The Daily Audio Bible

4 He made an altar of bronze thirty-five feet long, thirty-five feet wide and seventeen-and-a-half feet high.

² He made the cast metal “Sea” circular, seventeen-and-a-half feet from rim to rim, eight-and-three quarters feet high and fifty-two-and-a-half feet in circumference. ³ Below the rim a ring of ox-like figures encircled it, ten for every twenty-one inches all the way around the Sea. The oxen were in two rows; they were cast when the Sea was cast. ⁴ It rested on twelve oxen, three looking north, three looking west, three looking south and three looking east, all with their hindquarters toward the center. The Sea was set on top of them. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick, its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; and its capacity was 16,500 gallons. ⁶ He also made ten basins for washing and put five on the right and five on the left. Items needed for the burnt offerings would be cleansed in these, but the Sea was for the cohanim to wash in.

⁷ He made the ten menorahs of gold in accordance with their specifications and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. ⁸ He also made ten tables and put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. And he made a hundred basins of gold.

⁹ He made the courtyard for the cohanim and the great courtyard, also the doors to the courtyard, which he overlaid with bronze.

¹⁰ The Sea he placed on the right side [of the house], toward the southeast.

¹¹ Huram made the ash pots, shovels and sprinkling basins. With that, Huram completed the work he had been doing for King Shlomo in the house of God — ¹² the two columns, the two moldings, the two capitals on top of the columns, the two nettings covering the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns, ¹³ and the 400 pomegranates for the two nettings, two rows of pomegranates for each netting, to cover the two moldings of the capitals atop the columns. ¹⁴ He also made the trolleys, the basins on the trolleys, ¹⁵ the one Sea, the twelve oxen under it, ¹⁶ the ash pots, the shovels, the forks and all the other equipment for it. All these articles that Huram the master craftsman made for King Shlomo in the house of Adonai were of brilliant bronze. ¹⁷ The king cast them in the plain of the Yarden, in the clay ground between Sukkot and Tz’redah. ¹⁸ Shlomo made so many of these objects that the total weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹ Shlomo made all the objects that were inside the house of God: the gold altar; the table on which the showbread was displayed; ²⁰ the menorahs with their lamps to burn in front of the sanctuary as specified, of pure gold; ²¹ the flowers, lamps and tongs of gold, solid gold; ²² and the snuffers, bowls, cups and fire pans of pure gold. As for the entryway to the house, the inner doors for the Especially Holy Place and the doors of the house (that is, of the temple) were of gold.

5 Thus all the work that Shlomo did for the house of Adonai was finished. Then Shlomo brought in the gifts which David his father had consecrated — the silver, the gold and all the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

² Shlomo assembled all the leaders of Isra’el and all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the paternal clans of the people of Isra’el, to Yerushalayim, to bring the ark for the covenant of Adonai out of the City of David, also known as Tziyon. ³ All the people of Isra’el assembled before the king at the festival in the seventh month. ⁴ All the leaders of Isra’el came. The L’vi’im took the ark ⁵ and brought up the ark, the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils that were in the tent; these are what the cohanim and L’vi’im brought up. ⁶ King Shlomo and the whole community of Isra’el who had assembled in his presence were in front of the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen in numbers beyond counting or recording. ⁷ The cohanim brought the ark for the covenant of Adonai in to its place inside the sanctuary of the house, to the Especially Holy Place, under the wings of the k’ruvim. ⁸ For the k’ruvim spread out their wings over the place for the ark, covering the ark and its poles from above. ⁹ The poles were so long that their ends could be seen [extending] from the ark into the sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day. ¹⁰ There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moshe put there at Horev, when Adonai made the covenant with the people of Isra’el at the time of their leaving Egypt.

¹¹ When the cohanim came out of the Holy Place (for all the cohanim who were present had consecrated themselves; they didn’t keep to their divisions; ¹² also the L’vi’im who were the singers, all of them — Asaf, Heman, Y’dutun and their sons and relatives — dressed in fine linen, with cymbals, lutes and lyres, stood on the east side of the altar; and with them 120 cohanim sounding trumpets), ¹³ then, when the trumpeters and singers were playing in concord, to be heard harmoniously praising and thanking Adonai, and they lifted their voices together with the trumpets, cymbals and other musical instruments to praise Adonai: “for he is good, for his grace continues forever” — then, the house, the house of Adonai, was filled with a cloud; ¹⁴ so that because of the cloud, the cohanim could not stand up to perform their service; for the glory of Adonai filled the house of God.

6 Shlomo said, “Adonai said he would live in thick darkness. ² But I have built you a magnificent house, a place where you can live forever.”

³ Then the king turned around and blessed the whole community of Isra’el. The whole community of Isra’el stood ⁴ as he said, “Blessed be Adonai, the God of Isra’el, who spoke to my father David with his mouth and fulfilled his promise with his hand. He said, ⁵ ‘Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I chose no city from any of the tribes of Isra’el to build a house, so that my name might be there; nor did I choose anyone to be the leader of my people Isra’el. ⁶ But now I have chosen Yerushalayim, so that my name can be there; and I have chosen David to be over my people Isra’el.’ ⁷ It was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Adonai the God of Isra’el; ⁸ but Adonai said to David my father, ‘Although it was in your heart to build a house for my name, and you did well that it was in your heart, ⁹ nevertheless you will not build the house. Rather, you will father a son, and it will be he who will build the house for my name.’ ¹⁰ Now Adonai has fulfilled this spoken word of his; for I have succeeded my father and sit on the throne of Isra’el, as Adonai promised; and I have built the house for the name of Adonai the God of Isra’el. ¹¹ And there I have placed the ark containing the covenant of Adonai, which he made with the people of Isra’el.”

7 Surely you know, brothers — for I am speaking to those who understand Torah — that the Torah has authority over a person only so long as he lives? ² For example, a married woman is bound by Torah to her husband while he is alive; but if the husband dies, she is released from the part of the Torah that deals with husbands. ³ Therefore, while the husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress if she marries another man; but if the husband dies, she is free from that part of the Torah; so that if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Thus, my brothers, you have been made dead with regard to the Torah through the Messiah’s body, so that you may belong to someone else, namely, the one who has been raised from the dead, in order for us to bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were living according to our old nature, the passions connected with sins worked through the Torah in our various parts, with the result that we bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from this aspect of the Torah, because we have died to that which had us in its clutches, so that we are serving in the new way provided by the Spirit and not in the old way of outwardly following the letter of the law.

⁷ Therefore, what are we to say? That the Torah is sinful? Heaven forbid! Rather, the function of the Torah was that without it, I would not have known what sin is. For example, I would not have become conscious of what greed is if the Torah had not said, “Thou shalt not covet.”^{[a] 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, worked in me all kinds of evil desires — for apart from Torah, sin is dead. ⁹ I was once alive outside the framework of Torah. But when the commandment really encountered me, sin sprang to life, ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment that was intended to bring me life was found to be bringing me death! ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me; and through the commandment, sin killed me. ¹² So the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good.

¹³ Then did something good become for me the source of death? Heaven forbid! Rather, it was sin working death in me through something good, so that sin might be clearly exposed as sin, so that sin through the commandment might come to be experienced as sinful beyond measure.