July 20th - Day 201

2 Chronicles 1-3:17

2 Chronicles 1

Solomon Asks for Wisdom

1 Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the LORD his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.

2 Then Solomon spoke to all Israel—to the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, to the judges and to all the leaders in Israel, the heads of families- 3 and Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon, for God's Tent of Meeting was there, which Moses the LORD's servant had made in the desert. 4 Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5 But the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon in front of the tabernacle of the LORD; so Solomon and the assembly inquired of him there. 6 Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."

8 Solomon answered God, "You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. 9 Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

11 God said to Solomon, "Since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, 12 therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have."

13 Then Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of Meeting. And he reigned over Israel.

14 Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, [a] which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 15 The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. 16 Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt [b] and from Kue [c]—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. 17 They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels [d] of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. [e] They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.

2 Chronicles 2

Preparations for Building the Temple

1 Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the Name of the LORD and a royal palace for himself. 2 He conscripted seventy thousand men as carriers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hills and thirty-six hundred as foremen over them.

3 Solomon sent this message to Hiram [f] king of Tyre:

"Send me cedar logs as you did for my father David when you sent him cedar to build a palace to live in. 4 Now I am about to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on Sabbaths and New Moons and at the appointed feasts of the LORD our God. This is a lasting ordinance for Israel.

5 "The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods. 6 But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?

7 "Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled craftsmen, whom my father David provided.

8 "Send me also cedar, pine and algum [g] logs from Lebanon, for I know that your men are skilled in cutting timber there. My men will work with yours 9 to provide me with plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and magnificent. 10 I will give your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors [h] of ground wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths [i] of wine and twenty thousand baths of olive oil."

11 Hiram king of Tyre replied by letter to Solomon:

"Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you their king."

12 And Hiram added:

"Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son, endowed with intelligence and discernment, who will build a temple for the LORD and a palace for himself.

13 "I am sending you Huram-Abi, a man of great skill, 14 whose mother was from Dan and whose father was from Tyre. He is trained to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, and with purple and blue and crimson yarn and fine linen. He is experienced in all kinds of engraving and can execute any design given to him. He will work with your craftsmen and with those of my Lord , David your father.

15 "Now let my Lord send his servants the wheat and barley and the olive oil and wine he promised, 16 and we will cut all the logs from Lebanon that you need and will float them in rafts by sea down to Joppa. You can then take them up to Jerusalem."

17 Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were in Israel, after the census his father David had taken; and they were found to be 153,600. 18 He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 foremen over them to keep the people working.

2 Chronicles 3

Solomon Builds the Temple

1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah [j] the Jebusite, the place provided by David. 2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

3 The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide [k] (using the cubit of the old standard). 4 The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits [l] long across the width of the building and twenty cubits [m] high.

He overlaid the inside with pure gold. 5 He paneled the main hall with pine and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs. 6 He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim. 7 He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.

8 He built the Most Holy Place, its length corresponding to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents [n] of fine gold. 9 The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. [o] He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.

10 In the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold. 11 The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits [p] long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub. 12 Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main hall. [q]

14 He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it.

15 In the front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits [r] long, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits. 16 He made interwoven chains [s] and put them on top of the pillars. He also made a hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. 17 He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north. The one to the south he named Jakin [t] and the one to the north Boaz. [u]

Footnotes:

1. 2 Chronicles 1:14 Or charioteers
   
2. 2 Chronicles 1:16 Or possibly Muzur , a region in Cilicia; also in verse 17
   
3. 2 Chronicles 1:16 Probably Cilicia
   
4. 2 Chronicles 1:17 That is, about 15 pounds (about 7 kilograms)
   
5. 2 Chronicles 1:17 That is, about 3 3/4 pounds (about 1.7 kilograms)
   
6. 2 Chronicles 2:3 Hebrew Huram , a variant of Hiram ; also in verses 11 and 12
   
7. 2 Chronicles 2:8 Probably a variant of almug ; possibly juniper
   
8. 2 Chronicles 2:10 That is, probably about 125,000 bushels (about 4,400 kiloliters)
   
9. 2 Chronicles 2:10 That is, probably about 115,000 gallons (about 440 kiloliters)
   
10. 2 Chronicles 3:1 Hebrew Ornan , a variant of Araunah
    
11. 2 Chronicles 3:3 That is, about 90 feet (about 27 meters) long and 30 feet (about 9 meters) wide
    
12. 2 Chronicles 3:4 That is, about 30 feet (about 9 meters also in verses 8, 11 and 13
    
13. 2 Chronicles 3:4 Some Septuagint and Syriac manuscripts; Hebrew and a hundred and twenty
    
14. 2 Chronicles 3:8 That is, about 23 tons (about 21 metric tons)
    
15. 2 Chronicles 3:9 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds (about 0.6 kilogram)
    
16. 2 Chronicles 3:11 That is, about 7 1/2 feet (about 2.3 meters also in verse 15
    
17. 2 Chronicles 3:13 Or facing inward
    
18. 2 Chronicles 3:15 That is, about 52 feet (about 16 meters)
    
19. 2 Chronicles 3:16 Or possibly made chains in the inner sanctuary ; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
    
20. 2 Chronicles 3:17 Jakin probably means he establishes .
    
21. 2 Chronicles 3:17 Boaz probably means in him is strength .

Romans 6:1-23



Romans 6

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Footnotes:

1. Romans 6:6 Or be rendered powerless
   
2. Romans 6:23 Or through

Psalm 16:1-11



Psalm 16

A miktam of David. [a]

1 Keep me safe, O God,

for in you I take refuge.

2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;

apart from you I have no good thing."

3 As for the saints who are in the land,

they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. [b]

4 The sorrows of those will increase

who run after other gods.

I will not pour out their libations of blood

or take up their names on my lips.

5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;

you have made my lot secure.

6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

8 I have set the LORD always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,

10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, [c]

nor will you let your Holy One [d] see decay.

11 You have made [e] known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 16:1 Title: Probably a literary or musical term
   
2. Psalm 16:3 Or As for the pagan priests who are in the land / and the nobles in whom all delight, I said:
   
3. Psalm 16:10 Hebrew Sheol
   
4. Psalm 16:10 Or your faithful one
   
5. Psalm 16:11 Or You will make

Proverbs 19:20-21



20 Listen to advice and accept instruction,

and in the end you will be wise.

21 Many are the plans in a man's heart,

but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.