soft grass is our bed.

The Bridegroom

¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars;

our rafters are fragrant firs.

The Bride’s Admiration

The Bride

¹I am a rose of Sharon,

a lily of the valley.

The Bridegroom

²Like a lily among the thorns

is my darling among the maidens.

The Bride

³Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest

is my beloved among the young men.

I delight to sit in his shade,

and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

⁴He has brought me to the house of wine,

and his banner over me is love.

⁵Sustain me with raisins;

refresh me with apples,

for I am faint with love.

⁶His left hand is under my head,

and his right arm embraces me.

⁷O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you

by the gazelles and does of the field:

Do not arouse or awaken love

until the time is right.

⁸Listen! My beloved approaches.

Look! Here he comes,

leaping across the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

⁹My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.

Look, he stands behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,

peering through the lattice.

¹⁰My beloved calls to me,

“Arise, my darling.

Come away with me, my beautiful one.

¹¹For now the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

¹²The flowers have appeared in the countryside;

the season of singing has come,

and the cooing of turtledoves

is heard in our land.

¹³The fig tree ripens its figs;

the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come away, my darling;

come away with me, my beautiful one.”

The Bridegroom

¹⁴O my dove in the clefts of the rock,

in the crevices of the cliff,

let me see your face,

let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet,

and your countenance is lovely.

The Friends

¹⁵Catch for us the foxes—

the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—

for our vineyards are in bloom.

The Bride

¹⁶My beloved is mine and I am his;

he pastures his flock among the lilies.

¹⁷Before the day breaks and shadows flee,

turn, my beloved,

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.

The Bride’s Dream

¹On my bed at night

I sought the one I love;

I sought him,

but did not find him.

²I will arise now and go about the city,

through the streets and squares.

I will seek the one I love.

So I sought him but did not find him.

³I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city:

“Have you seen the one I love?”

⁴I had just passed them when I found the one I love.

I held him and would not let go

until I had brought him to my mother’s house,

to the chamber of the one who conceived me.

⁵O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you

by the gazelles and does of the field:

Do not arouse or awaken love

until the time is right.

Solomon Arrives on His Wedding Day

⁶Who is this coming up from the wilderness

like a column of smoke,

scented with myrrh and frankincense

from all the spices of the merchant?

⁷Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage,

escorted by sixty of the mightiest men of Israel.

⁸All are skilled with the sword,

experienced in warfare.

Each has his sword at his side

prepared for the terror of the night.

⁹King Solomon has made his carriage

out of the timber of Lebanon.

¹⁰He has made its posts of silver,

its base of gold, its seat of purple fabric.

Its interior is inlaid with love

by the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Come out, O daughters of Zion,

and gaze at King Solomon,

wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him

on the day of his wedding—

the day of his heart’s rejoicing.

The Pool of Bethesda

¹Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. ³On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

⁵One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am on my way, someone else goes in before me.”

⁸Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

⁹Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk.

Now this happened on the Sabbath day, ¹⁰so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.”

¹¹But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹²“Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?” they asked.

¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while the crowd was there.

¹⁴Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”

¹⁵And the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Father and the Son

¹⁶Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him. ¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”

¹⁸Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

¹⁹So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. ²⁰The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these. ²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.

²²Furthermore, the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, ²³so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

²⁴Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.

²⁵Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. ²⁷And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.

²⁸Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice ²⁹and come out — those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

³⁰I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear. And My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Testimonies about Jesus

³¹If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid. ³²There is another who testifies about Me, and I know that His testimony about Me is valid.

³³You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴Even though I do not accept human testimony, I say these things so that you may be saved.

³⁵John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you were willing for a season to bask in his light. ³⁶But I have testimony more substantial than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works I am doing — testify about Me that the Father has sent Me. ³⁷And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, ³⁸nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent.

The Witness of Scripture

³⁹You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.

⁴¹I do not accept glory from men, ⁴²but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you. ⁴³I have come in My Father’s name, and you have not received Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will receive him. ⁴⁴How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, in whom you have put your hope. ⁴⁶If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷But since you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”