⁴ Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

¹⁰ Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”

¹² Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.^{(A) 13} “Make level paths for your feet,”^[a](B) so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.^(C)

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,^(A)

¹⁰ Whatever^(A) your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,^(B) for in the realm of the dead,^(C) where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.^(D)

¹⁹ Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God.^(A) Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord.”

²⁷ Praise be to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has put it into the king’s heart^(G) to bring honor^(H) to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem in this way ²⁸ and who has extended his good favor^(I) to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the hand of the Lord my God was on me,^(J) I took courage and gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.

³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants^(A) in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.