The Song of Songs 8:3-5

Double Refrain: Embracing and Adjuration

The Beloved about Her Lover:

8:3 His left hand caresses my head,

and his right hand stimulates me.

The Beloved to the Maidens:

8:4 I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem:

“Do not arouse or awaken love until it pleases!”

The Awakening of Love

The Maidens about His Beloved:

8:5 Who is this coming up from the desert,

leaning on her beloved?

The Beloved to Her Lover:

Under the apple tree I aroused you;

there your mother conceived you,

there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.

Isaiah 54:5-10

54:5 For your husband is the one who made you –

the Lord who commands armies is his name.

He is your protector, the Holy One of Israel.

He is called “God of the entire earth.”

54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back

like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression,

like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

54:7 “For a short time I abandoned you,

but with great compassion I will gather you.

54:8 In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily,

but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”

says your protector, the Lord.

54:9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time,

when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood would never again cover the earth.

In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.

54:10 Even if the mountains are removed

and the hills displaced,

my devotion will not be removed from you,

nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,”

says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 62:4-5

62:4 You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,”

and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.”

Indeed, you will be called “My Delight is in Her,”

and your land “Married.”

For the Lord will take delight in you,

and your land will be married to him.

62:5 As a young man marries a young woman,

so your sons will marry you.

As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride,

so your God will rejoice over you.

Jeremiah 32:41

32:41 I will take delight in doing good to them. I will faithfully and wholeheartedly plant them firmly in the land.’

Zephaniah 3:17

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you;

he renews you by his love;

he shouts for joy over you.”

John 3:29

3:29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete.

Ephesians 5:25-29

5:25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, 5:27 so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. 5:28 In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 5:29 For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church,