2 I want you to know how hard I am contending^(A) for you and for those at Laodicea,^(B) and for all who have not met me personally. ² My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart^(C) and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery^(D) of God, namely, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.^{(E) 4} I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.^{(F) 5} For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit^(G) and delight to see how disciplined^(H) you are and how firm^(I) your faith in Christ^(J) is.

Spiritual Fullness in Christ

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord,^(K) continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted^(L) and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught,^(M) and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,^(N) which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world^(O) rather than on Christ.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness^(P) of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head^(Q) over every power and authority.^{(R) 11} In him you were also circumcised^(S) with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh^[b](T) was put off when you were circumcised by^[c] Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism,^(U) in which you were also raised with him^(V) through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.^(W)

¹³ When you were dead in your sins^(X) and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you^[d] alive^(Y) with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,^{(Z) 14} having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,^(AA) which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.^{(AB) 15} And having disarmed the powers and authorities,^(AC) he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them^(AD) by the cross.^[e]

Freedom From Human Rules

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you^(AE) by what you eat or drink,^(AF) or with regard to a religious festival,^(AG) a New Moon celebration^(AH) or a Sabbath day.^{(AI) 17} These are a shadow of the things that were to come;^(AJ) the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility^(AK) and the worship of angels disqualify you.^(AL) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head,^(AM) from whom the whole body,^(AN) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.^(AO)

²⁰ Since you died with Christ^(AP) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(AQ) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^{(AR) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish^(AS) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.^{(AT) 23} Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility^(AU) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Psalm 109

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

Solomon Builds the Temple^(A)

3 Then Solomon began to build^(B) the temple of the Lord^(C) in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah^[a](D) the Jebusite, the place provided by David. ² He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.^(E)

³ The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide^[b](F) (using the cubit of the old standard). ⁴ The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits^[c] long across the width of the building and twenty^[d] cubits high.

He overlaid the inside with pure gold. ⁵ He paneled the main hall with juniper and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree^(G) and chain designs. ⁶ He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim. ⁷ He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim^(H) on the walls.

⁸ He built the Most Holy Place,^(I) its length corresponding to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents^[e] of fine gold. ⁹ The gold nails^(J) weighed fifty shekels.^[f] He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.

¹⁰ For the Most Holy Place he made a pair^(K) of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits^[g] long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub. ¹² Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub. ¹³ The wings of these cherubim^(L) extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall.^[h]

¹⁴ He made the curtain^(M) of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim^(N) worked into it.

¹⁵ For the front of the temple he made two pillars,^(O) which together were thirty-five cubits^[i] long, each with a capital^(P) five cubits high. ¹⁶ He made interwoven chains^[j](Q) and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates^(R) and attached them to the chains. ¹⁷ He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin^[k] and the one to the north Boaz.^[l]

The Temple’s Furnishings^(S)

4 He made a bronze altar^(T) twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.^{[m] 2} He made the Sea^(U) of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits^[n] high. It took a line of thirty cubits^[o] to measure around it. ³ Below the rim, figures of bulls encircled it—ten to a cubit.^[p] The bulls were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.

⁴ The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east.^(V) The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center. ⁵ It was a handbreadth^[q] in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths.^[r]

⁶ He then made ten basins^(W) for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them the things to be used for the burnt offerings^(X) were rinsed, but the Sea was to be used by the priests for washing.

⁷ He made ten gold lampstands^(Y) according to the specifications^(Z) for them and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.

⁸ He made ten tables^(AA) and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.^(AB)

⁹ He made the courtyard^(AC) of the priests, and the large court and the doors for the court, and overlaid the doors with bronze. ¹⁰ He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner.

¹¹ And Huram also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls.

So Huram finished^(AD) the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of God:

All the objects that Huram-Abi^(AF) made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of polished bronze. ¹⁷ The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Sukkoth^(AG) and Zarethan.^{[s] 18} All these things that Solomon made amounted to so much that the weight of the bronze^(AH) could not be calculated.

¹⁹ Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in God’s temple:

5 When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished,^(AM) he brought in the things his father David had dedicated^(AN)—the silver and gold and all the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.

The Ark Brought to the Temple^(AO)

² Then Solomon summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark^(AP) of the Lord’s covenant from Zion, the City of David. ³ And all the Israelites^(AQ) came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month.

⁴ When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark, ⁵ and they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The Levitical priests^(AR) carried them up; ⁶ and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

⁷ The priests then brought the ark^(AS) of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ The cherubim^(AT) spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its carrying poles. ⁹ These poles were so long that their ends, extending from the ark, could be seen from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. ¹⁰ There was nothing in the ark except^(AU) the two tablets^(AV) that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

¹¹ The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions.^{(AW) 12} All the Levites who were musicians^(AX)—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.^{(AY) 13} The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:

Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud,^{(BA) 14} and the priests could not perform^(BB) their service because of the cloud,^(BC) for the glory^(BD) of the Lord filled the temple of God.