7:1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.

7:2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.

7:3 Thy two b.r.e.a.s.t.s are like two young roes that are twins.

7:4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.

7:5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.

7:6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! 7:7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy b.r.e.a.s.t.s to cl.u.s.ters of grapes.

7:8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy b.r.e.a.s.t.s shall be as cl.u.s.ters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples; 7:9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

7:10 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.

7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.

7:12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.

7:13 The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

8:1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

8:2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

8:3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

8:4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

8:5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.

8:6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

8:8 We have a little sister, and she hath no b.r.e.a.s.t.s: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? 8:9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.

8:10 I am a wall, and my b.r.e.a.s.t.s like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.

8:12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

8:13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.

8:14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the a.s.s his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

1:7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

1:8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cuc.u.mbers, as a besieged city.

1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our G.o.d, ye people of Gomorrah.

1:11 To what purpose is the mult.i.tude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

1:12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 1:13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of a.s.semblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

1:14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 1:20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

1:22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 1:23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

1:24 Therefore saith the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 1:25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 1:26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

1:28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

1:29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

1:30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

1:31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.