The Daily Audio Bible

Furnishings of the Temple

4 He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.^{(A) 2} Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would encircle it completely.^{(B) 3} Under it were figures of bulls all around, each of ten cubits, surrounding the sea; there were two rows of bulls, cast when it was cast.^{(C) 4} It stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; the sea was set on them. The hindquarters of each were toward the inside. ⁵ Its thickness was a handbreadth; its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held three thousand baths.^{[a](D) 6} He also made ten basins in which to wash and set five on the right side and five on the left. In these they were to rinse what was used for the burnt offering. The sea was for the priests to wash in.^(E)

⁷ He made ten golden lampstands as prescribed and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.^{(F) 8} He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred basins of gold.^{(G) 9} He made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court; he overlaid their doors with bronze.^{(H) 10} He set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.^(I)

¹¹ And Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. Thus Huram finished the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of God:^{(J) 12} the two pillars, the bowls, and the two capitals on the top of the pillars; and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;^{(K) 13} the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.^{(L) 14} He made the stands, the basins on the stands,^{(M) 15} the one sea, and the twelve bulls underneath it. ¹⁶ The pots, the shovels, the forks, and all the equipment for these Huram-abi made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.^{(N) 17} In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.^{(O) 18} Solomon made all these things in great quantities, so that the weight of the bronze was not determined.^(P)

¹⁹ So Solomon made all the things that were in the house of God: the golden altar, the tables for the bread of the Presence,^{(Q) 20} the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn before the inner sanctuary, as prescribed;^{(R) 21} the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of purest gold; ²² the snuffers, basins, ladles, and firepans, of pure gold. As for the entrance to the temple: the inner doors to the most holy place and the doors of the main hall of the temple were of gold.

5 Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.^(S)

The Ark Brought into the Temple

² Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.^{(T) 3} And all the Israelites assembled before the king at the festival that is in the seventh month. ⁴ And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites carried the ark.^{(U) 5} So they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁶ King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be numbered or counted. ⁷ Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. ⁹ The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place^[b] in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day.^{(V) 10} There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant^[c] with the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.^(W)

¹¹ Now when the priests came out of the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to their divisions),^{(X) 12} all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kindred, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with one hundred twenty priests who were trumpeters.^{(Y) 13} It was the duty of the trumpeters and singers together to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,

the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,^{(Z) 14} so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.^(AA)

Dedication of the Temple

6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would reside in thick darkness.^{(AB) 2} I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell forever.”

³ Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. ⁴ And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying, ⁵ ‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, so that my name might be there, and I chose no one as ruler over my people Israel, ⁶ but I have chosen Jerusalem in order that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’^{(AC) 7} My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.^{(AD) 8} But the Lord said to my father David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name; ⁹ nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ ¹⁰ Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made, for I have succeeded my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹¹ There I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”^(AE)

An Analogy from Marriage

7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? ² Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.^{(A) 3} Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she belongs to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she belongs to another man, she is not an adulteress.^(B)

⁴ In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.^{(C) 5} For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.^{(D) 6} But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are enslaved in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written code.^(E)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then are we to say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{(F) 8} But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead.^{(G) 9} I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰ and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.^{(H) 11} For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.^(I)

¹³ Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.

Psalm 17

Prayer for Deliverance from Persecutors

A Prayer of David.