Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the director: A song of David.

¹⁵ the stone walls inside the Temple were covered with cedar boards from floor to ceiling. Then the stone floor was covered with pine boards. ¹⁶ They built an inner room 20 cubits long in the back part of the Temple. This room was called the Most Holy Place. They covered the walls in this room with cedar boards, from floor to ceiling. ¹⁷ In front of the Most Holy Place was the main part of the Temple. This room was 40 cubits^[a] long. ¹⁸ They covered the walls in this room with cedar boards—none of the stones in the walls could be seen. They carved pictures of flowers and gourds into the cedar.

¹⁹ Solomon finished the inner room in the back part of the Temple. This room was for the Box of the Lord’s Agreement. ²⁰ This room was 20 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 20 cubits high. Solomon covered this room with pure gold. He also covered the cedar altar with gold. ²¹ He covered the inside of the Temple with pure gold and wrapped gold chains around it. ²² The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and the altar in front of the Most Holy Place was covered with gold.

²³ The workers made two statues of Cherub angels with wings. They made the statues from olive wood and put them in the Most Holy Place. Each angel was 10 cubits tall. ^24-26 Both Cherub angels were the same size and built the same way. Each one had two wings. Each wing was 5 cubits long. From the end of one wing to the end of the other wing was 10 cubits. And each Cherub angel was 10 cubits tall. ²⁷ They put the Cherub angels beside one another in the Most Holy Place. Their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. The other two wings touched each side wall. ²⁸ The two Cherub angels were covered with gold.

²⁹ The walls around the main room and the inner room were carved with pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers. ³⁰ The floor of both rooms was covered with gold.

³¹ The workers made two doors from olive wood. They put these doors at the entrance of the Most Holy Place. The frame around the doors was made with five sides.^{[b] 32} They made the two doors from olive wood. The workers carved pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers on the doors. Then they covered the doors with gold.

³³ They also made doors for the entrance to the main room. They used olive wood to make a square doorframe. ³⁴ There were two doors made from pine. Each door had two parts that folded together. ³⁵ They carved pictures of Cherub angels, palm trees, and flowers on the doors. Then they covered them with gold.

³⁶ Then they built a wall around the inner yard. Each wall was made from three rows of cut stones and one row of cedar timbers.

³⁷ They started working on the Lord’s Temple in the month of Ziv, the second month of the year. This was during Solomon’s fourth year as king of Israel. ³⁸ The Temple was finished in the month of Bul, the eighth month of the year, in Solomon’s eleventh year as king. It took seven years to build the Temple. It was built exactly as planned.

¹⁶ “You did not choose me. I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Jesus Warns His Followers

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, remember that they hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as it loves its own people. But I have chosen you to be different from those in the world. So you don’t belong to the world, and that is why the world hates you.

²⁰ “Remember the lesson I told you: Servants are not greater than their master. If people treated me badly, they will treat you badly too. And if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. ²¹ They will do to you whatever they did to me, because you belong to me. They don’t know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to the people of the world, they would not be guilty of sin. But now I have spoken to them. So they have no excuse for their sin.

²³ “Whoever hates me also hates my Father. ²⁴ I did things among the people of the world that no one else has ever done. If I had not done those things, they would not be guilty of sin. But they have seen what I did, and still they hate me and my Father. ²⁵ But this happened to make clear the full meaning of what is written in their law: ‘They hated me for no reason.’^[a]