¹Now the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: ²“Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. ³On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time. According to all its rites and ceremonies you shall keep it.” ⁴So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. ⁵And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lᴏʀᴅ commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did. ⁶Now there were certain men who were defiled by a human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron that day. ⁷And those men said to him, “We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lᴏʀᴅ at its appointed time among the children of Israel?” ⁸And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that I may hear what the Lᴏʀᴅ will command concerning you.” ⁹Then the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lᴏʀᴅ’s Passover. ¹¹On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ¹²They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it. ¹³But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lᴏʀᴅ at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. ¹⁴And if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep the Lᴏʀᴅ’s Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.’ ” ¹⁵Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. ¹⁶So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. ¹⁷Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. ¹⁸At the command of the Lᴏʀᴅ the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lᴏʀᴅ they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped. ¹⁹Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lᴏʀᴅ and did not journey. ²⁰So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days: according to the command of the Lᴏʀᴅ they would remain encamped, and according to the command of the Lᴏʀᴅ they would journey. ²¹So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey. ²²Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. ²³At the command of the Lᴏʀᴅ they remained encamped, and at the command of the Lᴏʀᴅ they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lᴏʀᴅ, at the command of the Lᴏʀᴅ by the hand of Moses.

¹To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Lilies.’ A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love. My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. ²You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever. ³Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, With Your glory and Your majesty. ⁴And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness; And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things. ⁵Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies; The peoples fall under You. ⁶Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. ⁷You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions. ⁸All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad. ⁹Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women; At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir. ¹⁰Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; ¹¹So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him. ¹²And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; The rich among the people will seek your favor. ¹³The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; Her clothing is woven with gold. ¹⁴She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors; The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You. ¹⁵With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; They shall enter the King’s palace. ¹⁶Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons, Whom You shall make princes in all the earth. ¹⁷I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.

¹The Beloved How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O prince’s daughter! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, The work of the hands of a skillful workman. ²Your navel is a rounded goblet; It lacks no blended beverage. Your waist is a heap of wheat Set about with lilies. ³Your two breasts are like two fawns, Twins of a gazelle. ⁴Your neck is like an ivory tower, Your eyes like the pools in Heshbon By the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon Which looks toward Damascus. ⁵Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, And the hair of your head is like purple; A king is held captive by your tresses. ⁶How fair and how pleasant you are, O love, with your delights! ⁷This stature of yours is like a palm tree, And your breasts like its clusters. ⁸I said, “I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches.” Let now your breasts be like clusters of the vine, The fragrance of your breath like apples, ⁹And the roof of your mouth like the best wine. The Shulamite The wine goes down smoothly for my beloved, Moving gently the lips of sleepers. ¹⁰I am my beloved’s, And his desire is toward me. ¹¹Come, my beloved, Let us go forth to the field; Let us lodge in the villages. ¹²Let us get up early to the vineyards; Let us see if the vine has budded, Whether the grape blossoms are open, And the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. ¹³The mandrakes give off a fragrance, And at our gates are pleasant fruits, All manner, new and old, Which I have laid up for you, my beloved.

¹For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ²to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” ³without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. ⁴Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. ⁵And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; ⁶but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. ⁷Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. ⁸Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. ⁹Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, ¹⁰for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. ¹¹Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? ¹²For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. ¹³For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. ¹⁴For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. ¹⁵And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest ¹⁶who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. ¹⁷For He testifies: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” ¹⁸For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, ¹⁹for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. ²⁰And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath ²¹(for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”), ²²by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. ²³Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. ²⁴But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. ²⁵Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. ²⁶For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; ²⁷who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. ²⁸For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.