²⁸Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others.²⁹Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.³⁰(The porticoes of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.)³¹Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it.

³²Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others.³³Its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.³⁴Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.

³⁵Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others,³⁶as did its alcoves, its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.³⁷Its portico faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.

³⁸A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offerings were washed.³⁹In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings were slaughtered.⁴⁰By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance of the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables.⁴¹So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered.⁴²There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high. On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.⁴³And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.

⁴⁴Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, one at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the south gate and facing north.⁴⁵He said to me, “The room facing south is for the priests who guard the temple,⁴⁶and the room facing north is for the priests who guard the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the LORD to minister before him.”

⁴⁷Then he measured the court: It was square—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.

The New Temple

⁴⁸He brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubits and its projecting walls were three cubits wide on either side.⁴⁹The portico was twenty cubits wide, and twelve cubits from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs, and there were pillars on each side of the jambs.

41 Then the man brought me to the main hall and measured the jambs; the width of the jambs was six cubits on each side.²The entrance was ten cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were five cubits wide. He also measured the main hall; it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.

³Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance; each was two cubits wide. The entrance was six cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were seven cubits wide.⁴And he measured the length of the inner sanctuary; it was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits across the end of the main hall. He said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.”

⁵Then he measured the wall of the temple; it was six cubits thick, and each side room around the temple was four cubits wide.⁶The side rooms were on three levels, one above another, thirty on each level. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports were not inserted into the wall of the temple.⁷The side rooms all around the temple were wider at each successive level. The structure surrounding the temple was built in ascending stages, so that the rooms widened as one went upward. A stairway went up from the lowest floor to the top floor through the middle floor.

⁸I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the length of the rod, six long cubits.⁹The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick. The open area between the side rooms of the temple¹⁰and the priests’ rooms was twenty cubits wide all around the temple.¹¹There were entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one on the north and another on the south; and the base adjoining the open area was five cubits wide all around.

¹²The building facing the temple courtyard on the west side was seventy cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.

¹³Then he measured the temple; it was a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long.¹⁴The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits.

¹⁵Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits.

The main hall, the inner sanctuary and the portico facing the court,¹⁶as well as the thresholds and the narrow windows and galleries around the three of them—everything beyond and including the threshold was covered with wood. The floor, the wall up to the windows, and the windows were covered.¹⁷In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner and outer sanctuary¹⁸were carved cherubim and palm trees. Palm trees alternated with cherubim. Each cherub had two faces:¹⁹the face of a human being toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the other. They were carved all around the whole temple.²⁰From the floor to the area above the entrance, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the main hall.

²¹The main hall had a rectangular doorframe, and the one at the front of the Most Holy Place was similar.²²There was a wooden altar three cubits high and two cubits square; its corners, its base and its sides were of wood. The man said to me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.”²³Both the main hall and the Most Holy Place had double doors.²⁴Each door had two leaves—two hinged leaves for each door.²⁵And on the doors of the main hall were carved cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls, and there was a wooden overhang on the front of the portico.²⁶On the sidewalls of the portico were narrow windows with palm trees carved on each side. The side rooms of the temple also had overhangs.

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?²You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.³When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.⁵Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?⁶But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.⁹Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹¹Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.¹²There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.¹⁷If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

¹⁹Open for me the gates of the righteous;
    I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
²⁰This is the gate of the LORD
    through which the righteous may enter.
²¹I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
    you have become my salvation.

²²The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
²³the LORD has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴The LORD has done it this very day;
    let us rejoice today and be glad.

²⁵LORD, save us!
    LORD, grant us success!

²⁶Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
    From the house of the LORD we bless you.
²⁷The LORD is God,
    and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
    up to the horns of the altar.

²⁸You are my God, and I will praise you;
    you are my God, and I will exalt you.

²⁹Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

³A ruler who oppresses the poor
    is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.

⁴Those who forsake instruction praise the wicked,
    but those who heed it resist them.

⁵Evildoers do not understand what is right,
    but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.