To whom can you compare and liken me? Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared!

We reflect on your loyal love, O God, within your temple.

People are like a vapor, their days like a shadow that disappears.

The Lover to His Beloved: O my beloved, you are like a mare among Pharaoh’s stallions.

I will climb up to the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High!”

“To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?” says the Holy One.

I will destroy Daughter Zion, who is as delicate and defenseless as a young maiden.

And what I intended to do to them I will do to you.”

I am like an owl in the wilderness; I am like a screech owl among the ruins.

The Lover to His Beloved: Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like clusters of grapes.

To whom can you compare God? To what image can you liken him?

When you did these things, I was silent, so you thought I was exactly like you. But now I will condemn you and state my case against you!

For who in the skies can compare to the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings,

The Beloved to Her Lover: Make haste, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

If the Lord who commands armies had not left us a few survivors, we would have quickly become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.

I spoke to the prophets; I myself revealed many visions; I spoke in parables through the prophets.”

The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it, nor could the fir trees match its boughs; the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches; no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.

The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel –

he said to take back this answer to Esther: