Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Pilgrim Road to Adonai’s Courts
Psalm 84
1 For the music director, upon the Gittite lyre, a psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 How lovely are Your tabernacles,
Adonai-Tzva’ot!
3 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of Adonai.
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
4 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young
—near Your altars, Adonai-Tzva’ot—
my King and my God!
5 Blessed are they who dwell in Your House
—they are ever praising You. Selah
6 Blessed is one whose strength is in You,
in whose heart are the pilgrim roads.
7 Passing through the valley of Baca,
they make it a spring.
The early rain covers it with blessings.
8 They go from strength to strength—
every one of them appears before God in Zion.
9 Adonai-Tzva’ot, hear my prayer,
give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah
10 O God, look at our shield,
and look upon the face of Your anointed.
11 For a day in Your courts is better
than a thousand anywhere else.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the House of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
12 For Adonai Elohim is a sun[a] and a shield.
Adonai gives grace and glory.
No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
13 Adonai-Tzva’ot,
blessed is the one
who trusts in You.
Hezekiah Restores the Temple
29 Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did right in the eyes of Adonai, just as his father David had done. 3 In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the House of Adonai and repaired them. 4 He brought in the kohanim and the Levites and assembled them into the eastern square.
5 Then he said to them: “Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the House of Adonai, the God of your fathers, and remove the defilement out of the holy place. 6 Our fathers acted unfaithfully and did evil in the sight of Adonai Eloheinu and have forsaken Him. They turned their faces away from Adonai’s dwelling place and turned their backs on Him. 7 They also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or offering any burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore, the wrath of Adonai was upon Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them an object of horror, dread and scorn, as you are seeing with your own eyes. 9 Behold, for this our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, daughters and wives are in captivity.
10 “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Adonai, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger may turn away from us. 11 My sons, now do not be negligent, for Adonai has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and to be His ministers and to burn incense to Him.”
16 So the kohanim went into the inner part of the House of Adonai to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the House of Adonai every impure thing that they found in the temple of Adonai. Then the Levites received it and carried it out to Kidron Valley. 17 They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the porch of Adonai. For eight days they consecrated the House of Adonai and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.
18 Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, “We have purified the entire House of Adonai—the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, the table of the rows of bread with all the vessels. 19 We have also prepared and concecrated all the articles that King Ahaz discarded in his unfaithfulness, while he was king. Behold, they are now before the altar of Adonai.”
23 Therefore it was necessary for the replicas of these heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices—but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Messiah did not enter into Holies made with hands—counterparts of the true things—but into heaven itself, now to appear in God’s presence on our behalf. 25 And He did not offer Himself again and again—as the kohen gadol enters into the Holy of Holies year after year with blood that is not his own. 26 For then He would have needed to suffer again and again from the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has been revealed once and for all at the close of the ages—to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this judgment, [a] 28 so also Messiah, was offered once to bear the sins of many.[b] He will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those eagerly awaiting Him for salvation.[c]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.