One Year Bible.

The Bride and Her Beloved

The Bridegroom

¹I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride;

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice.

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;

I have drunk my wine with my milk.

The Friends

Eat, O friends, and drink;

drink freely, O beloved.

The Bride

²I sleep, but my heart is awake.

A sound! My beloved is knocking:

“Open to me, my sister, my darling,

my dove, my flawless one.

My head is drenched with dew,

my hair with the dampness of the night.”

³I have taken off my robe —

must I put it back on?

I have washed my feet—

must I soil them again?

⁴My beloved put his hand to the latch;

my heart pounded for him.

⁵I rose up to open for my beloved.

My hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with flowing myrrh

on the handles of the bolt.

⁶I opened for my beloved,

but he had turned and gone.

My heart sank at his departure.

I sought him but did not find him.

I called, but he did not answer.

⁷I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city.

They beat me and bruised me;

they took away my cloak,

those guardians of the walls.

⁸O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you,

if you find my beloved,

tell him I am sick with love.

The Friends

⁹How is your beloved better than others,

O most beautiful among women?

How is your beloved better than another,

that you charge us so?

The Bride

¹⁰My beloved is dazzling and ruddy,

outstanding among ten thousand.

¹¹His head is purest gold;

his hair is wavy and black as a raven.

¹²His eyes are like doves

beside the streams of water,

bathed in milk

and mounted like jewels.

¹³His cheeks are like beds of spice,

towers of perfume.

His lips are like lilies,

dripping with flowing myrrh.

¹⁴His arms are rods of gold

set with beryl.

His body is polished ivory

bedecked with sapphires.

¹⁵His legs are pillars of marble

set on bases of pure gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

as majestic as the cedars.

¹⁶His mouth is most sweet;

he is altogether lovely.

This is my beloved, and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.

Together in the Garden

The Friends

¹Where has your beloved gone,

O most beautiful among women?

Which way has he turned?

We will seek him with you.

The Bride

²My beloved has gone down to his garden,

to the beds of spices,

to pasture his flock in the gardens

and to gather lilies.

³I belong to my beloved and he belongs to me;

he pastures his flock among the lilies.

The Bridegroom

⁴You are as beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,

as lovely as Jerusalem,

as majestic as troops with banners.

⁵Turn your eyes away from me,

for they have overcome me.

Your hair is like a flock of goats

streaming down from Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of sheep

coming up from the washing;

each has its twin,

and not one of them is lost.

⁷Your brow behind your veil

is like a slice of pomegranate.

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

and maidens without number,

⁹but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,

the favorite of the mother who bore her.

The maidens see her and call her blessed;

the queens and concubines sing her praises.

The Friends

¹⁰Who is this who shines like the dawn,

as fair as the moon,

as bright as the sun,

as majestic as the stars in procession?

The Bridegroom

¹¹I went down to the walnut grove

to see the blossoms of the valley,

to see if the vines were budding

or the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹²Before I realized it, my desire had set me

among the royal chariots of my people.

The Friends

¹³Come back, come back, O Shulammite!

Come back, come back, that we may gaze upon you.

The Bridegroom

Why do you look at the Shulammite,

as on the dance of Mahanaim?

Admiration by the Bridegroom

¹How beautiful are your sandaled feet,

O daughter of the prince!

The curves of your thighs are like jewels,

the handiwork of a master.

²Your navel is a rounded goblet;

it never lacks blended wine.

Your waist is a mound of wheat

encircled by the lilies.

³Your breasts are like two fawns,

twins of a gazelle.

⁴Your neck is like a tower

made of ivory;

your eyes are like the pools of Heshbon

by the gate of Bath-rabbim;

your nose is like the tower of Lebanon,

facing toward Damascus.

⁵Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel,

the hair of your head like purple threads;

the king is captured in your tresses.

⁶How fair and pleasant you are,

O love, with your delights!

⁷Your stature is like a palm tree;

your breasts are clusters of fruit.

⁸I said, “I will climb the palm tree;

I will take hold of its fruit.”

May your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

the fragrance of your breath like apples,

⁹and your mouth like the finest wine.

The Bride

May it flow smoothly to my beloved,

gliding gently over lips and teeth.

¹⁰I belong to my beloved,

and his desire is for me.

¹¹Come, my beloved,

let us go to the countryside;

let us spend the night among the wildflowers.

¹²Let us go early to the vineyards

to see if the vine has budded,

if the blossom has opened,

if the pomegranates are in bloom —

there I will give you my love.

¹³The mandrakes send forth a fragrance,

and at our door is every delicacy,

new as well as old,

that I have treasured up for you, my beloved.

Longing for Her Beloved

¹O that you were to me like a brother

who nursed at my mother’s breasts!

If I found you outdoors, I would kiss you,

and no one would despise me.

²I would lead you and bring you

to the house of my mother who taught me.

I would give you spiced wine to drink,

the nectar of my pomegranates.

³His left hand is under my head,

and his right arm embraces me.

⁴O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you:

Do not arouse or awaken love

until the time is right.

The Friends

⁵Who is this coming up from the wilderness,

leaning on her beloved?

The Bride

I roused you under the apple tree;

there your mother conceived you;

there she travailed and brought you forth.

