Offerings for the Sanctuary^(A)

25 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an ^[a]offering. ^(B)From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. ³ And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; ⁴ blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; ⁵ ram skins dyed red, ^[b]badger skins, and acacia wood; ^6 (C)oil for the light, and ^(D)spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; ⁷ onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ^(E)ephod and in the breastplate. ⁸ And let them make Me a ^(F)sanctuary,^[c] that ^(G)I may dwell among them. ⁹ According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.

The Ark of the Testimony^(H)

^10 (I)“And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. ¹¹ And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of ^(J)gold all around. ¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. ¹³ And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. ^15 (K)The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. ¹⁶ And you shall put into the ark ^(L)the Testimony which I will give you.

^17 (M)“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. ¹⁸ And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. ¹⁹ Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. ²⁰ And ^(N)the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. ^21 (O)You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and ^(P)in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. ²² And ^(Q)there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from ^(R)between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.

The Table for the Showbread^(S)

^23 (T)“You shall also make a table of acacia wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. ²⁴ And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around. ²⁵ You shall make for it a frame of a handbreadth all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around. ²⁶ And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs. ²⁷ The rings shall be close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table. ²⁸ And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them. ²⁹ You shall make ^(U)its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold. ³⁰ And you shall set the ^(V)showbread on the table before Me always.

The Gold Lampstand^(W)

^31 (X)“You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece. ³² And six branches shall come out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side. ^33 (Y)Three bowls shall be made like almond blossoms on one branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower, and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower—and so for the six branches that come out of the lampstand. ^34 (Z)On the lampstand itself four bowls shall be made like almond blossoms, each with its ornamental knob and flower. ³⁵ And there shall be a knob under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same, and a knob under the third two branches of the same, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand. ³⁶ Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece; all of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. ³⁷ You shall make seven lamps for it, and ^(AA)they shall arrange its lamps so that they ^(AB)give light in front of it. ³⁸ And its wick-trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold. ³⁹ It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these utensils. ⁴⁰ And ^(AC)see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

Conspiracy Against Nehemiah

6 Now it happened ^(A)when Sanballat, Tobiah, ^[a]Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it ^(B)(though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), ² that Sanballat and ^[b]Geshem ^(C)sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together ^[c]among the villages in the plain of ^(D)Ono.” But they ^(E)thought to do me harm.

³ So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”

⁴ But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner.

⁵ Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. ⁶ In it was written:

⁸ Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.”

⁹ For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.”

Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

¹⁰ Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was a secret informer; and he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the ^[e]temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you.”

¹¹ And I said, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” ¹² Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that ^(G)he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³ For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

^14 (H)My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the ^(I)prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.

The Wall Completed

¹⁵ So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ And it happened, ^(J)when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for ^(K)they perceived that this work was done by our God.

¹⁷ Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. ¹⁸ For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the ^(L)son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of ^(M)Meshullam the son of Berechiah. ¹⁹ Also they reported his good deeds before me, and reported my ^[f]words to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.