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Chapter 22
1 Then David said, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar for the burnt offerings of Israel.”
Preparations for Building the Temple. 2 David ordered that all of the foreigners who were in the land of Israel be gathered together. He assigned them the task of serving as masons to prepare hewn stone to build the house of God. 3 David prepared quite a bit of iron for the nails to be used in the doors, the gates, and the joints. He also prepared so much bronze that it could not be measured. 4 He also had much cedar wood, for the Sidonians of Tyre had brought much cedar wood to David.
5 David said, “Solomon, my son, is young and inexperienced, and the house that will be built for the Lord must be tremendously magnificent, famous, and glorious throughout every land. I will therefore make preparations for it now.” So David made many preparations before he died.
6 He then summoned Solomon, his son, and he charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. 7 David said to Solomon, “My son, I wanted to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, 8 but the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Because you have shed so much blood and you have waged many wars, you will not build a house for my name because you have shed too much blood upon the earth before me. 9 Behold, a son will be born to you who will be a man of peace[a] and rest. I will give him a respite from all of his surrounding enemies, for his name will be Solomon. I will give peace and quiet to Israel during his reign. 10 He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’
11 “Now, my son, the Lord will be with you. You will prosper, and you will build a house for the Lord, your God, as he has proclaimed. 12 May the Lord give you insight and understanding when he sets you over Israel so that you might observe the law of the Lord, your God. 13 You will prosper if you carefully observe the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and be brave. Do not be afraid nor dismayed. 14 I have put myself to the trouble of preparing the following for the temple of the Lord: one hundred thousand talents of gold, one million talents of silver, so much bronze and iron that it could not even be weighed, and an abundance of wood and stone. You can now add to it.[b] 15 You have many workmen: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and men who are skilled in every type of craft. 16 You cannot even count those who can work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron. So now be about it, and the Lord will be with you.”
17 Charge to the Leaders. David commanded all of the leaders of Israel to assist Solomon, his son, saying, 18 “Is not the Lord, your God, with you? Has he not given you rest on every side? He has placed the inhabitants of the land in your hand, and the land has been subjected to the Lord and his people. 19 Now dedicate yourselves heart and soul to seeking the Lord, your God. Rise up and build a sanctuary for the Lord, your God. Bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and the sacred vessels of God into the temple that will be built for the name of the Lord.”
Chapter 23
The Levitical Classes.[c] 1 When David was old and his years were complete, he made Solomon, his son, king over Israel. 2 He gathered together all of the leaders of Israel along with the priests and the Levites.
3 The Levites who were thirty years and older were counted, and the total number of them was thirty-eight thousand. 4 David appointed twenty-four thousand of them to supervise the work on the temple of the Lord, and another six thousand of them were to be officials and judges. 5 Four thousand of them were to be gatekeepers, and four thousand were to praise the Lord upon musical instruments about which David said, “I made them to praise the Lord.”
6 David divided the Levites of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari into groups.
7 From the Gershonites there were Ladan and Shimei. 8 The sons of Ladan were Jehiel, the firstborn, Zetham, and Joel. There were three in all. 9 [d]The sons of Shimei were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran. There were three of them in all. These were the leaders of the ancestral clans of Ladan. 10 The sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zizah, Jeush, and Beriah. Shimei had four sons in all. 11 Jahath was the leader, and Zizah was the second in charge. Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, so they were reckoned as a single ancestral clan.
12 The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. There were four of them in all.
13 The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart to consecrate the most holy things. He and his sons were to burn incense before the Lord forever, and to minister, and to proclaim blessings in his name forever.
14 The sons of Moses, the man of God, were included with the tribe of Levi. 15 The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.
16 Shubael was the son of Gershom, his first. 17 Rehabiah was the son of Eliezer, his first. Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had a large number of sons.
18 Shelomith was the son of Izhar, his firstborn.
19 The sons of Hebron were Jeriah, his firstborn, Amariah, his second, Jahaziel, his third, and Jekameam, his fourth.
20 The sons of Uzziel were Micah, his firstborn, and Isshiah, his second.
21 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli were Eleazar and Kish.
