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.
Darius Endorses Rebuilding
6 King Darius then issued an order and a search was made in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon. 2 A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana in the province of Media, and this was written on it:
“Memorandum:
3 “In the first year of Cyrus the king, King Cyrus issued a decree concerning the House of God at Jerusalem.
“Let the House be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be laid. Its height is to be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits 4 with three layers of large stones and one layer of timber. Let the expense be paid from the king’s house. 5 Also let the gold and silver vessels of the House of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought to the Temple in Jerusalem; you shall deposit them in the House of God.
6 “Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues, officials of Trans-Euphrates, all of you stay away from there. 7 Leave the work of this House of God alone! Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this House of God in its place.
8 “Moreover, I hereby issue a decree as to what you are to do for these elders of the Jews to rebuild this House of God. The complete costs are to be paid to these men from the royal treasury, from the tribute from Trans-Euphrates so that they are not hindered.
9 “Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams or lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven or wheat, salt, wine and oil, as requested by the kohanim in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without neglect, 10 so that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.
11 “Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and impaled on it, and because of this, his house be made a pile of refuse. 12 May God, who makes His name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts his hand to cause such change to destroy this House of God in Jerusalem. I Darius have issued a decree; let it be carried out with diligence.”
Completion and Dedication of the Temple
13 Then Tattenai the governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates diligently carried it out, just as King Darius had sent. 14 So the elders of the Jews continued building and prospering through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and according to the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. 15 The Temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
16 Then the sons of Israel—the kohanim, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the House of God with joy.
15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the Temple and started to drive out those selling and buying in the Temple. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those selling doves, 16 and He wouldn’t let anyone carry goods through the Temple. 17 And He began to teach them, saying, “Is it not written,
‘My house shall be called
a house of prayer for all the nations’?[a]
But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”[b]
18 The ruling kohanim and Torah scholars heard this and began looking for a way to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. 19 Whenever evening came, Yeshua and His disciples would leave the city.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.