M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Solomon’s Palace

7 King Solomon also built a palace for himself; it took him thirteen years to finish it. ² Built of cedars from the Forest of Lebanon, it was one hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. It had four rows of cedar columns which supported the cedar beams. ³ There were forty-five beams on the roof, with fifteen beams in each row, and the ceiling was covered with cedar above the beams. ⁴ Windows were placed in three rows facing each other. ⁵ All the doors were square, and the three doors at each end faced each other.

⁶ Solomon also built the porch that had pillars. This porch was seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. Along the front of the porch was a roof supported by pillars.

⁷ Solomon also built a throne room where he judged people, called the Hall of Justice. This room was covered with cedar from the floor to the ceiling. ⁸ The palace where Solomon lived was built like the Hall of Justice, and it was behind this hall. Solomon also built the same kind of palace for his wife, who was the daughter of the king of Egypt.

⁹ All these buildings were made with blocks of fine stone. First they were carefully cut. Then they were trimmed with a saw in the front and back. These fine stones went from the foundations of the buildings to the top of the walls. Even the courtyard was made with blocks of stone. ¹⁰ The foundations were made with large blocks of fine stone, some as long as fifteen feet. Others were twelve feet long. ¹¹ On top of these foundation stones were other blocks of fine stone and cedar beams. ¹² The palace courtyard, the courtyard inside the Temple, and the porch of the Temple were surrounded by walls. All of these walls had three rows of stone blocks and one row of cedar beams.

The Temple Is Completed Inside

¹³ King Solomon sent to Tyre and had Huram brought to him. ¹⁴ Huram’s mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali. His father was from Tyre and had been skilled in making things from bronze. Huram was also very skilled and experienced in bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all the bronze work.

¹⁵ He made two bronze pillars, each one twenty-seven feet tall and eighteen feet around. ¹⁶ He also made two bronze capitals that were seven and one-half feet tall, and he put them on top of the pillars. ¹⁷ Then he made a net of seven chains for each capital, which covered the capitals on top of the two pillars. ¹⁸ He made two rows of bronze pomegranates to go on the nets. These covered the capitals at the top of the pillars. ¹⁹ The capitals on top of the pillars in the porch were shaped like lilies, and they were six feet tall. ²⁰ The capitals were on top of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped section and next to the nets. At that place there were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around the capitals. ²¹ Huram put these two bronze pillars at the porch of the Temple. He named the south pillar He Establishes and the north pillar In Him Is Strength. ²² The capitals on top of the pillars were shaped like lilies. So the work on the pillars was finished.

²³ Then Huram made from bronze a large round bowl, which was called the Sea. It was forty-five feet around, fifteen feet across, and seven and one-half feet deep. ²⁴ Around the outer edge of the bowl was a rim. Under this rim were two rows of bronze plants which surrounded the bowl. There were ten plants every eighteen inches, and these plants were made in one piece with the bowl. ²⁵ The bowl rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outward from the center of the bowl. Three bulls faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east. ²⁶ The sides of the bowl were four inches thick, and it held about eleven thousand gallons. The rim of the bowl was like the rim of a cup or like a lily blossom.

²⁷ Then Huram made ten bronze stands, each one six feet long, six feet wide, and four and one-half feet high. ²⁸ The stands were made from square sides, which were put on frames. ²⁹ On the sides were bronze lions, bulls, and creatures with wings. On the frames above and below the lions and bulls were designs of flowers hammered into the bronze. ³⁰ Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the corners there were bronze supports for a large bowl, and the supports had designs of flowers. ³¹ There was a frame on top of the bowls, eighteen inches high above the bowls. The opening of the bowl was round, twenty-seven inches deep. Designs were carved into the bronze on the frame, which was square, not round. ³² The four wheels, placed under the frame, were twenty-seven inches high. The axles between the wheels were made as one piece with the stand. ³³ The wheels were like a chariot’s wheels. Everything on the wheels—the axles, rims, spokes, and hubs—were made of bronze.

³⁴ The four supports were on the four corners of each stand. They were made as one piece with the stand. ³⁵ A strip of bronze around the top of each stand was nine inches deep. It was also made as one piece with the stand. ³⁶ The sides of the stand and the frames were covered with carvings of creatures with wings, as well as lions, palm trees, and flowers. ³⁷ This is the way Huram made the ten stands. The bronze for each stand was melted and poured into a mold, so all the stands were the same size and shape.

³⁸ Huram also made ten bronze bowls, one bowl for each of the ten stands. Each bowl was six feet across and could hold about two hundred thirty gallons. ³⁹ Huram put five stands on the south side of the Temple and five on the north side. He put the large bowl in the southeast corner of the Temple. ⁴⁰ Huram also made bowls, shovels, and small bowls.

So Huram finished all his work for King Solomon on the Temple of the Lord:

Huram made everything King Solomon wanted from polished bronze. ⁴⁶ The king had these things poured into clay molds that were made in the plain of the Jordan River between Succoth and Zarethan. ⁴⁷ Solomon never weighed the bronze used to make these things, because there was too much to weigh. So the total weight of all the bronze was never known.