22 Eleazar died without having any sons, he had only had daughters. The sons of Kish, their relatives, married them.
23 The sons of Mushi were Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth. There were three of them in all.
24 These were the descendants of Levi by their ancestral clans, with the leaders of the ancestral clans as they were registered by name and counted. These are the ones who could perform the work in the temple of the Lord, twenty years old and older.[e]
25 David did this because he said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, had given his people rest so that they might dwell in Jerusalem forever. 26 The Levites therefore no longer have to carry the tabernacle or any of the articles used in its service.”
27 Thus, according to the last instructions of David, the Levites who were twenty years or older were counted. 28 Their responsibility was to assist the sons of Aaron in the service of the temple of the Lord, to be in charge of the courtyard and the inner chambers, to purify all of the holy things, and to fulfill other tasks in the temple of the Lord. 29 They were responsible for the shewbread, for the flour for the cereal offerings, for the unleavened loaves, for the baking and the mixing, and for all the standards of measurement and size. 30 They were to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. They were to do the same every evening. 31 They were also to do this whenever burnt offerings were made to the Lord on the Sabbath, on the new moons, and on the appointed feasts, as they had been commanded to do regularly before the Lord, 32 that they were to serve the tent of meeting and be responsible for the sanctuary under the direction of the descendants of Aaron, their brethren, for the service of the temple of the Lord.
The Whole World Guilty before God.[a] 9 Well, then, are we any better?[b] No, not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written,
“There is no one who is righteous,
not even one.
11 There is no one who has understanding,
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away;
together they have become worthless.
There is no one who shows kindness,
not even one.
13 Their throats are open graves;
they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of vipers is on their lips;
14 their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
15 Their feet hasten to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their paths.
17 The way of peace they do not know;
18 there is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that what the Law says is addressed to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the entire world may be seen as guilty before God. 20 For no one can be regarded as justified in the sight of God by keeping the Law. The Law brings only the consciousness of sin.
The Redemption in Jesus Christ[c]
21 God’s Righteousness through Faith in Jesus Christ.[d] But now the righteousness of God that is attested by the Law and the Prophets has been manifested apart from law: 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. No distinction has been made. 23 For all have sinned and thereby are deprived of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified by the gift of his grace that is given freely through the redemption in Christ Jesus.
25 God designated him to be a sacrifice of expiation of sin through faith by the shedding of his blood because in his divine forbearance he allowed to be unpunished the sins previously committed. 26 He thus demonstrated his righteousness in the present time so that he might show himself to be just as the one who justifies anyone who has faith in Jesus.
27 Justification through Faith Apart from the Works of the Law. What reason then does one have to boast? It is excluded! By works of the Law? No, rather by the law of faith. 28 For we maintain that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.
29 Is God the God only of the Jews? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is the God of the Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, and he will justify both the circumcised and the uncircumcised on the basis of their faith. 31 Are we thereby nullifying the Law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we are upholding the Law.
Psalm 12[a]
Prayer against the Arrogance of Sinners
1 For the director.[b] “Upon the eighth.” A psalm of David.
2 Help, O Lord, for there are no godly left;
the faithful have vanished from the human race.
3 Neighbors utter lies to each other;
they speak with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.[c]
4 May the Lord destroy all flattering lips
and every boastful tongue,
5 those who say, “We will prevail by our tongues;
with our lips as our ally,
who can lord it over us?”
6 “The poor have been oppressed,
and those who are needy groan.
Therefore, I will rise up now,” says the Lord;
“I will grant them the safety
for which they long.”
7 And the promises of the Lord are certain;
they are like silver refined in a furnace
and purified seven times.[d]
8 [e]You, O Lord, will watch over us
and preserve us from this generation forever.
9 For the wicked prowl on every side,
and what is vile is exalted by mankind.
13 A foolish son[a] is a calamity to his father,
and a nagging wife is like an endless dripping of water.
14 A house and wealth are inherited from parents,
but a prudent wife is a gift from the Lord.
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