Old/New Testament
The tabernacle
25 The Lord said to Moses: 2 ‘Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. Every person who wants to give can make a gift to me. You must receive their gifts. 3 These are the gifts that you must receive from the people as an offering:
gold, silver and bronze;
4 blue, purple and red material;
good linen and goat's hair;
5 red leather from sheep's skins and other good leather;
wood from acacia trees;
6 olive oil for the lamps;
spices for the special oil and for incense with a nice smell;
7 onyx and other jewels to fix on the priest's ephod and his breastpiece.[a]
8 You must tell the Israelites to make a special place to be my home. Then I will live among them. 9 I will show you how to make this tabernacle and everything that you will put inside it. But you must make everything in the way that I tell you.
The Covenant Box
10 The Israelites must use acacia wood to make a big box. It must be 1 metre long, 75 centimetres wide and 75 centimetres high. 11 Cover the wood with gold, both inside and outside. Build up the edges of the box with gold. 12 Make four gold rings and fix them to the four feet of the box. Fix two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. 13 Then use acacia wood to make two poles. Cover them with gold too. 14 Push the poles through the rings on the sides of the box. You will use the poles to carry the box. 15 The poles must remain along the side of the box, in the rings. Never remove them. 16 Then put into the box the two flat stones with the words of the covenant on them. I will give those to you.
17 Use pure gold to make a lid for the box. Make the lid 1 metre long and 75 centimetres wide. 18 Use gold to make images of two cherubs. Use a hammer to make them the right shape. They will stand at the two ends of the lid. 19 One cherub will stand at one end of the lid, and one cherub will stand at the other end. The two cherubs and the lid must be one piece of gold. 20 The cherubs must look towards each other and watch over the lid. Their wings must touch each other over the top of the lid. 21 Then put the lid on the top of the box. Put the flat stones with the words of the covenant into the box. I will give those to you.
22 I will meet with you there, between the two cherubs that are above the lid. They watch over the Covenant Box. In that place I will give you all my commands for the Israelites.
The table for special bread
23 Use acacia wood to make a table. It must be one 1 metre long, 50 centimetres wide and 75 centimetres high. 24 Cover the wood with gold. Build up the edges of the table with gold. 25 Also, fix an extra piece of wood around its edge. It must be 7 centimetres wide. Build up the edges of this piece with gold.
26 Make four gold rings for the table. Fix them to the four corners, one beside each leg of the table. 27 The rings must be near to the extra piece of wood. They will hold the poles that you will use to carry the table. 28 Use acacia wood to make the poles. Cover them with gold. Use the poles to carry the table. 29 Use pure gold to make plates, big spoons, jars and bowls. You will use these things to pour out drink offerings. 30 Put the Lord's special bread on this table. The bread must always be there for me.
The lampstand
31 Use one piece of pure gold to make a lampstand. Use a hammer to make it the right shape. Use the gold to make its base, its middle pole and the cups to hold the oil. The cups will be like open flowers and closed flowers. 32 Make six branches on the lampstand, three branches on each side of the middle pole. 33 Put three cups in the shape of almond flowers and their leaves on each branch. Each of the six branches of the lampstand will have three cups like that. 34 On the lampstand itself, put four cups in the shape of almond flowers and their leaves. 35 Put one closed flower under the first pair of branches. Put a second closed flower under the second pair of branches. Put the third closed flower under the third pair of branches. So there will be three closed flowers for the six branches on the lampstand. 36 You must make the flowers and the branches from the same piece of pure gold as the lampstand. Use a hammer to make the gold into the right shape.
37 Then make seven lamps and fix them to the lampstand. Fix them so that they light the space in front of the lampstand. 38 Also use pure gold to make small tools and dishes to take care of the lamps. 39 Use 34 kilograms of pure gold to make the lampstand and all the tools to take care of it.
40 Be careful to make all these things like the plan that I have shown you on the mountain.
The tabernacle
26 Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of very good linen. Also use blue, purple and red material. Tell a worker to use special skills to make pictures of cherubs on the curtains. 2 All the curtains must be the same size: 12 metres long and 2 metres wide. 3 Join five of the curtains together. Do the same thing with the other five curtains. 4 Fix rings of blue material along the edge of the last curtain in each set of five curtains. 5 Put 50 rings on the edge of the first set. Put 50 rings on the edge of the other set. Do this so that the rings on one curtain are opposite to the rings on the other curtain. 6 Then use 50 small gold hooks to join the curtains together. In this way, a single piece of curtain will make the whole tabernacle.
7 Use goats' hair to make 11 curtains. They will cover the tabernacle, like a tent. 8 All the curtains must be the same size: 13.5 metres long and 2 metres wide. 9 Join five of the curtains together to make one set. Fix the other six curtains together to make a second set. Turn the sixth curtain of this set over itself to cover the entrance of the tent. 10 Use material to make 50 rings along the edge of the end curtain in each set. 11 Then make 50 bronze hooks. Use them to join the two sets of curtains together so that it makes a single tent. 12 The curtains for the tent will be longer than the curtains for the tabernacle. The extra half of the curtain for the tent will hang at the back of the tabernacle. 13 The curtains of the tent will be half a metre longer on both sides. The extra material will hang over each side of the tabernacle to cover it completely.
