6 Stamp my name as a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm,* for love is strong as death, passion as unyielding as the grave—its arrows flash like fire, a blazing flame of the Lord. 7 Floods of water cannot extinguish love; rivers cannot submerge it. If a man offered everything he owned in order to buy love he would be completely rejected.

Woman’s brothers:

9 You have stolen my heart, my sister,* my bride. With just one look you stole my heart, with just one sparkle from a single one of your necklaces.

2 Kiss me, kiss me with your mouth again and again,* for your love is sweeter* than wine. 3 I love the way you smell from the perfumed oils you use. You have quite a reputation*—it spreads like spilled perfumed oil. It’s not surprising that all the young women adore you!

15 Look at how very beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful! Your eyes are as gentle as doves.

Woman:

16 And you, my love, are so handsome—how charming you are! The green grass is our bed,

18 Then the Lord God said, "It’s not good for Adam to be alone. I will make someone to help him, someone that’s like him."

22 The Lord God made a woman, using the rib he’d taken from Adam, and presented her to Adam.

23 "Finally!" said Adam. "Here is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man."*

24 This is the reason a man leaves his father and mother and is joined* to his wife, and the two become one being.

22 If you find a wife, that’s great, and you’ll be blessed by the Lord.

18 May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young. 19 May she be to you a loving deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts always be intoxicating to you; may you be drunk on her love forever. 20 Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?

6 Now they’re no longer two, but one. What God has joined together no one should separate."

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful. Love is not proud. 5 Love does not act improperly, or insist on having its own way. Love is not argumentative and doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love takes no delight in evil but celebrates the truth. 7 Love never gives up, keeps on trusting, stays confident, and remains patient whatever happens.

28 Husbands should love their wives just like this, as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself— 29 for no one ever hated his own body, but feeds it and looks after it, just as Christ does for the church,

33 However, each husband should love his own wife as he does himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

14 Above all, love one another, which is the perfect bond that will hold you together.

9 Two are better than one, for they can help each other in their work. 10 If one of them falls down, the other can help them up, but how sad it is for someone who falls down and doesn’t have anyone to help them up. 11 In the same way, if two people lie down together, they keep each other warm, but you can’t keep yourself warm if you’re alone. 12 Someone fighting against one other person may win, but not if they are fighting against two. A cord made of three strands can’t be torn apart quickly.

15 Did he not make you one, and give some of his Spirit to you? And what does he want? Children of God.* So watch what you do, and don’t be unfaithful to the wife you married when you were young.

5 If a man has just got married, he is not to be sent to war or made to do any other duties. He is free to stay at home for one year and make his wife happy.