John 8:21-47; 2 Chronicles 2; 2 Chronicles 3; 2 Chronicles 4; 2 Chronicles 5:1; Malachi 1; Malachi 2:1-9

John 8:21-47

21 Then He said to them again, "I'm going away; you will look for Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come."

22 So the Jews said again, "He won't kill Himself, will He, since He says, 'Where I'm going, you cannot come' ?"

23 "You are from below," He told them, "I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins."

25 "Who are You?" they questioned. "Precisely what I've been telling you from the very beginning," Jesus told them.

26 "I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the One who sent Me is true, and what I have heard from Him-these things I tell the world."

27 They did not know He was speaking to them about the Father.

28 So Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [He], and that I do nothing on My own. But just as the Father taught Me, I say these things.

29 The One who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, because I always do what pleases Him."

30 As He was saying these things, many believed in Him.

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples.

32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

33 "We are descendants of Abraham," they answered Him, "and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can You say, 'You will become free'?"

34 Jesus responded, "I assure you: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.

36 Therefore if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

37 I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill Me because My word is not welcome among you.

38 I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and therefore you do what you have heard from your father."

39 "Our father is Abraham!" they replied. "If you were Abraham's children," Jesus told them, "you would do what Abraham did.

40 But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this!

41 You're doing what your father does." "We weren't born of sexual immorality," they said. "We have one Father-God."

42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn't come on My own, but He sent Me.

43 Why don't you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to My word.

44 You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars.

45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

46 Who among you can convict Me of sin? If I tell the truth, why don't you believe Me?

47 The one who is from God listens to God's words. This is why you don't listen, because you are not from God."

2 Chronicles 2

1 Solomon decided to build a temple for the name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself,

2 so he assigned 70,000 men as porters, 80,000 men as stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 as supervisors over them.

3 Then Solomon sent [word] to King Hiram of Tyre: [Do for me] what you did for my father David. You sent him cedars to build him a house to live in.

4 Now I myself am building a temple for the name of the Lord my God in order to dedicate it to Him for burning sweet incense before Him, for [displaying] the rows [of the bread of the Presence] continuously, and for [sacrificing] burnt offerings for the evening and the morning, the Sabbaths and the New Moons, and the appointed festivals of the Lord our God. This is [ordained] for Israel forever.

5 The temple that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than any of the gods.

6 But who is able to build a temple for Him, since even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Him? Who am I then that I should build a house for Him except as a place to burn incense before Him?

7 Therefore, send me a craftsman who is skilled in engraving to work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and with purple, crimson, and blue yarn. [He will work] with the craftsmen who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, appointed by my father David.

8 Also, send me cedar, cypress, and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut the trees of Lebanon. Note that my servants will be with your servants

9 to prepare logs for me in abundance because the temple I am building will be great and wonderful.

10 I will give your servants, the woodcutters who cut the trees, 100,000 bushels of wheat flour, 100,000 bushels of barley, 110,000 gallons of wine, and 110,000 gallons of oil.

11 Then King Hiram of Tyre wrote a letter and sent [it] to Solomon: Because the Lord loves His people, He set you over them as king.

12 Hiram also said: May the Lord God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, be praised! He gave King David a wise son with insight and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

13 I have now sent Huram-abi, a skillful man who has understanding.

14 He is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan. His father is a man of Tyre. He knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, with purple, blue, crimson yarn, and fine linen. He knows how to do all kinds of engraving and to execute any design that may be given him. I have sent him to be with your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord, your father David.

15 Now, let my lord send the wheat, barley, oil, and wine to his servants as promised.

16 We will cut logs from Lebanon, as many as you need, and bring them to you as rafts by sea to Joppa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem.

17 Solomon took a census of all the foreign men in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had conducted, and the total was 153,600.

18 Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors to make the people work.

2 Chronicles 3

1 Then Solomon began to build the Lord's temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the site David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 He began to build on the second [day] of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

3 These are Solomon's foundations for building God's temple: the length was 90 feet, and the width 30 feet.

4 The portico, which was across the front extending across the width of the temple, was 30 feet wide; its height was 30 feet; he overlaid its inner surface with pure gold.

5 The larger room he paneled with cypress wood, overlaid with fine gold, and decorated with palm trees and chains.

6 He adorned the temple with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was the gold of Parvaim.

7 He overlaid the temple-the beams, the thresholds, its walls and doors-with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.

8 Then he made the most holy place; its length corresponded to the width of the temple, 30 feet, and its width was 30 feet. He overlaid it with 45,000 pounds of fine gold.

9 The weight of the nails was 20 ounces of gold, and he overlaid the ceiling with gold.

10 He made two cherubim of sculptured work, for the most holy place, and he overlaid them with gold.

11 The overall length of the wings of the cherubim was 30 feet: the wing of one was seven and a half feet, touching the wall of the room; its other wing was seven and a half feet, touching the wing of the other cherub.

