Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 11

For the music leader. Of David.

¹⁵ He built the walls within the temple with cedar planks, paneled from the floor to the ceiling. He overlaid the floor of the temple with pine planks. ¹⁶ At the back of the temple he built thirty feet of cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling. Solomon built the inner sanctuary, the most holy place. ¹⁷ In front of this, the main hall was sixty feet. ¹⁸ The cedar inside the temple was carved with gourds and blossoming flowers. The whole thing was cedar. No stone was seen. ¹⁹ He set up the inner sanctuary inside the temple so that he could put the chest containing the Lord’s covenant there. ²⁰ The inner sanctuary was thirty feet in length, width, and height. Solomon overlaid it with pure gold and covered the altar with cedar.^{[a] 21} Solomon covered the temple’s interior with pure gold. He placed gold chains in front of the inner sanctuary and covered it with gold. ²² He overlaid the whole temple inside with gold until the temple was completely covered. He covered the whole altar that was in the inner sanctuary with gold. ²³ He made two winged creatures of olive wood for the inner sanctuary, each fifteen feet high. ²⁴ The wings of the first winged creature were each seven and a half feet long. It was fifteen feet from the end of one wing to the end of the other. ²⁵ The second winged creature also measured fifteen feet. Both winged creatures had identical measurements and form. ²⁶ The height of both winged creatures was fifteen feet. ²⁷ Solomon placed the winged creatures inside the temple. Their wings spread out so that the wing of the one touched one wall and the wing of the other touched the other wall. In the middle of the temple, the wings of the two winged creatures touched each other. ²⁸ He covered the winged creatures with gold.

²⁹ Solomon carved all the walls of the temple—inner and outer rooms—with engravings of winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers. ³⁰ He also covered the floor of the temple with gold, in both the inner and the outer rooms. ³¹ He made the doors of the inner sanctuary from olive wood and carved the doorframes with five recesses.^{[b] 32} He overlaid the two olive-wood doors with gold-plated carvings of winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers. ³³ He made the door of the main hall with doorframes of olive wood with four recesses.^{[c] 34} The two doors of pinewood each pivoted on a socket. ³⁵ Solomon carved winged creatures, palm trees, and blossoming flowers, and covered them with gold. ³⁶ He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone followed by one row of trimmed cedar.

³⁷ Solomon laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple in the fourth year in the month of Ziv.^{[d] 38} He finished the temple in all its details and measurements in the eleventh year during the eighth month, the month of Bul.^[e] He built it in seven years.

¹⁶ You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last. As a result, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. ¹⁷ I give you these commandments so that you can love each other.

If the world hates you

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, know that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, I have chosen you out of the world, and you don’t belong to the world. This is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you, ‘Servants aren’t greater than their master.’ If the world harassed me, it will harass you too. If it kept my word, it will also keep yours. ²¹ The world will do all these things to you on account of my name, because it doesn’t know the one who sent me.

²² “If I hadn’t come and spoken to the people of this world, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me also hates the Father. ²⁴ If I hadn’t done works among them that no one else had done, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ This fulfills the word written in their Law, They hated me without a reason.^[a]