Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

7 Shlomo built a palace for himself, taking thirteen years to finish it. ² For he built the House of the L’vanon Forest 175 feet long, eighty-seven-and-a-half feet wide and fifty-two-and-a-half feet high, on four rows of cedar posts, with cedar beams on the posts. ³ It had a roof made of cedar and supported by beams lying on forty-five posts, fifteen in a row. ⁴ There were three rows of window openings, placed so that the windows on facing walls were opposite each other at all three levels. ⁵ All the doors and doorways were rectangular and opposite each other at all three levels.

⁶ He made the columned hall eighty-seven-and-a-half feet long and fifty-two-and-a-half feet wide, with a columned, corniced porch in front of it.

⁷ He made the Hall of the Throne his place for dispensing justice, that is, the Hall of Judgment; it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling.

⁸ His own living quarters, in the other courtyard, set back from the Hall, were similarly designed. He also made a house like this Hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Shlomo had taken as his wife.

⁹ All these buildings were made of expensive stone blocks, cut to measure and finished by saws on the inner surfaces as well as the outer ones. These stones were used from the foundation to the eaves and outward from the buildings all the way to the Great Courtyard. ¹⁰ The foundation was of expensive stone blocks, very large ones — stones fourteen to eighteen feet long. ¹¹ Above these were costly stones, cut to measure, and cedar-wood. ¹² The surrounding Great Courtyard had three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams like the inner courtyard of the house of Adonai and the courtyard by the hall of the house.

⁹ “Now the Patriarchs grew jealous of Yosef and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But Adonai was with him;^{[a] 10} he rescued him from all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him chief administrator over Egypt and over all his household.^{[b] 11} Now there came a famine that caused much suffering throughout Egypt and Kena‘an^{[c] 12} But when Ya‘akov heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ The second time, Yosef revealed his identity to his brothers,^[d] and Yosef’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Yosef then sent for his father Ya‘akov and all his relatives, seventy-five people. ¹⁵ And Ya‘akov went down to Egypt; there he died, as did our other ancestors. ¹⁶ Their bodies were removed to Sh’khem and buried in the tomb Avraham had bought from the family of Hamor in Sh’khem for a certain sum of money.