14 Use red leather from sheep's skins to cover the tent. Then use another kind of good leather to cover the red leather.
15 Use acacia wood to make boards to hold up the tabernacle. 16 Each board must be 4 metres high and 65 centimetres wide. 17 Make two wooden pegs on each board, beside each other. Make all the boards of the tabernacle like this. 18 Make 20 boards for the south side of the tabernacle. 19 Then use silver to make 40 heavy bases to hold up the boards. Two bases will hold up each board. The pegs on the boards will fit into holes in the bases. 20 Also make 20 boards for the north side of the tabernacle. 21 Make 40 silver bases, two bases under each board. 22 Make six boards for the west side, at the back of the tabernacle. 23 Then make two boards for the corners at the back of the tabernacle. 24 You must fix the two boards together, from the bottom to the top. Use a ring to fix them together at the top. Make both the corners in the same way. 25 So there will be eight boards at the back of the tabernacle and 16 silver bases, two bases under each board.
26 You must also use acacia wood to make bars to fix across the boards. Make five bars for the south side of the tabernacle, 27 five bars for the north side, and five bars for the west side at the back of the tabernacle. 28 The bar that goes across the centre of the boards must reach from one end of the tabernacle to the other end. 29 Use gold to cover the boards and to make rings for the boards. These rings will hold the bars in place across the boards. Also cover the wooden bars with gold.
30 Make the tabernacle the same as the plan that I showed to you on the mountain.
The curtain inside the tabernacle
31 Use blue, purple and red material and good linen to make a special curtain. A worker must use special skills to make pictures of cherubs on it. 32 Use gold rings to hang the curtain from four poles of acacia wood. Cover these poles with gold. Then fix them on four silver bases. 33 Hang the top of the curtain from the rings. Put the Covenant Box behind the curtain, in the Most Holy Place. The curtain will hang between the Most Holy Place and the Holy Place so that they are separate. 34 Put the special lid on the Covenant Box, in the Most Holy Place.[b] 35 Put the special table in the Holy Place, outside the curtain. It will be on the north side of the tabernacle. Put the lampstand opposite the table, on the south side.
36 Make a curtain for the entrance of the tent. Use blue, purple and red material and good linen to make it. A worker must use special skills to make it so that it looks beautiful. 37 Use acacia wood to make five poles. Cover them with gold. Fix gold rings to the poles. Use bronze to make five bases to hold up the poles. Then hang the curtain from the rings on the poles.
Jesus talks again about how he will die
17 Jesus and his disciples were going towards Jerusalem. As they walked along, Jesus took his 12 disciples away from the other people where he could speak to them alone. 18 ‘Listen!’ he said to them. ‘We are going to Jerusalem. There, someone will deliver the Son of Man to the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law. These Jewish leaders will decide that I must die. 19 Then they will take me and they will deliver me to people who are not Jews. They will laugh at me. They will hit me with whips. Then they will kill me on a cross.[a] But after three days, I will become alive again.’
The mother of James and John asks Jesus for something
20 Then the mother of James and John took them to see Jesus. (Their father was Zebedee.) She went down on her knees in front of Jesus. She asked him to do something good for her.
21 ‘What do you want me to do?’ Jesus asked her.
She said, ‘One day, you will be king. Then I want my two sons to rule with you. One may sit at your right side and the other one at your left side. Please will you do this?’
22 Jesus said to them, ‘You do not understand what you are asking for. I will have much pain and trouble. Are you ready to have the same pain?’
James and John replied, ‘Yes, we can do that.’
23 Jesus said to them, ‘Yes, that is true. You will have pain and trouble like mine. But I cannot promise that you will sit at my right side or at my left side. My Father God has chosen the people who will sit there. He has prepared the places for those people.’
24 When the other ten disciples heard about this, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 Then Jesus told all the 12 disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘You know the things that rulers of other countries do. They show that they have great power over their people. The leaders of those countries use great authority over their people. 26 But you should not be like that. The person who wants to be great among you must become your servant. 27 The person who wants to be the most important person among you must work hard for everyone else. 28 Even the Son of Man himself came to earth to be a servant to other people. He did not come here to have servants who must work for him. No, he came to die so that many people can be free.’
Jesus causes two men to see near Jericho
29 Later, Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho. A large crowd of people followed him. 30 Two men were sitting at the side of the road. They were blind. But they heard that Jesus was walking past them. So they shouted, ‘Master! Son of David![b] Please be kind to us and help us.’
31 The people who were in the crowd were angry with them. They told them that they should be quiet. But the men shouted even louder, ‘Master! Son of David! Please help us!’
32 Jesus stopped there. He asked the two men, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’
33 ‘Sir,’ the men replied, ‘we want to see again.’
34 Jesus felt sorry for the two men. He touched their eyes and immediately the men could see again. So they followed Jesus along the road.
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