Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

¹ ¶ How amiable are thy habitations, O LORD of the hosts!

² My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing to the living God.

³ Even the sparrow has found a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young upon thine altars, O LORD of the hosts, my King and my God.

⁴ Happy are those that dwell in thy house; they shall continually praise thee. Selah.

⁵ Happy is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are thy ways,

⁶ who passing through the valley of Baca, shall make it a well; the rain also shall fill the pools.

⁷ They go forth in a great multitude; and in order, they shall see God in Zion.

⁸ ¶ O LORD God of the hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

⁹ Behold, O God our shield and look upon the face of thine anointed,

¹⁰ for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand outside of them. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield unto us; the LORD will give grace and glory; he will not withhold good from those that walk uprightly.

¹² O LORD of the hosts, happy is the man that trusts in thee.

6 ¶ Then Darius, the king, gave a commandment, and a search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.

² And there was found in the coffer of the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written:

³ In the first year of Cyrus, the king, the same Cyrus, the king, gave a commandment concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, that the house be built as a place for sacrifices to be offered, and let the walls thereof be covered; the height thereof sixty cubits, and the breadth thereof sixty cubits;

⁴ the orders, three of stones of marble and one order of new timber and let the expenses be given out of the king’s house.

⁵ And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which was at Jerusalem and brought unto Babylon, be restored and go again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem, to his place, and let them be placed in the house of God.

⁶ Now therefore, Tatnai, captain of the other side of the river, Shetharboznai, and your companions, the Apharsachites, who are on the other side of the river, remove yourselves from there.

⁷ Leave the work of this house of God unto the captain of the Jews and to their elders that they may build this house of God in his place.

⁸ And by me is given the commandment regarding what ye shall do with the elders of these Jews, to build this house of God: that of the king’s goods, of the tribute from the other side of the river, the expenses be given unto these men, that they not cease.

⁹ And that which they have need of, both young bullocks and rams and lambs for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day that they not cease:

¹⁰ that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons.

¹¹ It is also given by my commandment that whoever shall alter this word, let a timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged upon it, and let his house be made a dunghill for this.

¹² And the God that has caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people that shall put to their hand to alter or to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made the decree; let it be done with speed.

¹³ ¶ Then Tatnai, captain of the other side of the river, Shetharboznai, and their companions, speedily did according to that which Darius, the king, had sent.

¹⁴ And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered according to the prophecy of Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the commandment of Cyrus and of Darius and of Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

¹⁵ And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius, the king.

¹⁶ And the sons of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the sons of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy,

¹⁵ And they come to Jerusalem, and Jesus, entering into the temple, began to cast out those that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those that sold doves

¹⁶ and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.

¹⁷ And he taught them, saying, Is it not written that my house shall be called house of prayer by all the nations? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

¹⁸ And the scribes and the princes of the priests heard it and sought how they might kill him, for they feared him because all the multitude was astonished at his doctrine.

¹⁹ But when evening was come, Jesus went out of the city.