The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday September 7, 2017 (NIV)

5 I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride!
I have gathered my myrrh and my spices.
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Eat, dear friends!
Drink and get drunk on love!

² I was sleeping, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My love is knocking:

“Open for me, my sister, my dearest,
my dove, my perfect one!
My head is soaked with dew,
my hair, with the night mists.”

³ “I have taken off my tunic—
why should I put it on again?
I have bathed my feet—
why should I get them dirty?”
⁴ My love put his hand in through the latch hole,
and my body ached for him.
⁵ I rose; I went to open for my love,
and my hands dripped myrrh,
my fingers, liquid myrrh,
over the handles of the lock.
⁶ I went and opened for my love,
but my love had turned, gone away.
I nearly died when he turned away.
I looked for him but couldn’t find him.
I called out to him, but he didn’t answer me.
⁷ They found me—the guards
who make their rounds in the city.
They struck me, bruised me.
They took my shawl away from me,
those guards of the city walls!
⁸ I place you under oath, daughters of Jerusalem:
If you find my love, what should you tell him?
That I’m weak with love!

⁹ How is your lover different from any other lover,
you who are the most beautiful of women?
How is your lover different from any other lover,
that you make us swear a solemn pledge?

¹⁰ My lover is radiant and ruddy;
he stands out among ten thousand!
¹¹ His head is finest gold;
his wavy hair, black as a raven.
¹² His eyes are like doves
by channels of water.
They are bathing in milk,
sitting by brimming pools.
¹³ His cheeks are like fragrant plantings,
towers of spices.
His lips are lilies
dripping liquid myrrh.
¹⁴ His arms are gold cylinders
studded with jewels.
His belly is smooth ivory
encrusted with sapphires.
¹⁵ His thighs are pillars of whitest stone
set on pedestals of gold.
His appearance—like Lebanon,
stately, like the cedars.
¹⁶ His mouth is everything sweet,
every bit of him desirable.

6 Which way did your lover go,
you who are the most beautiful of women?
Which way did your lover turn,
that we may look for him along with you?

² My lover has gone down to his garden,
to the fragrant plantings,
to graze in the gardens,
to gather the lilies.
³ I belong to my lover and my lover belongs to me—
the one grazing among the lilies.

⁴ You are as beautiful, my dearest, as Tirzah,
as lovely as Jerusalem,
formidable as those lofty sights.
⁵ Turn your eyes away from me,
for they overwhelm me!

¹¹ To the nut grove I went down
to look upon the fresh growth in the valley,
to see whether the vine was in flower,
whether the pomegranates had bloomed.
¹² I hardly knew myself;
she had set me in an official’s chariot!^[a]

^13 [b] Come back, come back, Shulammite!^[c]
Come back, come back, so we may admire you.
How you all admire the Shulammite
as she whirls between two circles of dancers!

. . . flowing smoothly for my love,
gliding through the lips and teeth.^[f]
10 I belong to my lover,
and his longing is only for me.

¹¹ Come, my love:
Let’s go out to the field
and rest all night among the flowering henna.
¹² Let’s set out early for the vineyards.
We will see if the vines have budded
and the blossoms opened,
see if the pomegranates have bloomed.
There I’ll give my loving to you.

8 If only you were as my brother—
the one who nursed at my mother’s breast.
I would find you in the street and kiss you,
and no one would shame me for it.
² I would lead you, I would bring you
to my mother’s house;
she would teach me what to do.^[g]
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
some of my fresh pomegranate juice.

⁵ Who is this coming up from the wilderness
leaning against her lover?

Under the apple tree I aroused you—
there, where your mother labored with you,
there where, laboring, she bore you.
⁶ Set me as a seal over your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is as strong as death,
passionate love unrelenting as the grave.^[h]
Its darts are darts of fire—
divine flame!
⁷ Rushing waters can’t quench love;
rivers can’t wash it away.
If someone gave
all his estate in exchange for love,
he would be laughed to utter shame.

⁸ Our sister is small;
she has no breasts.
What will we do for our sister
on the day that she is spoken for?
⁹ If she is a city wall,
then we will build a turret of silver on her.^[i]
And if she is a door,
then we will barricade her^[j] with a panel of cedar.

¹⁰ I’m a city wall,
and my breasts are the towers.
So now I’m in his eyes
as one who brings peace.

¹¹ Solomon had a vineyard
in Baal-hamon.
He gave charge of the vineyard to keepers;
one would bring in exchange for its fruit
a thousand pieces of silver.
¹² My vineyard, my very own, is before me.
You can have the thousand, Solomon^[k]—
with two hundred for those who tend the fruit!

¹⁴ “Take flight, my love,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spice!”

51 Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love!
Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion!
² Wash me completely clean of my guilt;
purify me from my sin!
³ Because I know my wrongdoings,
my sin is always right in front of me.
⁴ I’ve sinned against you—you alone.
I’ve committed evil in your sight.
That’s why you are justified when you render your verdict,
completely correct when you issue your judgment.
⁵ Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin,
from the moment my mother conceived me.
⁶ And yes, you want truth in the most hidden places;
you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.^[a]