The One Year Bible TLB (246 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Oh, thank the Lord, for he’s so good! His loving-kindness is forever.
2
Let the congregation of Israel praise him with these same words: “His loving-kindness is forever.”
3
And let the priests of Aaron chant, “His loving-kindness is forever.”
4
Let the Gentile converts chant, “His loving-kindness is forever.”
5
In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me.
6
He is for me! How can I be afraid? What can mere man do to me?
7
The Lord is on my side; he will help me. Let those who hate me beware.
8
It is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in men.
9
It is better to take refuge in him than in the mightiest king!
10
Though all the nations of the world attack me, I will march out behind his banner and destroy them.
11
Yes, they surround and attack me; but with his flag flying above me I will cut them off.
12
They swarm around me like bees; they blaze against me like a roaring flame. Yet beneath his flag I shall destroy them.
13
You did your best to kill me, O my enemy, but the Lord helped me.
14
He is my strength and song in the heat of battle, and now he has given me the victory.
15-16
Songs of joy at the news of our rescue are sung in the homes of the godly. The strong arm of the Lord has done glorious things!
17
I shall not die but live to tell of all his deeds.
18
The Lord has punished me but not handed me over to death.
When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily; but with honest, sensible leaders there is stability.
November 20Then he took me over to the inner wall and its south passageway. He measured this passageway and found that it had the same measurements as the passageways of the outer wall.
*
29-30
Its guardrooms, pillars, and entrance and exit hall were identical to all the others, and so were the windows along its walls and entry. And, like the others, it was 87
1
/
2
feet long by 43
3
/
4
feet wide.
*
31
The only difference was that it had eight steps leading up to it instead of seven. It had palm tree decorations on the pillars, just as the others.
32
Then he took me along the court to the eastern entrance of the inner wall, and measured it. It, too, had the same measurements as the others.
33
Its guardrooms, pillars, and entrance hall were the same size as those of the other passageways, and there were windows along the walls and in the entry hall; and it was 87
1
/
2
feet long by 43
3
/
4
feet wide.
34
Its entry hall faced the outer court, and there were palm tree decorations on its columns, but there were eight steps instead of seven going up to the entrance.
35
Then he took me around to the north gate of the inner wall, and the measurements there were just like the others:
36
The guardrooms, pillars, and entry hall of this passageway were the same as the others, with a length of 87
1
/
2
feet and a width of 43
3
/
4
feet.
37
Its entry hall faced toward the outer court; it had palm tree decorations on the walls of each side of the passageway, and there were eight steps leading up to the entrance.
38
But a door led from its entry hall into a side room where the flesh of the sacrifices was washed before being taken to the altar;
39
on each side of the entry hall of the passageway there were two tables where the animals for sacrifice were slaughtered for the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings to be presented in the Temple.
40
Outside the entry hall, on each side of the stairs going up to the north entrance, there were two more tables.
41
So, in all there were eight tables, four inside and four outside, where the sacrifices were cut up and prepared.
42
There were also four stone tables where the butchering knives and other implements were laid. These tables were about 2
5
/
8
feet square and 1
3
/
4
feet high.
43
There were hooks, 3 or 4 inches long, fastened along the walls of the entry hall, and on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid.
44
In the inner court there were two one-room buildings, one beside the northern entrance, facing south, and one beside the southern entrance, facing north.
45
And he said to me: “The building beside the inner northern gate is for the priests who supervise the maintenance.
46
The building beside the inner southern entrance is for the priests in charge of the altar—the descendants of Zadok—for they alone of all the Levites may come near to the Lord to minister to him.”
47
Then he measured the inner court in front of the Temple
*
and found it to be 175 feet square, and there was an altar in the court, standing in front of the Temple.
48-49
Then he brought me to the entrance hall of the Temple. Ten steps led up to it from the inner court. Its walls extended up on either side to form two pillars, each of them 8
3
/
4
feet thick. The entrance was 24
1
/
2
feet wide with 5
1
/
4
-foot walls. Thus the entry hall was 35 feet wide and 19
1
/
4
feet long.
41:
1
Afterward he brought me into the nave, the large main room of the Temple, and measured the pillars that formed its doorway. They were 10
1
/
2
feet square.
2
The entrance hall was 17
1
/
2
feet wide and 8
3
/
4
feet deep. The nave itself was 70 feet long by 35 feet.
3
Then he went into the inner room at the end of the nave and measured the columns at the entrance and found them to be 3
1
/
2
feet thick; its doorway was 10
1
/
2
feet wide, with a hallway 12
1
/
4
feet deep behind it.
4
The inner room was 35 feet square. “This,” he told me, “is the Most Holy Place.”
5
Then he measured the wall of the Temple and found that it was 10
1
/
2
feet thick, with a row of rooms along the outside. Each room was 7 feet wide.
