obsessive love

⁶Groom to Bride: Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated. ⁷Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames.

⁴Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. ⁵Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil. ⁶Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth. ⁷Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

¹⁸Fear is not in love. Instead, perfect love casts out fear, for fear pertains to punishment. And whoever fears is not perfected in love.

¹⁸And Jacob, loving her, said, “I will serve you for seven years, for your younger daughter Rachel.” ¹⁹Laban responded, “It is better that I give her to you than to another man; remain with me.” ²⁰Therefore, Jacob served for seven years for Rachel. And these seemed like only a few days, because of the greatness of love.

⁵Therefore, mortify your body, while it is upon the earth. For because of fornication, impurity, lust, evil desires, and avarice, which are a kind of service to idols,

¹Now after these things, it happened that Amnon, the son of David, was in love with the very beautiful sister of Absalom, the son of David, and she was called Tamar. ²And he pined for her exceedingly, so much so that, out of love for her, he became ill. For, since she was a virgin, it seemed a difficulty to him that he would do anything dishonest with her.

²³Preserve your heart with all watchfulness, for life proceeds from this.

³⁷Jesus said to him: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God from all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹But the second is similar to it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

⁴Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. ⁵Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil.

¹⁹And I will betroth you to me forever, and I will betroth you to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and compassion. ²⁰And I will wed you to me in faith, and you will know that I am the Lord.

²⁰Therefore, Jacob served for seven years for Rachel. And these seemed like only a few days, because of the greatness of love.

¹And it happened that, when he had completed speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan adhered to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him like his own soul. ²And Saul took him that day, and would not permit him to return to his father’s house. ³Then David and Jonathan formed a pact. For he loved him like his own soul.

⁴Anger holds no mercy, nor does fury when it erupts. And who can bear the assault of one who has been provoked?

²⁵Let not your heart desire her beauty; do not be captivated by her winks.

¹Now after these things, it happened that Amnon, the son of David, was in love with the very beautiful sister of Absalom, the son of David, and she was called Tamar. ²And he pined for her exceedingly, so much so that, out of love for her, he became ill. For, since she was a virgin, it seemed a difficulty to him that he would do anything dishonest with her. ³Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, the brother of David: a very prudent man. ⁴And he said to him: “Why are you becoming so thin from day to day, O son of the king? Why won’t you tell me?” And Amnon said to him, “I am in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom.” ⁵And Jonadab said to him: “Lie down upon your bed, and feign sickness. And when your father will come to visit you, say to him: ‘I ask you to let my sister Tamar come to me, so that she may give me food, and may make a small meal, so that I may eat it from her hand.’ ” ⁶And so, Amnon lay down, and he began to act as if he were ill. And when the king had come to visit him, Amnon said to the king, “I beg you to let my sister Tamar come to me, and make in my sight two little portions of food, so that I take it from her hand.”

¹⁹Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter toward them.

³⁴For the jealousy and fury of the husband will not spare him on the day of vindication, ³⁵nor will he agree to the pleadings of anyone, nor will he accept, as repayment, a multitude of gifts.

¹Then Dinah, the daughter of Leah, went out to see the women of that region. ²And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the leader of that land, had seen her, he fell in love with her. And so he seized her and slept with her, overwhelming the virgin by force. ³And his soul was closely bound to her, and, since she was sorrowful, he soothed her with flattery.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her,

²⁶“If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and yes, even his own life, he is not able to be my disciple.

⁴Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated. ⁵Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil. ⁶Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth. ⁷Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all. ⁸Charity is never torn away, even if prophecies pass away, or languages cease, or knowledge is destroyed.