⁴⁸ Solomon also made all the items for the Temple of the Lord:

⁵¹ Finally the work King Solomon did for the Temple of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in everything his father David had set apart for the Temple—silver, gold, and other articles. He put everything in the treasuries of the Temple of the Lord.

The Unity of the Body

4 I am in prison because I belong to the Lord. Therefore I urge you who have been chosen by God to live up to the life to which God called you. ² Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. ³ You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, and God called you to have one hope. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. ⁶ There is one God and Father of everything. He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything.

⁷ Christ gave each one of us the special gift of grace, showing how generous he is. ⁸ That is why it says in the Scriptures,

⁹ When it says, “He went up,” what does it mean? It means that he first came down to the earth. ¹⁰ So Jesus came down, and he is the same One who went up above all the heaven. Christ did that to fill everything with his presence. ¹¹ And Christ gave gifts to people—he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God’s people. ¹² Christ gave those gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger. ¹³ This work must continue until we are all joined together in the same faith and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like a mature person, growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be babies. We will not be tossed about like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to fool us. They make plans and try any kind of trick to fool people into following the wrong path. ¹⁵ No! Speaking the truth with love, we will grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head. ¹⁶ The whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong with love.

The Way You Should Live

¹⁷ In the Lord’s name, I tell you this. Do not continue living like those who do not believe. Their thoughts are worth nothing. ¹⁸ They do not understand, and they know nothing, because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives. ¹⁹ They have lost all feeling of shame, and they use their lives for doing evil. They continually want to do all kinds of evil. ²⁰ But what you learned in Christ was not like this. ²¹ I know that you heard about him, and you are in him, so you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught to leave your old self—to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self becomes worse, because people are fooled by the evil things they want to do. ²³ But you were taught to be made new in your hearts, ²⁴ to become a new person. That new person is made to be like God—made to be truly good and holy.

²⁵ So you must stop telling lies. Tell each other the truth, because we all belong to each other in the same body.^{[a] 26} When you are angry, do not sin, and be sure to stop being angry before the end of the day. ²⁷ Do not give the devil a way to defeat you. ²⁸ Those who are stealing must stop stealing and start working. They should earn an honest living for themselves. Then they will have something to share with those who are poor.

²⁹ When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you. ³⁰ And do not make the Holy Spirit sad. The Spirit is God’s proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will make you free when the final day comes. ³¹ Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil. ³² Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.

The Vision of Dry Bones

37 I felt the power of the Lord on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and put me down in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. ² He led me around among the bones, and I saw that there were many bones in the valley and that they were very dry. ³ Then he asked me, “Human, can these bones live?”

I answered, “Lord God, only you know.”

⁴ He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ This is what the Lord God says to the bones: I will cause breath to enter you so you will come to life. ⁶ I will put muscles on you and flesh on you and cover you with skin. Then I will put breath in you so you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. While I prophesied, there was a noise and a rattling. The bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked and saw muscles come on the bones, and flesh grew, and skin covered the bones. But there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind.^[a] Prophesy, human, and say to the wind, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Wind, come from the four winds, and breathe on these people who were killed so they can come back to life.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as the Lord commanded me. And the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, a very large army.

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Human, these bones are like all the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has gone. We are destroyed.’ ¹² So, prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves. Then I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ My people, you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and cause you to come up from them. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit inside you, and you will come to life. Then I will put you in your own land. And you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, says the Lord.’”

Judah and Israel Back Together

¹⁵ The Lord spoke his word to me, saying, ¹⁶ “Human, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah and all the Israelites with him.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘The stick of Ephraim, for Joseph and all the Israelites with him.’ ¹⁷ Then join them together into one stick so they will be one in your hand.

¹⁸ “When your people say to you, ‘Explain to us what you mean by this,’ ¹⁹ say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I will take the stick for Joseph and the tribes of Israel with him, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and I will put it with the stick of Judah. I will make them into one stick, and they will be one in my hand.’ ²⁰ Hold the sticks on which you wrote these names in your hand so the people can see them. ²¹ Say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land. ²² I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule all of them. They will never again be two nations; they will not be divided into two kingdoms anymore. ²³ They will not continue to make themselves unclean by their idols, their statues of gods which I hate, or by their sins. I will save them from all the ways they sin and turn against me, and I will make them clean. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴ “‘My servant David will be their king, and they will all have one shepherd. They will live by my rules and obey my laws. ²⁵ They will live on the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will all live on the land forever: they, their children, and their grandchildren. David my servant will be their king forever. ²⁶ I will make an agreement of peace with them, an agreement that continues forever. I will put them in their land and make them grow in number. Then I will put my Temple among them forever. ²⁷ The place where I live will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸ When my Temple is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, make Israel holy.’”

God Loves Jerusalem

A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

A Sad Complaint

A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the director of music. By the mahalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.