A Sabbathbreaker Executed

³² While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man ^(A)gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. ³³ And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. ^34 (B)They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. ³⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, ^(C)“The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall ^(D)stone him with stones outside the camp.” ³⁶ And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Tassels on Garments

³⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁸ “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to ^(E)make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. ³⁹ And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, ^(F)not to follow^[a] after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined ^(G)to whore after. ⁴⁰ So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be ^(H)holy to your God. ^41 (I)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”

The Lord's Covenant with David

17 ^(A)Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” ² And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

³ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, ⁴ “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^(B)It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in. ⁵ For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up Israel to this day, ^(C)but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling. ⁶ In all places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ ⁷ Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, ⁸ and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹ And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, ¹⁰ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I ^(D)will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. ¹¹ When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. ^13 (E)I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, ^(F)as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴ but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’” ¹⁵ In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

David's Prayer

¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? ¹⁷ And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations,^[a] O Lord God! ¹⁸ And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant. ^19 (G)For your servant's sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things. ²⁰ There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²¹ And who is like your people Israel, the one^[b] nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and awesome things, in driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt? ²² And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. ²³ And now, O Lord, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, ²⁴ and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. ²⁵ For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you. ²⁶ And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. ²⁷ Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you, for it is you, O Lord, who have blessed, and it is blessed forever.”

The Glory of the Lord Fills the Temple

43 Then he led me to ^(A)the gate, the gate facing east. ² And behold, ^(B)the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And ^(C)the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and ^(D)the earth shone with his glory. ³ And ^(E)the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen ^(F)when he^[a] came to destroy the city, and just like ^(G)the vision that I had seen ^(H)by the Chebar canal. And ^(I)I fell on my face. ⁴ As ^(J)the glory of the Lord ^(K)entered the temple by the gate facing east, ^5 (L)the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into ^(M)the inner court; and behold, ^(N)the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

^6 (O)While the man was standing beside me, ^(P)I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, ⁷ and he said to me, ^(Q)“Son of man, this is ^(R)the place of my throne and ^(S)the place of the soles of my feet, ^(T)where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more ^(U)defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies^[b] of their kings at their high places,^{[c] 8} by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with ^(V)only a wall between me and them. They have ^(W)defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger. ⁹ Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, ^(X)and I will dwell in their midst forever.

¹⁰ “As for you, ^(Y)son of man, ^(Z)describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. ¹¹ And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, ^(AA)make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, ^(AB)its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down ^(AC)in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. ¹² This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of ^(AD)the mountain ^(AE)all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple.

Deliver Me, O Lord, from Evil Men

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

The Lesson of the Fig Tree

²⁹ And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. ³⁰ As soon as they come out in leaf, you see ^(A)for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. ³¹ So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. ^32 (B)Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. ^33 (C)Heaven and earth will pass away, but ^(D)my words will not pass away.

Watch Yourselves

³⁴ “But watch yourselves ^(E)lest ^(F)your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and ^(G)cares of this life, and ^(H)that day come upon you suddenly ^(I)like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ But ^(J)stay awake at all times, ^(K)praying that you may ^(L)have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and ^(M)to stand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷ And ^(N)every day he was teaching in the temple, but ^(O)at night he went out and lodged on ^(P)the mount called Olivet. ³⁸ And early in the morning ^(Q)all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

The Preeminence of Christ

^15 (A)He is the image of ^(B)the invisible God, ^(C)the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by^[a] him all things were created, ^(D)in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether ^(E)thrones or ^(F)dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created ^(G)through him and for him. ¹⁷ And ^(H)he is before all things, and in him all things ^(I)hold together. ¹⁸ And ^(J)he is the head of the body, the church. He is ^(K)the beginning, ^(L)the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For ^(M)in him all the ^(N)fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and ^(O)through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, ^(P)making peace ^(Q)by the blood of his cross.

^21 (R)And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, ^(S)doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled ^(T)in his body of flesh by his death, ^(U)in order to present you holy and blameless and ^(V)above reproach before him, ^23 (W)if indeed you continue in the faith, ^(X)stable and steadfast, not shifting from ^(Y)the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed ^(Z)in all creation^[b] under heaven, ^(AA)and of which I, Paul, became a minister.