Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple^(A)

5 Now ^(B)Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, ^(C)for Hiram had always loved David. ² Then ^(D)Solomon sent to Hiram, saying:

⁷ So it was, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly and said,

⁸ Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying:

¹⁰ Then Hiram gave Solomon cedar and cypress logs according to all his desire. ^11 (M)And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand ^[e]kors of wheat as food for his household, and ^[f]twenty kors of pressed oil. Thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.

¹² So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, ^(N)as He had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together.

¹³ Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel; and the labor force was thirty thousand men. ¹⁴ And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts: they were one month in Lebanon and two months at home; ^(O)Adoniram was in charge of the labor force. ^15 (P)Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens, and eighty thousand who quarried stone in the mountains, ¹⁶ besides three thousand ^[g]three hundred from the ^(Q)chiefs of Solomon’s deputies, who supervised the people who labored in the work. ¹⁷ And the king commanded them to quarry large stones, costly stones, and ^(R)hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the ^[h]temple. ¹⁸ So Solomon’s builders, Hiram’s builders, and the Gebalites quarried them; and they prepared timber and stones to build the ^[i]temple.

Solomon Builds the Temple^(S)

6 And ^(T)it came to pass in the four hundred and ^[j]eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of ^[k]Ziv, which is the second month, ^(U)that he began to build the house of the Lord. ² Now ^(V)the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. ³ The vestibule in front of the ^[l]sanctuary of the house was ^[m]twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the width of ^[n]the vestibule extended ^[o]ten cubits from the front of the house. ⁴ And he made for the house ^(W)windows with beveled frames.

⁵ Against the wall of the ^[p]temple he built ^(X)chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary ^(Y)and the ^[q]inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it. ⁶ The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the ^[r]temple. ⁷ And ^(Z)the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. ⁸ The doorway for the ^[s]middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.

^9 (AA)So he built the ^[t]temple and finished it, and he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. ¹⁰ And he built side chambers against the entire temple, each five cubits high; they were attached to the temple with cedar beams.

¹¹ Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying: ¹² “Concerning this ^[u]temple which you are building, ^(AB)if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My ^[v]word with you, ^(AC)which I spoke to your father David. ¹³ And ^(AD)I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not ^(AE)forsake My people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the temple and finished it. ¹⁵ And he built the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards; from the floor of the temple to the ceiling he paneled the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of cypress. ¹⁶ Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards; he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the ^(AF)Most Holy Place. ¹⁷ And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen.

¹⁹ And he prepared the ^[w]inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar. ²¹ So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. ²² The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple; also he overlaid with gold ^(AG)the entire altar that was by the inner sanctuary.

²³ Inside the inner sanctuary ^(AH)he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴ One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵ And the other cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim were of the same size and shape. ²⁶ The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub. ²⁷ Then he set the cherubim inside the inner ^[x]room; and ^(AI)they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. ²⁸ Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved ^(AJ)figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. ³⁰ And the floor of the temple he overlaid with gold, both the inner and outer sanctuaries.

³¹ For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were ^[y]one-fifth of the wall. ³² The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. ³³ So for the door of the ^[z]sanctuary he also made doorposts of olive wood, ^[aa]one-fourth of the wall. ³⁴ And the two doors were of cypress wood; ^(AK)two panels comprised one folding door, and two panels comprised the other folding door. ³⁵ Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly on the carved work.

³⁶ And he built the ^(AL)inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams.

^37 (AM)In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of ^[ab]Ziv. ³⁸ And in the eleventh year, in the month of ^[ac]Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he was ^(AN)seven years in building it.

Assurance of God’s Victory over Enemies^(A)

A Song. A Psalm of David.

Paul at Ephesus

19 And it happened, while ^(A)Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through ^(B)the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples ² he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

So they said to him, ^(C)“We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

³ And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”

So they said, ^(D)“Into John’s baptism.”

⁴ Then Paul said, ^(E)“John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized ^(F)in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had ^(G)laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and ^(H)they spoke with tongues and prophesied. ⁷ Now the men were about twelve in all.

^8 (I)And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading ^(J)concerning the things of the kingdom of God. ⁹ But ^(K)when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil ^(L)of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ And ^(M)this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Miracles Glorify Christ

¹¹ Now ^(N)God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, ^12 (O)so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. ^13 (P)Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists ^(Q)took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ^[a]“We ^[b]exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul ^(R)preaches.” ¹⁴ Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

¹⁵ And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

¹⁶ Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, ^[c]overpowered them, and prevailed against ^[d]them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and ^(S)fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. ¹⁸ And many who had believed came ^(T)confessing and telling their deeds. ¹⁹ Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. ^20 (U)So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

The Riot at Ephesus

^21 (V)When these things were accomplished, Paul ^(W)purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through ^(X)Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, ^(Y)I must also see Rome.” ²² So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, ^(Z)Timothy and ^(AA)Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time.

²³ And ^(AB)about that time there arose a great commotion about ^(AC)the Way. ²⁴ For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of ^[e]Diana, brought ^(AD)no small profit to the craftsmen. ²⁵ He called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said: “Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. ²⁶ Moreover you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that ^(AE)they are not gods which are made with hands. ²⁷ So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and ^[f]her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸ Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized ^(AF)Gaius and ^(AG)Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions. ³⁰ And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow him. ³¹ Then some of the ^[g]officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. ³² Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ³³ And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And ^(AH)Alexander ^(AI)motioned with his hand, and wanted to make his defense to the people. ³⁴ But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

³⁵ And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said: “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess ^[h]Diana, and of the image which fell down from ^[i]Zeus? ³⁶ Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. ³⁷ For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of ^[j]your goddess. ³⁸ Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a ^[k]case against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹ But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly. ⁴⁰ For we are in danger of being ^[l]called in question for today’s uproar, there being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering.” ⁴¹ And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.