The Daily Audio Bible

²⁸ Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it was of the same size as the others. ²⁹ Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others; and there were windows round about in it and in its vestibule; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. ³⁰ And there were vestibules round about, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits broad. ³¹ Its vestibule faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its jambs, and its stairway had eight steps.

³² Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gate; it was of the same size as the others. ³³ Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others; and there were windows round about in it and in its vestibule; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. ³⁴ Its vestibule faced the outer court, and it had palm trees on its jambs, one on either side; and its stairway had eight steps.

³⁵ Then he brought me to the north gate, and he measured it; it had the same size as the others. ³⁶ Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others;^[a] and it had windows round about; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. ³⁷ Its vestibule^[b] faced the outer court, and it had palm trees on its jambs, one on either side; and its stairway had eight steps.

³⁸ There was a chamber with its door in the vestibule of the gate,^[c] where the burnt offering was to be washed. ³⁹ And in the vestibule of the gate were two tables on either side, on which the burnt offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering were to be slaughtered. ⁴⁰ And on the outside of the vestibule^[d] at the entrance of the north gate were two tables; and on the other side of the vestibule of the gate were two tables. ⁴¹ Four tables were on the inside, and four tables on the outside of the side of the gate, eight tables, on which the sacrifices were to be slaughtered. ⁴² And there were also four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high, on which the instruments were to be laid with which the burnt offerings and the sacrifices were slaughtered. ⁴³ And hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened round about within. And on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid.

⁴⁴ Then he brought me from without into the inner court, and behold, there were two chambers^[e] in the inner court, one^[f] at the side of the north gate facing south, the other at the side of the south^[g] gate facing north. ⁴⁵ And he said to me, This chamber which faces south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, ⁴⁶ and the chamber which faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar; these are the sons of Zadok, who alone among the sons of Levi may come near to the Lord to minister to him. ⁴⁷ And he measured the court, a hundred cubits long, and a hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar was in front of the temple.

The Temple

⁴⁸ Then he brought me to the vestibule of the temple and measured the jambs of the vestibule, five cubits on either side; and the breadth of the gate was fourteen cubits; and the sidewalls of the gate were three cubits^[h] on either side. ⁴⁹ The length of the vestibule was twenty cubits, and the breadth twelve^[i] cubits; and ten steps led up^[j] to it; and there were pillars beside the jambs on either side.

41 Then he brought me to the nave, and measured the jambs; on each side six cubits was the breadth of the jambs.^{[k] 2} And the breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sidewalls of the entrance were five cubits on either side; and he measured the length of the nave forty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits. ³ Then he went into the inner room and measured the jambs of the entrance, two cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, six cubits; and the sidewalls^[l] of the entrance, seven cubits. ⁴ And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, beyond the nave. And he said to me, “This is the most holy place.”

⁵ Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits thick; and the breadth of the side chambers, four cubits, round about the temple. ⁶ And the side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets^[m] all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple. ⁷ And the side chambers became broader as they rose^[n] from story to story, corresponding to the enlargement of the offset^[o] from story to story round about the temple; on the side of the temple a stairway led upward, and thus one went up from the lowest story to the top story through the middle story. ⁸ I saw also that the temple had a raised platform round about; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits. ⁹ The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits; and the part of the platform which was left free was five cubits.^[p] Between the platform^[q] of the temple and the ¹⁰ chambers of the court was a breadth of twenty cubits round about the temple on every side. ¹¹ And the doors of the side chambers opened on the part of the platform that was left free, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south; and the breadth of the part that was left free was five cubits round about.

¹² The building that was facing the temple yard on the west side was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and its length ninety cubits.

¹³ Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; and the yard and the building with its walls, a hundred cubits long; ¹⁴ also the breadth of the east front of the temple and the yard, a hundred cubits.

¹⁵ Then he measured the length of the building facing the yard which was at the west and its walls^[r] on either side, a hundred cubits.

The nave of the temple and the inner room and the outer^[s] vestibule ¹⁶ were paneled^[t] and round about all three had windows with recessed^[u] frames. Over against the threshold the temple was paneled with wood round about, from the floor up to the windows (now the windows were covered), ¹⁷ to the space above the door, even to the inner room, and on the outside. And on all the walls round about in the inner room and the nave were carved likenesses^{[v] 18} of cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub. Every cherub had two faces: ¹⁹ the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple round about; ²⁰ from the floor to above the door cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall.^[w]

²¹ The doorposts of the nave were squared; and in front of the holy place was something resembling ²² an altar of wood, three cubits high, two cubits long, and two cubits broad;^[x] its corners, its base,^[y] and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table which is before the Lord.” ²³ The nave and the holy place had each a double door. ²⁴ The doors had two leaves apiece, two swinging leaves for each door. ²⁵ And on the doors of the nave were carved cherubim and palm trees, such as were carved on the walls; and there was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. ²⁶ And there were recessed windows and palm trees on either side, on the sidewalls of the vestibule.^[z]

Friendship with the World

4 What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? ² You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet^[a] and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴ Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you suppose it is in vain that the scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But he gives more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. ⁹ Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

Warning against Judging Another

¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor?

Boasting about Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain”; ¹⁴ whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.