M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Solomon’s Palace Built

7 Solomon was building his own house for thirteen years, and he finished all his house. ² He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits, and its width was fifty cubits, and its height was thirty cubits,^[a] built on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. ³ It was covered with cedar over the top of the beams, which sat upon forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. ⁴ There were window frames in three rows and window opposite window in three tiers. ⁵ All the doors and posts were rectangular with the openings facing each other in three tiers.

⁶ He made a porch of pillars with a length of fifty cubits and a breadth of thirty cubits.^[b] There was a porch in front with pillars, and a canopy in front of them.

⁷ Then he made a porch for the throne, from which he would judge, and called it the Hall of Judgment. It was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other. ⁸ His own house where he lived, in the other court back of the hall, was similar in style. Solomon also made a house like this for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken as a wife.

⁹ All these were built with costly stones, cut to size and sawed with saws on the inside and outside, from the foundation up to the coping, throughout the outside toward the great court. ¹⁰ The foundation was of large, costly stones, stones of ten^[c] and eight^[d] cubits in size. ¹¹ Above were costly stones cut to size, along with cedars. ¹² The great court was enclosed with three rows of hewed stones and a row of cedar beams. So were the inner court of the house of the Lord and the porch of the house.

The Furnishings of the Temple^(A)

¹³ Now King Solomon sent and called Huram out of Tyre. ¹⁴ He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre who worked in bronze, and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill to make all sorts of items in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work.

¹⁵ He cast two pillars of bronze eighteen cubits high each and twelve cubits^[e] in circumference. ¹⁶ He made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of the one capital was five cubits,^[f] and the height of the other capital was five cubits. ¹⁷ He made lattices of checker work with wreaths of chainwork for the capitals on top of the pillars: seven for one capital and seven for the other. ¹⁸ Likewise he made pomegranates in two rows around the one latticework to cover the capital that was on the top of the pillar, and he did the same for the other capital. ¹⁹ The capitals that were on top of the pillars in the porch were four cubits^[g] high and in the shape of lilies. ²⁰ The capitals on top of the two pillars also had pomegranates above, by the convex surface which was next to the latticework. There were two hundred pomegranates in rows encircling each capital. ²¹ He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called it Jakin, and he set up the left pillar and called it Boaz. ²² The tops of the pillars were in the shape of lilies. This completed the work on the pillars.

²³ He made a cast metal sea, ten cubits from one side to the other. It was round and had a height of five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits^[h] encircled it. ²⁴ Under the brim all the way around there were gourds, ten in a cubit. When it was cast, the gourds were placed in two rows going all the way around it.

²⁵ It stood on top of twelve oxen with three facing north, three facing toward the west, three facing toward the south, and three facing toward the east. The sea was set on them, and their hindquarters were turned inward. ²⁶ It was a hand-breadth^[i] thick, and the brim was made similar to the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.^[j]

²⁷ He made ten stands out of bronze, each measuring four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.^{[k] 28} The work of the stands looked like this: They had panels, and the panels were set in the frames. ²⁹ And on the panels that were set in the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the frames both above and below the lions and oxen, there were wreaths of beveled work. ³⁰ Every stand had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and at the four corners were supports for a basin. The supports were cast with wreaths at the side of each. ³¹ Its opening was within a crown that projected upward one cubit. Its opening was round, like the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half deep.^[l] At its opening there were engravings, and its panels were four-sided, not round. ³² Underneath the panels were four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were joined to the stand, and the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. ³³ The wheels worked like chariot wheels in that their axles and rims and spokes and hubs were all cast metal.

³⁴ There were four supports for the four corners of each stand, and the supports were part of one piece with the stand itself. ³⁵ On the top of the stand, there was a round band half a cubit^[m] high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its panels were of one piece with it. ³⁶ On the surface of its stays and on its panels, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths all around. ³⁷ In this way he made the ten stands, with them all having the same shape, measure, and size.

³⁸ Then he made ten basins of bronze, with each basin able to hold forty baths,^[n] each being four cubits. Upon every one of the ten stands sat one basin. ³⁹ He put five stands on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house. He set the sea on the right side of the house toward the southeast. ⁴⁰ Huram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins.

So Huram finished all the work in making items for King Solomon for use in the house of the Lord: ⁴¹ the two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the two pillars, the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars; ⁴² and 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; ⁴³ the ten stands and ten basins on the stands; ⁴⁴ one sea and twelve oxen under the sea; ⁴⁵ the pots, the shovels, and the basins.

All these vessels that Huram made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord were of burnished bronze. ⁴⁶ In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Sukkoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ Solomon left all the vessels unweighed because there were so many. The weight of the bronze was also never measured.

⁴⁸ Solomon made all the vessels that were needed for the house of the Lord: the altar of gold, the table of gold on which was showbread, ⁴⁹ the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left before the inner sanctuary; the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold; ⁵⁰ the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, fire pans, of pure gold; the sockets for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the Most Holy Place, and for the doors of the nave of the temple, of gold.

⁵¹ All the work that King Solomon made for the house of the Lord was completed. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the cups—and he put them among the treasures of the house of the Lord.

Unity of the Body

4 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called. ² With all humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

⁷ But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ. ⁸ Therefore He says:

⁹ (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is also He who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.)

¹¹ He gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, and for the building up of the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴ so we may no longer be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness with deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ But, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ Himself, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body is joined together and connected by every joint and ligament, as every part effectively does its work and grows, building itself up in love.

The Old Life and New Life

¹⁷ Therefore this I say and testify in the Lord, that from now on you walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, excluded from the life of God through the ignorance that is within them, due to the hardness of their hearts. ¹⁹ Being calloused they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

²⁰ But you did not learn about Christ in this manner, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off the former way of life in the old nature, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴ and that you put on the new nature, which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.

Rules for the New Life

²⁵ Therefore, putting away lying, let every man speak truthfully with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. ²⁶ Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. ²⁷ Do not give place to the devil. ²⁸ Let him who steals steal no more. Instead, let him labor, working with his hands things which are good, that he may have something to share with him who is in need.

²⁹ Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for building up, that it may give grace to the listeners. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you are sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outbursts, and blasphemies, with all malice, be taken away from you. ³² And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.

The Valley of Dry Bones

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, ² and He caused me to pass among them all around. And there were very many in the open valley. And they were very dry. ³ He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

⁴ Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you so that you live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you and will grow back flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you so that you live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise and a shaking. And the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ When I looked, the sinews and the flesh grew upon them, and the skin covered them. But there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the wind; prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain so that they live.” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are cut off completely.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Pay attention, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves. ¹⁴ And I shall put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken and performed it, says the Lord.”

Israel and Judah Unite

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came again to me, saying: ¹⁶ Moreover, son of man, take one stick and write on it: “For Judah and for the sons of Israel his companions.” Then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions.” ¹⁷ Then join them to one another into one stick so that they become one in your hand.

¹⁸ When the sons of your people speak to you, saying, “Will you not show us what you mean by these things?” ¹⁹ say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions, and will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick; and they shall be one in My hand. ²⁰ The sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes. ²¹ Say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. ²² And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all. And they shall be two nations no more, nor shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore. ²³ Nor shall they defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and will cleanse them. So they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

²⁴ David My servant shall be king over them. And they all shall have one shepherd. They shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes and do them. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived. And they shall dwell in it, they and their sons and their son’s sons forever. And My servant David shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them and will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ²⁷ My tabernacle also shall be with them. Indeed, I will be their God and they shall be My people. ²⁸ The nations shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

Psalm 87

A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song.

Psalm 88

For the Music Director. A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the melody of “Suffering of Affliction.” A Contemplative Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.