12 The wing of the other cherub was seven and a half feet, touching the wall of the room; its other wing was seven and a half feet, reaching the wing of the other cherub.

13 The wingspan of these cherubim was 30 feet. They stood on their feet and faced the larger room.

14 He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, and he wove cherubim into it.

15 In front of the temple he made two pillars, [each] 27 feethigh. The capital on top of each was seven and half feet high.

16 He had made chainwork in the inner sanctuary and also put it on top of the pillars. He made 100 pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork.

17 Then he set up the pillars in front of the sanctuary, one on the right and one on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.

2 Chronicles 4

1 He made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.

2 Then he made the cast [metal] reservoir, 15 feet from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was seven and a half feet high, and 45 feet in circumference.

3 The likeness of oxen was below it, completely encircling it, 10 every half yard, completely surrounding the reservoir. The oxen were cast in two rows when the reservoir was cast.

4 It stood on 12 oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The reservoir was on top of them and all their hindquarters were toward the center.

5 The reservoir was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold 11,000 gallons.

6 He made 10 basins for washing and he put five on the right and five on the left. The parts of the burnt offering were rinsed in them, but the reservoir was used by the priests for washing.

7 He made the 10 gold lampstands according to their specifications and put them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left.

8 He made 10 tables and placed them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left. He also made 100 gold bowls.

9 He made the courtyard of the priests and the large court, and doors for the court. He overlaid the doors with bronze.

10 He put the reservoir on the right side, toward the southeast.

11 Then Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was doing for King Solomon in God's temple:

12 two pillars; the bowls and the capitals on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars;

13 the 400 pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals' bowls on top of the pillars).

14 He also made the water carts and the basins on the water carts.

15 The one reservoir and the 12 oxen underneath it,

16 the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all their utensils-Huram-abi made them for King Solomon for the Lord's temple. [All these were made] of polished bronze.

17 The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah.

18 Solomon made all these utensils in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

19 Solomon also made all the equipment in God's temple: the gold altar; the tables on which [to put] the bread of the Presence;

20 the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn in front of the inner sanctuary according to specifications;

21 the flowers, lamps, and gold tongs-of purest gold;

22 the wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, and firepans-of purest gold; and the entryway to the temple, its inner doors to the most holy place, and the doors of the temple sanctuary-of gold.

2 Chronicles 5:1

1 So all the work Solomon did for the Lord's temple was completed. Then Solomon brought the consecrated things of his father David-the silver, the gold, and all the utensils-and put them in the treasuries of God's temple.

Malachi 1

1 An oracle: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.

2 "I have loved you," says the Lord. But you ask: "How have You loved us?" "Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother?" [This is] the Lord's declaration. "Even so, I loved Jacob,

3 but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and [gave] his inheritance to the desert jackals."

4 Though Edom says: "We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins," the Lord of Hosts says this: "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called a wicked country and the people the Lord has cursed forever.

5 Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say: The Lord is great, [even] beyond the borders of Israel.

6 "A son honors [his] father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is [your] fear of Me? says the Lord of Hosts to you priests, who despise My name." Yet you ask: "How have we despised Your name?"

7 "By presenting defiled food on My altar." You ask: "How have we defiled You?" When you say: "The Lord's table is contemptible."

8 "When you present a blind [animal] for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick [animal], is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?" asks the Lord of Hosts.

9 "And now ask for God's favor. Will He be gracious to us? [Since] this has come from your hands, will He show any of you favor?" asks the Lord of Hosts.

10 "I wish one of you would shut the [temple] doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless [fire on] My altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord of Hosts, "and I will accept no offering from your hands.

11 "For My name will be great among the nations, from the rising of the sun to its setting. Incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name in every place because My name will be great among the nations," says the Lord of Hosts.

12 But you are profaning itwhen you say: "The Lord's table is defiled, and its product, its food, is contemptible."

13 You also say: "Look, what a nuisance!" "And you scorn it," says the Lord of Hosts. "You bring stolen, lame, or sick animals. You bring this as an offering! Am I to accept that from your hands?" asks the Lord.

14 "The deceiver is cursed who has an [acceptable] male in his flock and makes a vow but sacrifices a defective [animal] to the Lord. For I am a great King," says the Lord of Hosts, "and My name will be feared among the nations.

Malachi 2:1-9

1 "Therefore, this decree is for you priests:

2 If you don't listen, and if you don't take it to heart to honor My name," says the Lord of Hosts, "I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.

3 "Look, I am going to rebuke your descendants, and I will spread animal waste over your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices, and you will be taken away with it.

4 Then you will know that I sent you this decree so My covenant with Levi may continue," says the Lord of Hosts.

5 "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave these to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

6 True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing wrong was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and fairness and turned many from sin.

7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

8 "You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of Levi," says the Lord of Hosts.

9 "So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in [your] instruction."