¹⁷ At the king's command ^(A)they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.

David Prepares for Temple Building

² David commanded to gather together the ^(A)resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he ^(B)set stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God.

⁷ When the house was built, ^(A)it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.

¹⁴ And the wall of the city had twelve ^(A)foundations, and ^(B)on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵ And the one who spoke with me ^(C)had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. ¹⁶ The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia.^[a] Its length and width and height are equal. ¹⁷ He also measured its wall, 144 cubits^[b] by ^(D)human measurement, which is also ^(E)an angel's measurement. ¹⁸ The wall was built of ^(F)jasper, while the city was pure gold, like ^(G)clear glass. ^19 (H)The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and ^(I)the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

⁶ For it stands in Scripture:

⁷ So the honor is for you who ^(C)believe, but for those who ^(D)do not believe,

¹¹ For no one can lay a ^(A)foundation other ^(B)than that which is laid, ^(C)which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

⁹ All these were made of costly stones, cut according to measure, sawed with saws, back and front, even from the foundation to the coping, and from the outside to the great court.