The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the CSB. Switch to the CSB to read along with the audio.
Plans to Build the Temple(A)
5 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, and Hiram had always loved David. 2 And Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying,
3 “You know how David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars all around him, until the Lord put his enemies under his feet. 4 But now the Lord my God has given me peace on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor misfortune. 5 So know that I plan to build a house to honor the name of the Lord my God, just as the Lord spoke to my father David, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne after you, shall build a house to honor My name.’
6 “Now therefore command that cedar trees from Lebanon be cut down for me, and my servants shall be with your servants, and I will pay your servants whatever you command, for you know that there are none among my people who can cut timber like the Sidonians.”
7 When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given David a wise son over this great people.”
8 Hiram sent to Solomon, saying,
“I have considered the things which you contacted me about, and I will do all you asked concerning timber of cedar and fir. 9 My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will send them by sea in floats to the place that you shall name and will cause them to be discharged into your care there, and in return you will meet my wishes by giving food for my household.”
10 So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees as he desired. 11 Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors[a] of wheat for his household and twenty baths[b] of pure oil. This is what Solomon gave to Hiram each year. 12 The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He promised, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon as they made a treaty together.
13 King Solomon drafted men from all Israel, totaling thirty thousand men. 14 He sent them to Lebanon in turns, ten thousand a month, with each spending a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram administered the labor force. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains, 16 not counting the chief of Solomon’s officers who were over the work, three thousand three hundred, who ruled over the people who did the work. 17 At the king’s command, they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. 18 Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders, along with the stonemasons, cut them and prepared timber and stones to build the house.
Solomon Builds the Temple(B)
6 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv (which is the second month), he began to build the house of the Lord.
2 The house which King Solomon built for the Lord had a length of sixty cubits, a width of twenty cubits, and a height of thirty cubits.[c] 3 The porch in front of the temple was twenty cubits[d] in length, the same as the width of the house, and ten cubits[e] deep in front of the house. 4 He made beveled windows for the house. 5 He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary, and he made side chambers all around. 6 The lowest story was five cubits[f] broad, the middle one was six cubits[g] broad, and the third was seven cubits[h] broad. For around the outside of the house, he made offsets on the wall so that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.
7 The house was built of stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
8 The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house, and it had winding stairs into the middle chamber and out of the middle into the third. 9 So he built the house and finished it and covered it with beams and boards of cedar. 10 Then he built chambers against the whole house, five cubits high, and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
11 Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, 12 “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My judgments and keep all My commandments and walk in them, then I will carry out My word with you, which I spoke to David your father, 13 and I will dwell among the people of Israel and will not forsake My people Israel.”
14 So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15 He built the interior walls of the house with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with planks of fir. 16 He lined twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls, with boards of cedar, and he even lined them within, even the inner sanctuary and the Most Holy Place. 17 The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits[i] long. 18 The cedar of the house within had carvings of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar. There was no stone seen.
19 He prepared the inner sanctuary in the inner part of the house in order to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar of cedar. 21 So Solomon overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold, and he made a partition with gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary, and he overlaid it with gold. 22 He overlaid the whole house with gold as well as the whole altar that was by the inner sanctuary.
23 Within the inner sanctuary, he made two cherubim from olive wood, each ten cubits high. 24 One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing was also five cubits. From the furthest part of the one wing to the furthest part of the other was ten cubits. 25 The other cherub was ten cubits. Both the cherubim were the same shape and size. 26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub. 27 He set the cherubim within the inner sanctuary, and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, and their wings touched one another in the middle of the house. 28 He overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 He carved all the walls of the house with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers both inside and out. 30 He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, both inside and out.
31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were five-sided. 32 The two doors were also made of olive wood. He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubim and upon the palm trees. 33 So also he made for the entrance to the nave four-sided posts of olive wood. 34 The two doors were made from fir tree, with two leaves of each door folding. 35 He carved on them cherubim and palm trees and open flowers and covered them with gold fitted upon the carved work.
36 He built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone and a row of cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year, in the month Ziv, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, 38 and in the eleventh year, in the month Bul (which is the eighth month), the house was completely finished. All the details and plans were met. So he took seven years to build it.
Stephen’s Speech
7 Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land which I will show you.’[a]
4 “Then he departed from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Harran. When his father died, He removed him from there to this land in which you now live. 5 He gave him no inheritance in it, nor a foothold, and promised to give it to him as a possession and to his descendants after him while he had no child. 6 God spoke in this way, ‘Your descendants shall be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who will enslave them and mistreat them four hundred years.[b] 7 And I will judge the nation to whom they will be enslaved,’[c] said God. ‘After that they shall come out and worship Me in this place.’[d] 8 Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him, 10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 “Then a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan with great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. 13 During the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent and called for his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. 15 Then Jacob went down into Egypt. And he and our fathers died, 16 and were carried to Shechem and put in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a price of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
17 “When the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 18 until another king rose up who did not know Joseph.[e] 19 He dealt deceitfully with our people and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to put out their young children, that they might not live.
20 “At that time Moses was born, and was fair in the sight of God. And he was reared for three months in his father’s house. 21 When he was put out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and reared him as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in words and in deeds.
23 “When he was forty years old, it came to his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. 24 But seeing one being wronged, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 On the next day he appeared to them as they fought and tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’[f]
27 “But the one wronging his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Will you kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’[g] 29 Moses fled at this word and became a sojourner in the land of Midian,[h] where he became the father of two sons.
Psalm 127
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
1 Except the Lord build the house,
those who build labor in vain;
except the Lord guards the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
2 It is in vain for you to rise up early,
to stay up late,
and to eat the bread of hard toil,
for He gives sleep to His beloved.
3 Look, children are a gift of the Lord,
and the fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty warrior,
so are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man
who has his quiver full of them;
he shall not be ashamed
when he speaks with the enemies at the gate.
28 A perverse man sows strife,
and a whisperer separates the best of friends.
29 A violent man entices his neighbor,
and leads him into the way that is not good.
30 He shuts his eyes to devise perverse things;
moving his lips he brings evil to pass.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.