Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her lover? Under the apple tree I roused you. There your mother travailed with you. There she who was in labor gave you birth.
With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is Adonai Eloheinu to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people were encouraged by the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.
Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my lover among the sons. In his shadow I delighted to sit, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Go out, daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon, with a wreath his mother placed on him on the day of his marriage— on the day of his heart’s joy.
Hardly had I passed beyond them when I found the one my soul loves. I held him, and I would not let him go, until I brought him to my mother’s house, to the chamber of her who conceived me.
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Watch from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir, even Hermon, from lions’ dens, from mountains of leopards.
Behold, you rely on this splintered reed as a staff—Egypt! If a man leans on it, it will go into the palm of his hand and pierce it—thus Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.
“Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, thus says Adonai: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, and the way you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
Her leaders give judgment for a bribe. Her priests give direction for a price. Her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean on Adonai by saying: “Is not Adonai in our midst? No calamity will come upon us!”
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were made dead to the Torah through the body of Messiah, so that you might be joined to another—the One who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit for God.