⁶Set me as a seal over your heart,

as a seal upon your arm.

For love is as strong as death,

its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol.

Its sparks are fiery flames,

the fiercest blaze of all.

⁷Mighty waters cannot quench love;

rivers cannot sweep it away.

If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love,

his offer would be utterly scorned.

The Friends

⁸We have a little sister,

and her breasts are not yet grown.

What shall we do for our sister

on the day she is spoken for?

⁹If she is a wall,

we will build a tower of silver upon her.

If she is a door,

we will enclose her with panels of cedar.

The Bride

¹⁰I am a wall,

and my breasts are like towers.

So I have become in his eyes

like one who brings peace.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon.

He leased it to the tenants.

For its fruit, each was to bring

a thousand shekels of silver.

¹²But my own vineyard is mine to give;

the thousand shekels are for you, O Solomon,

and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.

The Bridegroom

¹³You who dwell in the gardens,

my companions are listening for your voice.

Let me hear it!

The Bride

¹⁴Come away, my beloved,

and be like a gazelle

or a young stag

on the mountains of spices.

Greetings from Paul and Timothy

¹Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

²Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴In every prayer for all of you, I always pray with joy, ⁵because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

⁷It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart. For in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partners in grace with me. ⁸God is my witness how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Paul’s Trials Advance the Gospel

¹²Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have actually served to advance the gospel. ¹³As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. ¹⁴And most of the brothers, confident in the Lord by my chains, now dare more greatly to speak the word without fear.

¹⁵It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. ¹⁶The latter do so in love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can add to the distress of my chains.

¹⁸What then is the issue? Just this: that in every way, whether by false motives or true, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, ¹⁹because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance. ²⁰I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

To Live Is Christ

²¹For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²²But if I go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. So what shall I choose? I do not know. ²³I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed. ²⁴But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

²⁵Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶so that through my coming to you again your exultation in Christ Jesus will resound on account of me.

Worthy of the Gospel

²⁷Nevertheless, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending together as one for the faith of the gospel, ²⁸without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a clear sign of their destruction but of your salvation, and it is from God. ²⁹For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, ³⁰since you are encountering the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Rebellion against Rehoboam

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. ²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he returned from Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon. ³So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, ⁴“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people departed.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.

⁷They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him. ⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’ ?”

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

¹²After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.” ¹³And the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders ¹⁴and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”

¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

The Kingdom Divided

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king:

“What portion do we have in David,

and what inheritance in the son of Jesse?

To your tents, O Israel!

Look now to your own house, O David!”

So all the Israelites went home, ¹⁷but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.

Shemaiah’s Prophecy

¹When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin — 180,000 chosen warriors — to fight against Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. ²But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God: ³“Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin ⁴that this is what the LORD says: ‘You are not to go up and fight against your brothers. Each of you must return home, for this is My doing.’”

So they listened to the words of the LORD and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Fortifies Judah

⁵Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built up cities for defense in Judah. ⁶He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. ¹¹He strengthened their fortifications and put officers in them, with supplies of food, oil, and wine. ¹²He also put shields and spears in all the cities and strengthened them greatly. So Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.

Jeroboam Forsakes the Priests and Levites

¹³Moreover, the priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel stood with Rehoboam. ¹⁴For the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD. ¹⁵And Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat demons and calf idols he had made.

¹⁶Those from every tribe of Israel who had set their hearts to seek the LORD their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers. ¹⁷So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

Rehoboam’s Family

¹⁸And Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab. ¹⁹She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, and she bore to him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²²Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, intending to make him king. ²³Rehoboam also acted wisely by dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and sought many wives for them.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast

¹After this, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews there were trying to kill Him. ²However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near. ³So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing. ⁴For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

⁶Therefore Jesus told them, “Although your time is always at hand, My time has not yet come. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil. ⁸Go up to the feast on your own. I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet come.”

⁹Having said this, Jesus remained in Galilee. ¹⁰But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, He also went — not publicly, but in secret.

¹¹So the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and asking, “Where is He?”

¹²Many in the crowds were whispering about Him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”

¹³Yet no one would speak publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. ¹⁵The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?”

¹⁶“My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me. ¹⁷If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own. ¹⁸He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood. ¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

²⁰“You have a demon,” the crowd replied. “Who is trying to kill You?”

²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²²But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.) ²³If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”

Is Jesus the Christ?

²⁵Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶Yet here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying anything to Him. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Christ? ²⁷But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from.”

²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him, ²⁹but I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

³⁰So they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. ³¹Many in the crowd, however, believed in Him and said, “When the Christ comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

³²When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him. ³³So Jesus said, “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me. ³⁴You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵At this, the Jews said to one another, “Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and, ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

Living Water

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” ³⁹He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Division over Jesus

⁴⁰On hearing these words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.”

⁴¹Others declared, “This is the Christ.”

But still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? ⁴²Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

⁴³So there was division in the crowd because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.

The Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”

⁴⁶“Never has anyone spoken like this man!” the officers answered.

⁴⁷“Have you also been deceived?” replied the Pharisees. ⁴⁸“Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? ⁴⁹But this crowd that does not know the law— they are under a curse.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who himself was one of them, asked, ⁵¹“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”

⁵²“Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”

⁵³Then each went to his own home.