6
These rooms were in three tiers, one above the other, with thirty rooms in each tier. The whole structure was supported by girders and not attached to the Temple wall for support.
7
Each tier was wider than the one below it, corresponding to the narrowing of the Temple wall as it rose higher. A stairway at the side of the Temple led up from floor to floor.
8
I noticed that the Temple was built on a terrace and that the bottom row of rooms extended out 10
1
/
2
feet onto the terrace.
9
The outer wall of these rooms was 8
3
/
4
feet thick, leaving a free space of 8
3
/
4
feet out to the edge of the terrace, the same on both sides.
10
Thirty-five feet away from the terrace, on both sides of the Temple, was another row of rooms down in the inner court.
11
Two doors opened from the tiers of rooms to the terrace yard, which was 8
3
/
4
feet wide; one door faced north and the other south.
12
A large building stood on the west, facing the Temple yard, measuring 122
1
/
2
feet wide by 157
1
/
2
feet long. Its walls were 8
3
/
4
feet thick.
13
Then he measured the Temple and its immediately surrounding yards. The area was 175 feet square.
14
The inner court at the east of the Temple was also 175 feet wide,
15-16
and so was the building west of the Temple, including its two walls.
The nave of the Temple and the Holy of Holies and the entry hall were paneled, and all three had recessed windows. The inner walls of the Temple were paneled with wood above and below the windows.
17-18
The space above the door leading into the Holy of Holies was also paneled. The walls were decorated with carvings of Guardian Angels, each with two faces, and of palm trees alternating with the Guardian Angels.
19-20
One face—that of a man—looked toward the palm tree on one side, and the other face—that of a young lion—looked toward the palm tree on the other side. And so it was, all around the inner wall of the Temple.
21
There were square doorposts at the doors of the nave, and in front of the Holy of Holies was what appeared to be an altar, but it was made of wood.
22
This altar was 3
1
/
2
feet square and 5
1
/
4
feet high; its corners, base, and sides were all of wood. “This,” he told me, “is the Table of the Lord.”
*
23
Both the nave and the Holy of Holies had double doors,
24
each with two swinging sections.
25
The doors leading into the nave were decorated with cherubim and palm trees, just as on the walls. And there was a wooden canopy over the entry hall.
26
There were recessed windows and carved palm trees on both sides of the entry hall, the hallways beside the Temple, and on the canopy over the entrance.
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it because there is a whole army of evil desires within you?
2
You want what you don’t have, so you kill to get it. You long for what others have, and can’t afford it, so you start a fight to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it.
3
And even when you do ask you don’t get it because your whole aim is wrong—you want only what will give
you
pleasure.
4
You are like an unfaithful wife who loves her husband’s enemies. Don’t you realize that making friends with God’s enemies—the evil pleasures of this world—makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy the evil pleasure of the unsaved world, you cannot also be a friend of God.
5
Or what do you think the Scripture means when it says that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy?
6
But he gives us more and more strength to stand against all such evil longings. As the Scripture says, God gives strength to the humble but sets himself against the proud and haughty.
7
So give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8
And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and let your hearts be filled with God alone to make them pure and true to him.
9
Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and sincere grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
10
Then when you realize your worthlessness before the Lord, he will lift you up, encourage and help you.
11
Don’t criticize and speak evil about each other, dear brothers. If you do, you will be fighting against God’s law of loving one another, declaring it is wrong. But your job is not to decide whether this law is right or wrong, but to obey it.
12
Only he who made the law can rightly judge among us. He alone decides to save us or destroy. So what right do you have to judge or criticize others?
13
Look here, you people who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to such and such a town, stay there a year, and open up a profitable business.”
14
How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog—now you see it; soon it is gone.
15
What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we shall live and do this or that.”
16
Otherwise you will be bragging about your own plans, and such self-confidence never pleases God.
17
Remember, too, that knowing what is right to do and then not doing it is sin.
Open the gates of the Temple
*
—I will go in and give him my thanks.
20
Those gates are the way into the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there.
21
O Lord, thank you so much for answering my prayer and saving me.
22
The stone rejected by the builders has now become the capstone of the arch!
*
23
This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see!
24
This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25
O Lord, please help us. Save us. Give us success.
26
Blessed is the one who is coming, the one sent by the Lord.
*
We bless you from the Temple.
27-28
Jehovah God is our light. I present to him my sacrifice upon the altar, for you are my God, and I shall give you this thanks and this praise.
29
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is so good! For his loving-kindness is forever.
When a poor man oppresses those even poorer, he is like an unexpected flood sweeping away their last hope.
4
To complain about the law is to praise wickedness. To obey the law is to fight evil.
5
Evil men don’t understand the importance of justice, but those who follow the Lord are much concerned about it.