You Cannot Go Where I Am Going

²¹ Jesus also told them, “I am going away, and you will look for me. But you cannot go where I am going, and you will die with your sins unforgiven.”

²² The people asked, “Does he intend to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying we cannot go where he is going?”

²³ Jesus answered, “You are from below, but I am from above. You belong to this world, but I don't. ²⁴ This is why I said you will die with your sins unforgiven. If you don't have faith in me for who I am,^[a] you will die, and your sins will not be forgiven.”

²⁵ “Who are you?” they asked Jesus.

Jesus answered, “I am exactly who I told you at the beginning. ²⁶ There is a lot more I could say to condemn you. But the one who sent me is truthful, and I tell the people of this world only what I have heard from him.”

²⁷ No one understood that Jesus was talking to them about the Father.

²⁸ Jesus went on to say, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man,^[b] you will know who I am. You will also know that I don't do anything on my own. I say only what my Father taught me. ²⁹ The one who sent me is with me. I always do what pleases him, and he will never leave me.”

³⁰ After Jesus said this, many of the people put their faith in him.

The Truth Will Set You Free

³¹ Jesus told the people who had faith in him, “If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. ^32 (A) You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

^33 (B) They answered, “We are Abraham's children! We have never been anyone's slaves. How can you say we will be set free?”

³⁴ Jesus replied:

I tell you for certain that anyone who sins is a slave of sin! ³⁵ And slaves don't stay in the family forever, though the Son will always remain in the family. ³⁶ If the Son gives you freedom, you are free! ³⁷ I know that you are from Abraham's family. Yet you want to kill me, because my message isn't really in your hearts. ³⁸ I am telling you what my Father has shown me, just as you are doing what your father has taught you.

Your Father Is the Devil

³⁹ The people said to Jesus, “Abraham is our father!”

Jesus replied, “If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ Instead, you want to kill me for telling you the truth that God gave me. Abraham never did anything like that. ⁴¹ But you are doing exactly what your father does.”

“Don't accuse us of having someone else as our father!” they said. “We just have one father, and he is God.”

⁴² Jesus answered:

If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and now I am here. He sent me. I did not come on my own. ⁴³ Why can't you understand what I am talking about? Can't you stand to hear what I am saying? ^44 (C) Your father is the devil, and you do exactly what he wants. He has always been a murderer and a liar. There is nothing truthful about him. He speaks on his own, and everything he says is a lie. Not only is he a liar himself, but he is also the father of all lies.

⁴⁵ Everything I have told you is true, and you still refuse to have faith in me. ⁴⁶ Can any of you accuse me of sin? If you cannot, why won't you have faith in me? After all, I am telling you the truth. ⁴⁷ Anyone who belongs to God will listen to his message. But you refuse to listen, because you don't belong to God.

Solomon's Work Force

¹⁷ Solomon counted all the foreigners who were living in Israel, just as his father David had done when he was king, and the total was 153,600. ¹⁸ He assigned 70,000 of them to carry building supplies and 80,000 of them to cut stone from the hills. He chose 3,600 others to supervise the workers and to make sure the work was completed.

The Temple Is Built

(1 Kings 6.1-38)

3 ^1-2 (A) Solomon's workers began building the temple in Jerusalem on the second day of the second month,^[a] four years after Solomon had become king of Israel. It was built on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to David at the threshing place that had belonged to Araunah^[b] from Jebus.

³ The inside of the temple was 27 meters long and 9 meters wide, according to the older standards.^{[c] 4} Across the front of the temple was a porch 9 meters wide and 9 meters^[d] high. The inside walls of the porch were covered with pure gold.

⁵ Solomon had the inside walls of the temple's main room paneled first with pine and then with a layer of gold, and he had them decorated with carvings of palm trees and designs that looked like chains. ⁶ He used precious stones to decorate the temple, and he used gold imported from Parvaim^{[e] 7} to decorate the ceiling beams, the doors, the door frames, and the walls. Solomon also told the workers to carve designs of winged creatures into the walls.

^8 (B) The most holy place was nine meters square, and its walls were covered with over 20 tons of fine gold. ⁹ Five hundred and seventy grams of gold was used to cover the heads of the nails. The walls of the small storage rooms were also covered with gold.^[f]

^10 (C) Solomon had two statues of winged creatures^[g] made to put in the most holy place, and he covered them with gold. ^11-13 Each creature had two wings and was four and a half meters from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other wing. Solomon set them next to each other in the most holy place, facing the doorway. Their wings were spread out and reached all the way across the nine-meter room.

^14 (D) A curtain^[h] was made of fine linen woven with blue, purple, and red wool, and embroidered with designs of winged creatures.

The Two Columns

(1 Kings 7.15-22)

¹⁵ Two columns were made for the entrance to the temple. Each one was 16 meters tall and had a cap on top that was over 2 meters high. ¹⁶ The top of each column was decorated with designs that looked like chains^[i] and with 100 carvings of pomegranates.^{[j] 17} Solomon had one of the columns placed on the south side of the temple's entrance; it was called Jachin.^[k] The other one was placed on the north side of the entrance; it was called Boaz.^[l]

The Furnishings for the Temple

(1 Kings 7.23-51)

4 ^(E) Solomon had a bronze altar made that was nine meters square and four and a half meters high. ² He also gave orders to make a large metal bowl called the Sea. It was 4.5 meters across, just over two meters deep, and 13.5 meters around. ³ Its outer edge was decorated with two rows of carvings of bulls, ten bulls to about every 45 centimeters, all made from the same piece of metal as the bowl. ⁴ The bowl itself sat on top of twelve bronze bulls, with three bulls facing outward in each of four directions. ⁵ The sides of the bowl were 75 millimeters thick, and its rim was in the shape of a cup that curved outward like flower petals. The bowl held about 60,000 liters.

