Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Confidence in Yahweh’s Righteousness

For the music director. Of David.^[a]

¹⁵ He lined the walls of the inside of the house^[a] with boards of cedar; from the floor of the temple^[b] up to the rafters of the ceiling he covered them with wood on the inside.^[c] He also covered the floor of the temple^[d] with cypress boards. ¹⁶ He built twenty cubits from the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor up to the ceiling, and he built for it an inner sanctuary on the inside, as the most holy place.^{[e] 17} The main hall of the temple^[f] was forty cubits in front of the inner sanctuary,^{[g] 18} with the cedar within the inner house having carvings of gourds and buds of flowers. It was entirely of cedar; there was not a stone visible. ¹⁹ Now in the inner sanctuary in the middle of the temple^[h] he prepared the inside to place the ark of the covenant of Yahweh there. ²⁰ In front, the inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold and covered the altar with cedar. ²¹ Solomon overlaid the temple^[i] on the inside with pure gold, and he drew across it with golden chains in front of the inner sanctuary, which he overlaid with gold.

²² All of the temple^[j] he overlaid with gold until all of the temple^[k] was finished; all of the altar which belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold. ²³ He made two cherubim of olive wood for the inner sanctuary, ten cubits high. ²⁴ Five cubits was the first wing of the cherub, and five cubits the second wing of the cherub, from the tip of his one wing up to the tip of his other wing. ²⁵ The second cherub was ten cubits according to the same^[l] measurement, and there was one shape for the two cherubim. ²⁶ The height of the first cherub was ten cubits and so was the second cherub.

²⁷ He placed the cherubim in the middle of the inner house, and they spread out the wings of the cherubim; the wing of the first cherub touched against the wall and the wing of the second cherub was touching against the second wall; their wings spread to the middle of the house and were touching wing to wing. ²⁸ He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ On all of the walls around the house, he carved engravings of cherubim and palm tree images and budding flowers both inside and out. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold both inside and out. ³¹ He made doors of olive wood for the doorway of the inner sanctuary, as well as for the doorpost of the fifth doorframe. ³² On the two doors of olive wood he made carvings of cherubim and palm tree images and budding flowers, and he overlaid them with gold by beating^[m] out the gold on the cherubim and the palm tree images. ³³ Thus he made doorframes of olive wood on four sides for the doorway of the main hall ³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood; one door with two folding panels and the second door with two folding panels. ³⁵ He carved cherubim and palm tree images and budding flowers and overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. ³⁶ Then he built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and a row of cedar beams. ³⁷ In the fourth year,^[n] the house of Yahweh was founded in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, that is, the eighth month, the house was finished according to all his specifications and according to all his plans. He had built it in seven years.

¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. ¹⁷ These things I command you: that you love one another.

The World’s Hatred for the Disciples

¹⁸ If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated^[a] you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. But now they do not have a valid excuse for their sin. ²³ The one who hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this happened^[b] so that the word that is written in their law would be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without a reason.’