Study Desk

For I am more like a beast than any man, I have no power of reasoning like a man:

For fear that if I am full, I may be false to you and say, Who is the Lord? or if I am poor, I may become a thief, using the name of my God wrongly.

What am I to say to you, O Lemuel, my oldest son? and what, O son of my body? and what, O son of my oaths?

I said to my heart, See, I have become great and am increased in wisdom more than any who were before me in Jerusalem--yes, my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge.

I am certain that there is nothing better for a man than to be glad, and to do good while life is in him.

I am certain that whatever God does will be for ever. No addition may be made to it, nothing may be taken from it; and God has done it so that man may be in fear before him.

It is one who is by himself, without a second, and without son or brother; but there is no end to all his work, and he has never enough of wealth. For whom, then, am I working and keeping myself from pleasure? This again is to no purpose, and a bitter work.

Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his life is long, I am certain that it will be well for those who go in fear of God and are in fear before him.

I am dark, but fair of form, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

Let not your eyes be turned on me, because I am dark, because I was looked on by the sun; my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vine-gardens; but my vine-garden I have not kept.

I am a rose of Sharon, a flower of the valleys.

Make me strong with wine-cakes, let me be comforted with apples; I am overcome with love.

My loved one is mine, and I am his: he takes his food among the flowers.

I am sleeping, but my heart is awake; it is the sound of my loved one at the door, saying, Be open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my very beautiful one; my head is wet with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night.

I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you see my loved one, what will you say to him? That I am overcome with love.

I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he takes food among the lilies.

I am for my loved one, and his desire is for me.

I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then was I in his eyes as one to whom good chance had come.

Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them.

Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is destruction; for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.