The Daily Audio Bible

²⁸ Then he brought me to the inner court through the south gate. When he measured the south gate, it had the same measurements. ²⁹ Its chambers, pillars and porch had the same measurements. There were windows in it and in the surrounding porch. It was 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ³⁰ There were porches all around, 25 cubits long and five cubits wide. ³¹ Its porch was toward the outer court. Palm-trees were on its pillars. Its stairway had eight steps.

³² Then he brought me into the inner court toward the east. He measured it with the same measurements. ³³ Its chambers, pillars and porch had the same measurements. There were windows in it and in its surrounding porch. It was 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ³⁴ Its porch was toward the outer court. Palm trees were on its pillars on this side and on that side. Its stairway had eight steps.

³⁵ He brought me to the north gate. He measured it with the same measurements: ³⁶ its chambers, pillars and porch. There were windows in it all around. It was 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ³⁷ Its pillars were toward the outer court. Palm trees were on its pillars, on this side and on that side. Its stairway had eight steps. ³⁸ A chamber with its entry was by the pillars at the gates; there they rinse the burnt offering. ³⁹ In the porch of the gate were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which to slaughter the burnt offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. ⁴⁰ Off to the side, on the outside as one goes up to the entry of the north gate, were two tables. On the other side of the porch of the gate were two tables. ⁴¹ Four tables were on one side and four tables were on the other side, by the side of the gate—eight tables, on which they would slaughter. ⁴² There were four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit high. The instruments for the slaughter of the burnt offering and the sacrifice were laid on them. ⁴³ Hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened in the House all around. The flesh of the offering was to be placed upon the tables.

⁴⁴ Outside the inner gate in the inner court were chambers for the singers, one of which was at the side of the north gate, facing south. The one at the side of the east gate faced north. ⁴⁵ He said to me, “This chamber that faces toward the south is for the kohanim who keep charge of the House. ⁴⁶ The chamber that faces toward the north is for the kohanim who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, those from the sons of Levi who come near to Adonai to minister to Him.”

⁴⁷ Then he measured the court. It was 100 cubits long and 100 cubits wide, a square. The altar was in front of the House. ⁴⁸ He brought me to the porch of the House. He measured each pillar of the porch, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side. The width of the gate was three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side. ⁴⁹ The length of the porch was 20 cubits and the width 11 cubits. It was ascended by way of steps, where pillars stood, one on each side.

The Inner Sanctuary

41 Then he brought me to the Temple, and measured the pillars—six cubits wide on one side, six cubits wide on the other side, which was the width of the tent. ² The width of the entrance was ten cubits. The sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other side. He measured its length, 40 cubits and its width, 20 cubits. ³ He went to the inner room and measured each pillar of the entrance, two cubits; the doorway, six cubits; and the width of the doorway, seven cubits. ⁴ When he measured the inner room’s length, it was 20 cubits, and the width was 20 cubits, in front of the Temple. He said to me, “This is the Holy of Holies.”

⁵ When he measured the wall of the House, it was six cubits, and the width of every side chamber was four cubits, surrounding the House on every side. ⁶ There were 33 side chambers. There were supports in the wall, which belonged to the House for the side chambers all around, so that they were not supported by the wall of the House. ⁷ The side chambers were wider as they wound about higher and higher. Because the winding about of the House went higher and higher round about the house, therefore the width of the House expanded. One went up from the lowest row to the highest by way of the middle. ⁸ I saw also that the House had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full rod of six cubits up to the joint. ⁹ The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. The space between the side chambers of the House ¹⁰ and the outer chambers was 20 cubits wide all around the House on every side. ¹¹ The doors of the side chambers were toward the space, one door toward the north and another door toward the south. The width of the space was five cubits all around.

¹² The building that was before the separate area at the side toward the west was 70 cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around and its length was 90 cubits. ¹³ When he measured the House, it was 100 cubits long; the separate area and the building with its walls, was 100 cubits long; ¹⁴ and the width of the face of the House and the separate area toward the east was also 100 cubits.

¹⁵ When he measured the length of the building facing the separate area behind it, with its galleries on each side, it was 100 cubits. Now the inner Sanctuary and the porches of the court— ¹⁶ the thresholds, the shuttered windows, and the galleries all around in three stories opposite the thresholds—were paneled with wood all around, from the ground up to the windows (even the windows were covered), ¹⁷ over the space above the door, as far as the inner House, and on all the wall outside all around inside and outside, by measurement. ¹⁸ It was made with cheruvim and palm trees. A palm tree was between cheruv and cheruv. Every cheruv had two faces: ¹⁹ the face of a man toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. Thus was it made on all the House all around. ²⁰ The cheruvim and palm trees were made from the ground up to above the door and on the wall of the Temple.

²¹ The Temple’s doorposts were square. Now the front of the Sanctuary had something resembling ²² an altar—three cubits high and two cubits long, made of wood. Its corners, its base and its sides were also of wood. He said to me, “This is the table of the Presence of Adonai.”

²³ The Temple and the inner Sanctuary each had double doors. ²⁴ The doors each had two turning leaves—two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other. ²⁵ Cheruvim and palm trees were made on them, on the doors of the Temple, just like those made on the walls. There were thick beams of wood on the face of the porch outside. ²⁶ There were shuttered windows and palm trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch, the side chambers of the House and the thick beams.

Resist Pride and Evil

4 Where do quarrels and conflicts among you come from? Don’t they come from this, namely your passions that battle within your body parts? ² You crave and have not. You murder and you envy, yet you cannot get it. You fight and you wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives so you may spend it on your passions. ⁴ You adulteresses!^[a] Don’t you 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 think that in vain the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which He made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But He gives greater grace. Therefore it says,

⁷ Therefore submit to God. But 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 double-minded! ^{[c] 9} Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of Adonai, and He shall lift you up. ^{[d] 11} Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the Torah and judges the Torah. But if you judge the Torah, you are not a doer of the Torah, but a judge. ¹² There is only one lawgiver and judge^[e]—the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judges your neighbor?

If the Lord Wills, We Will

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ¹⁴ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ^{[f] 15} Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Therefore whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it—for him it is sin.