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SCRIPTURE REFERENCES FOR THIS SERMON:
Song of Solomon 1:1-2:7
1:1 Solomon’s Most Excellent Love Song.
2 The Beloved to Her Lover:
Oh, how I wish you would kiss me passionately!
For your lovemaking is more delightful than wine.
3 The fragrance of your colognes is delightful;
your name is like the finest perfume.
No wonder the young women adore you!
4 Draw me after you; let us hurry!
May the king bring me into his bedroom chambers!
The Maidens to the Lover:
We will rejoice and delight in you;
we will praise your love more than wine.
The Beloved to Her Lover:
How rightly the young women adore you!
5 The Beloved to the Maidens:
I am dark but lovely, O maidens of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Qedar,
lovely like the tent curtains of Salmah.
6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
for the sun has burned my skin.
My brothers were angry with me;
they made me the keeper of the vineyards.
Alas, my own vineyard I could not keep!
7 The Beloved to Her Lover:
Tell me, O you whom my heart loves,
where do you pasture your sheep?
Where do you rest your sheep during the midday heat?
Tell me lest I wander around
beside the flocks of your companions!
8 The Lover to His Beloved:
If you do not know, O most beautiful of women,
simply follow the tracks of my flock,
and pasture your little lambs
beside the tents of the shepherds.
9 The Lover to His Beloved:
O my beloved, you are like a mare
among Pharaoh’s stallions.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments;
your neck is lovely with strings of jewels.
11 We will make for you gold ornaments
studded with silver.
12 The Beloved about Her Lover:
While the king was at his banqueting table,
my nard gave forth its fragrance.
13 My beloved is like a fragrant pouch of myrrh
spending the night between my breasts.
14 My beloved is like a cluster of henna blossoms
in the vineyards of En Gedi.
15 The Lover to His Beloved:
Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved!
Oh, how beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves!
16 The Beloved to Her Lover:
Oh, how handsome you are, my lover!
Oh, how delightful you are!
The lush foliage is our canopied bed;
17 the cedars are the beams of our bedroom chamber;
the pines are the rafters of our bedroom.
2:1 The Beloved to Her Lover:
I am a meadow flower from Sharon,
a lily from the valleys.
2 The Lover to His Beloved:
Like a lily among the thorns,
so is my darling among the maidens.
3 The Beloved about Her Lover:
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 The Beloved about Her Lover:
He brought me into the banquet hall,
and he looked at me lovingly.
5 Sustain me with raisin cakes,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.
6 His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me.
7 The Beloved to the Maidens:
I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields:
Do not awaken or arouse love until it pleases!