The Gospel of Mark (Part Seven)

Life Light: Gospel of John

The Believer

The Greatest Story: Through the Bible in a Year

Launching a Business God's Way

Stop Living in Your Head: Capturing Those Dreams and Making Them a Reality

Prayer: Chatting With God Like a Best Friend by Wycliffe Bible Translators

How to Become a Real Disciple

Contending for the Faith in a Compromised World

Film + Faith - Superheroes and the Bible

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">1</div><div class="s1">Solomon Asks for Wisdom</div><div class="p"> 1Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.</div><div class="p"> 2Then Solomon spoke to all Israel&#8212;to the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, to the judges and to all the leaders in Israel, the heads of families&#8212; 3and Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon, for God&#8217;s tent of meeting was there, which Moses the Lord&#8217;s servant had made in the wilderness. 4Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5But the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon in front of the tabernacle of the Lord; so Solomon and the assembly inquired of him there. 6Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the Lord in the tent of meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.</div><div class="p"> 7That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, &#8220;Ask for whatever you want me to give you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8Solomon answered God, &#8220;You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. 9Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11God said to Solomon, &#8220;Since this is your heart&#8217;s desire and you have not asked for wealth, possessions or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, 12therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13Then Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting. And he reigned over Israel.</div><div class="p"> 14Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses,#1:14 Or charioteers which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 15The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. 16Solomon&#8217;s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue#1:16 Probably Cilicia&#8212;the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price. 17They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels#1:17 That is, about 15 pounds or about 6.9 kilograms of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty.#1:17 That is, about 3 3/4 pounds or about 1.7 kilograms They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">2</div><div class="s1">Preparations for Building the Temple</div><div class="p"> # In Hebrew texts 2:1 is numbered 1:18, and 2:2-18 is numbered 2:1-17. 1Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the Name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself. 2He conscripted 70,000 men as carriers and 80,000 as stonecutters in the hills and 3,600 as foremen over them.</div><div class="p"> 3Solomon sent this message to Hiram#2:3 Hebrew Huram, a variant of Hiram also in verses 11 and 12 king of Tyre:</div><div class="pm">&#8220;Send me cedar logs as you did for my father David when you sent him cedar to build a palace to live in. 4Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed festivals of the Lord our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel.</div><div class="pm"> 5&#8220;The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods. 6But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?</div><div class="pm"> 7&#8220;Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled workers, whom my father David provided.</div><div class="pm"> 8&#8220;Send me also cedar, juniper and algum#2:8 Probably a variant of almug logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber there. My servants will work with yours 9to provide me with plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and magnificent. 10I will give your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors#2:10 That is, probably about 3,600 tons or about 3,200 metric tons of wheat of ground wheat, twenty thousand cors#2:10 That is, probably about 3,000 tons or about 2,700 metric tons of barley of barley, twenty thousand baths#2:10 That is, about 120,000 gallons or about 440,000 liters of wine and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11Hiram king of Tyre replied by letter to Solomon:</div><div class="pm">&#8220;Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12And Hiram added:</div><div class="pm">&#8220;Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son, endowed with intelligence and discernment, who will build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself.</div><div class="pm"> 13&#8220;I am sending you Huram-Abi, a man of great skill, 14whose mother was from Dan and whose father was from Tyre. He is trained to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, and with purple and blue and crimson yarn and fine linen. He is experienced in all kinds of engraving and can execute any design given to him. He will work with your skilled workers and with those of my lord, David your father.</div><div class="pm"> 15&#8220;Now let my lord send his servants the wheat and barley and the olive oil and wine he promised, 16and we will cut all the logs from Lebanon that you need and will float them as rafts by sea down to Joppa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17Solomon took a census of all the foreigners residing in Israel, after the census his father David had taken; and they were found to be 153,600. 18He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 foremen over them to keep the people working.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">3</div><div class="s1">Solomon Builds the Temple</div><div class="p"> 1Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah#3:1 Hebrew Ornan, a variant of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. 2He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.</div><div class="p"> 3The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide#3:3 That is, about 90 feet long and 30 feet wide or about 27 meters long and 9 meters wide (using the cubit of the old standard). 4The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits#3:4 That is, about 30 feet or about 9 meters; also in verses 8, 11 and 13 long across the width of the building and twenty#3:4 Some Septuagint and Syriac manuscripts; Hebrew and a hundred and twenty cubits high.</div><div class="p">He overlaid the inside with pure gold. 5He paneled the main hall with juniper and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs. 6He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim. 7He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.