^6 (F) He also made ten small bowls and put five on each side of the large bowl. The small bowls were used to wash the animals that were burned on the altar as sacrifices, and the priests used the water in the large bowl to wash their hands.

^7 (G) Ten gold lampstands were also made according to the plans. Solomon placed these lampstands inside the temple, five on each side of the main room. ^8 (H) He also made ten tables and placed them in the main room, five on each side. And he made 100 small gold sprinkling bowls.

⁹ Solomon gave orders to build two courtyards: a smaller one that only priests could use and a larger one. The doors to these courtyards were covered with bronze. ¹⁰ The large bowl called the Sea was placed near the southeast corner of the temple.

¹¹ Huram made shovels, sprinkling bowls, and pans for hot ashes. Here is a list of the other furnishings he made for God's temple: ¹² two columns, two bowl-shaped caps for the tops of these columns, two chain designs on the caps, ¹³ 400 pomegranates^[m] in two rows for the chain designs, ¹⁴ the stands and the small bowls, ¹⁵ the large bowl and the twelve bulls that held it up, ¹⁶ pans for hot ashes, as well as shovels and meat forks.

Huram made all these things out of polished bronze ¹⁷ by pouring melted bronze into the clay molds he had set up near the Jordan River, between Succoth and Zeredah.

¹⁸ There were so many bronze furnishings that no one ever knew how much bronze it took to make them.

¹⁹ Solomon also gave orders to make the following temple furnishings out of gold: the altar, the tables that held the sacred loaves of bread,^{[n] 20} the lampstands and the lamps that burned in front of the most holy place, ²¹ flower designs, lamps and tongs, ²² lamp snuffers, small sprinkling bowls, ladles, fire pans, and the doors to the most holy place and the main room of the temple.

5 ^(I) After the Lord's temple was finished, Solomon put in its storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to the Lord, including the gold and silver, and the objects used in worship.

1 I am Malachi. And this is the message that the Lord gave me for Israel.

The Lord's Love for Israel

^2 (A)(B) Israel, I, the Lord, have loved you. And yet you ask in what way have I loved you. Don't forget that Esau was the brother of your ancestor Jacob, but I chose Jacob ³ instead of Esau. And I turned Esau's hill country into a barren desert where jackals^[a] roam. ⁴ Esau's descendants may say, “Although our nation Edom is in ruins, we will rebuild it.”

But I, the Lord All-Powerful, promise to tear down whatever they build. Then everyone will know that I will never stop being angry with them as long as they are so sinful.

⁵ Israel, when you see this, you will shout, “The Lord's great reputation reaches beyond our borders.”

Judgment against Priests

⁶ I, the Lord All-Powerful, have something to say to you priests. Children respect their fathers, and servants respect their masters. I am your father and your master, so why don't you respect me? You priests have insulted me, and now you ask, “How did we insult you?”

⁷ You embarrass me by offering worthless food on my altar. Then you ask, “How have we embarrassed you?” You have done it by saying, “What's so great about the Lord's altar?”

^8 (C) But isn't it wrong to offer animals that are blind, lame, or sick? Just try giving those animals to your governor. That certainly wouldn't please him or make him want to help you. ⁹ I am the Lord God All-Powerful, and you had better try to please me. You have sinned. Now see if I will have mercy on any of you.

¹⁰ I wish someone would lock the doors of my temple, so you would stop wasting time building fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you priests, and I refuse to accept any more of your offerings. ¹¹ From dawn until dusk my name is praised by every nation on this earth, as they burn incense and offer the proper sacrifices to me. ¹² But even you priests insult me by saying, “There's nothing special about the Lord's altar, and these sacrifices are worthless.”

¹³ You get so disgusted that you even make vulgar signs at me.^[b] And for an offering, you bring stolen^[c] animals or those that are lame or sick. Should I accept these? ¹⁴ Instead of offering the acceptable animals you have promised, you bring me those that are unhealthy. I will punish you for this, because I am the great King, the Lord All-Powerful, and I am worshiped by nations everywhere.

True and False Priests

2 I, the Lord All-Powerful, have something else to say to you priests. ² You had better take seriously the need to honor my name. Otherwise, when you give a blessing, I will turn it into a curse. In fact, I have already done this, because you haven't taken to heart your duties as priests. ³ I will punish your descendants and rub your faces in the manure from your animal sacrifices, and then be done with you.^[d]

^4 (D) I am telling you this, so I can continue to keep my agreement with your ancestor Levi. ^5 (E) I blessed him with a full life, as I had promised, and he kept his part of the agreement by honoring me and respecting my name. ⁶ He taught the truth and never told lies, and he led a lot of people to turn from sin, because he obeyed me and lived right.

⁷ You priests should be eager to spread knowledge, and everyone should come to you for instruction, because you speak for me, the Lord All-Powerful. ⁸ But you have turned your backs on me. Your teachings have led others to do sinful things, and you have broken the agreement I made with your ancestor Levi. ⁹ So I caused everyone to hate and despise you, because you disobeyed me and failed to treat all people alike.