The Tabernacle

26 “Moreover, ^(A)you shall make the ^(B)tabernacle with ten curtains of ^(C)fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim ^(D)skillfully worked into them. ² The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits,^[a] and the breadth of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall be the same size. ³ Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another. ⁴ And you shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set. Likewise you shall make loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set. ⁵ Fifty loops you shall make on the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set; the loops shall be opposite one another. ⁶ And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the clasps, so that the tabernacle may be a single whole.

⁷ “You shall also make ^(E)curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle; eleven curtains shall you make. ⁸ The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains shall be the same size. ⁹ You shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and the sixth curtain you shall double over at the front of the tent. ¹⁰ You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the second set.

¹¹ “You shall make fifty clasps of bronze, and put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together that it may be a single whole. ¹² And the part that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle. ¹³ And the extra that remains in the length of the curtains, the cubit on the one side, and the cubit on the other side, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and that side, to cover it. ^14 (F)And you shall make for the tent a covering of tanned ^(G)rams' skins^[b] and a covering of goatskins on top.

²⁴ And ^(A)Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. He had neither taken care of his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety. ²⁵ And when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, ^(B)“Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?” ²⁶ He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me, for your servant said to him, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself,^[a] that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ For ^(C)your servant is lame. ^27 (D)He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is ^(E)like the angel of God; do therefore what seems good to you. ²⁸ For all my father's house were but men doomed to death before my lord the king, but ^(F)you set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right have I, then, to cry to the king?” ²⁹ And the king said to him, “Why speak any more of your affairs? I have decided: you and Ziba shall divide the land.” ³⁰ And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Oh, let him take it all, since my lord the king has come safely home.”

³¹ Now ^(G)Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim, and he went on with the king to the Jordan, to escort him over the Jordan. ³² Barzillai was a very aged man, eighty years old. ^(H)He had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. ³³ And the king said to Barzillai, “Come over with me, and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem.” ³⁴ But Barzillai said to the king, ^(I)“How many years have I still to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? ³⁵ I am this day ^(J)eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be ^(K)an added burden to my lord the king? ³⁶ Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? ³⁷ Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant ^(L)Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king, and do for him whatever seems good to you.” ³⁸ And the king answered, “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you, and all that you desire of me I will do for you.” ³⁹ Then all the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. And ^(M)the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own home. ⁴⁰ The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him. All the people of Judah, and also half the people of Israel, brought the king on his way.

⁴¹ Then all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away and ^(N)brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?” ⁴² All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is ^(O)our close relative. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's expense? Or has he given us any gift?” ⁴³ And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, “We have ^(P)ten shares in the king, and in David also we have more than you. Why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?” ^(Q)But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.

²⁶ The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁷ “Behold, I am the Lord, ^(A)the God of all flesh. ^(B)Is anything too hard for me? ²⁸ Therefore, thus says the Lord: ^(C)Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. ²⁹ The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city ^(D)shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, ^(E)with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal ^(F)and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, ^(G)to provoke me to anger. ³⁰ For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight ^(H)from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but ^(I)provoke me to anger ^(J)by the work of their hands, declares the Lord. ³¹ This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, ^(K)so that I will remove it from my sight ³² because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—^(L)their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ^33 (M)They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them ^(N)persistently, they have not listened ^(O)to receive instruction. ³⁴ They set up ^(P)their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal ^(Q)in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(R)to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, ^(S)though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do ^(T)this abomination, ^(U)to cause Judah to sin.

They Shall Be My People; I Will Be Their God

³⁶ “Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ^(V)‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: ^37 (W)Behold, I will gather them from all the countries ^(X)to which I drove them in ^(Y)my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, ^(Z)and I will make them dwell in safety. ^38 (AA)And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. ^39 (AB)I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, ^(AC)for their own good and the good of their children after them. ^40 (AD)I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. ^(AE)And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. ^41 (AF)I will rejoice in doing them good, ^(AG)and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

⁴² “For thus says the Lord: ^(AH)Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. ^43 (AI)Fields shall be bought in this land ^(AJ)of which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; ^(AK)it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ ⁴⁴ Fields shall be bought for money, and ^(AL)deeds shall be signed and ^(AM)sealed and ^(AN)witnessed, ^(AO)in the land of Benjamin, ^(AP)in the places about Jerusalem, ^(AQ)and in the cities of Judah, ^(AR)in the cities of the hill country, ^(AS)in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb; for ^(AT)I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.”

Let the Children Come to Me

^13 (A)And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples ^(B)rebuked them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, ^(C)“Let the children come to me; ^(D)do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ^15 (E)Truly, I say to you, whoever does not ^(F)receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” ¹⁶ And ^(G)he took them in his arms and blessed them, ^(H)laying his hands on them.

Released from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brothers^[a]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ² For ^(A)a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.^{[b] 3} Accordingly, ^(B)she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Likewise, my brothers, ^(C)you also have died ^(D)to the law ^(E)through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, ^(F)in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work ^(G)in our members ^(H)to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the ^(I)new way of ^(J)the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.^[c]

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, ^(K)I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if ^(L)the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, ^(M)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. ^(N)For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment ^(O)that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, ^(P)seizing an opportunity through the commandment, ^(Q)deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So ^(R)the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³ Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.