</div><div class="p"> 8He built the Most Holy Place, its length corresponding to the width of the temple&#8212;twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents#3:8 That is, about 23 tons or about 21 metric tons of fine gold. 9The gold nails weighed fifty shekels.#3:9 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.</div><div class="p"> 10For the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold. 11The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits#3:11 That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters; also in verse 15 long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub. 12Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub. 13The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall.#3:13 Or facing inward</div><div class="p"> 14He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.</div><div class="p"> 15For the front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits#3:15 That is, about 53 feet or about 16 meters long, each with a capital five cubits high. 16He made interwoven chains#3:16 Or possibly made chains in the inner sanctuary; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain. and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. 17He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin#3:17 Jakin probably means he establishes. and the one to the north Boaz.#3:17 Boaz probably means in him is strength.</div>
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 <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="2CH.4">
 <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1">The Temple&#8217;s Furnishings</div><div class="p"> 1He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.#4:1 That is, about 30 feet long and wide and 15 feet high or about 9 meters long and wide and 4.5 meters high 2He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits#4:2 That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters high. It took a line of thirty cubits#4:2 That is, about 45 feet or about 14 meters to measure around it. 3Below the rim, figures of bulls encircled it&#8212;ten to a cubit.#4:3 That is, about 18 inches or about 45 centimeters The bulls were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.</div><div class="p"> 4The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center. 5It was a handbreadth#4:5 That is, about 3 inches or about 7.5 centimeters in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths.#4:5 That is, about 18,000 gallons or about 66,000 liters</div><div class="p"> 6He then made ten basins for washing and placed five on the south side and five on the north. In them the things to be used for the burnt offerings were rinsed, but the Sea was to be used by the priests for washing.</div><div class="p"> 7He made ten gold lampstands according to the specifications for them and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.</div><div class="p"> 8He made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. He also made a hundred gold sprinkling bowls.</div><div class="p"> 9He made the courtyard of the priests, and the large court and the doors for the court, and overlaid the doors with bronze. 10He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner.</div><div class="p"> 11And Huram also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls.</div><div class="p">So Huram finished the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of God:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="li1"> 12the two pillars;</div><div class="li1">the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;</div><div class="li1">the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;</div><div class="li1"> 13the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network, decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);</div><div class="li1"> 14the stands with their basins;</div><div class="li1"> 15the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;</div><div class="li1"> 16the pots, shovels, meat forks and all related articles.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p">All the objects that Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for the temple of the Lord were of polished bronze. 17The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Sukkoth and Zarethan.#4:17 Hebrew Zeredatha, a variant of Zarethan 18All these things that Solomon made amounted to so much that the weight of the bronze could not be calculated.</div><div class="p"> 19Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in God&#8217;s temple:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="li1">the golden altar;</div><div class="li1">the tables on which was the bread of the Presence;</div><div class="li1"> 20the lampstands of pure gold with their lamps, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary as prescribed;</div><div class="li1"> 21the gold floral work and lamps and tongs (they were solid gold);</div><div class="li1"> 22the pure gold wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold doors of the temple: the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and the doors of the main hall.</div><div class="b"></div>
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 <div class="book bk2CH">
 <div class="chapter ch5" data-usfm="2CH.5">
 <div class="label">5</div><div class="p"> 1When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated&#8212;the silver and gold and all the furnishings&#8212;and he placed them in the treasuries of God&#8217;s temple.</div><div class="s1">The Ark Brought to the Temple</div><div class="p"> 2Then Solomon summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord&#8217;s covenant from Zion, the City of David. 3And all the Israelites came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month.</div><div class="p"> 4When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark, 5and they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The Levitical priests carried them up; 6and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.</div><div class="p"> 7The priests then brought the ark of the Lord&#8217;s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. 8The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its carrying poles. 9These poles were so long that their ends, extending from the ark, could be seen from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. 10There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.</div><div class="p"> 11The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions. 12All the Levites who were musicians&#8212;Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives&#8212;stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. 13The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;He is good;</div><div class="q2">his love endures forever.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, 14and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.</div>
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