The
Woman Caught in Adultery
John 8 [Then
everyone went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of
Olives. 2Early the next morning he went back
to the Temple. All the people gathered around him, and he
sat down and began to teach them. 3The
teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman
who had been caught committing adultery, and they made
her stand before them all. 4"Teacher,"
they said to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the
very act of committing adultery. 5In our Law
Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to
death. Now, what do you say?" 6They said
this to trap Jesus, so that they could accuse him. But he
bent over and wrote on the ground with his finger. 7As
they stood there asking him questions, he straightened up
and said to them, "Whichever one of you has
committed no sin may throw the first stone at her." 8Then
he bent over again and wrote on the ground. 9When
they heard this, they all left, one by one, the older
ones first. Jesus was left alone, with the woman still
standing there. 10He straightened up and said
to her, "Where are they? Is there no one left to
condemn you?"
11"No
one, sir," she answered.
"Well,
then," Jesus said, "I do not condemn you
either. Go, but do not sin again."]
Jesus the Light
of the World
12Jesus
spoke to the Pharisees again. "I am the light of the
world," he said. "Whoever follows me will have
the light of life and will never walk in darkness."
13The
Pharisees said to him, "Now you are testifying on
your own behalf; what you say proves nothing."
14"No,"
Jesus answered, "even though I do testify on my own
behalf, what I say is true, because I know where I came
from and where I am going. You do not know where I came
from or where I am going. 15You make judgments
in a purely human way; I pass judgment on no one. 16But
if I were to do so, my judgment would be true, because I
am not alone in this; the Father who sent me is with me. 17It
is written in your Law that when two witnesses agree,
what they say is true. 18I testify on my
own behalf, and the Father who sent me also testifies on
my behalf."
19"Where
is your father?" they asked him.
"You
know neither me nor my Father," Jesus answered.
"If you knew me, you would know my Father
also."
20Jesus
said all this as he taught in the Temple, in the room
where the offering boxes were placed. And no one arrested
him, because his hour had not come.
The Second Book of
CHRONICLES
King Solomon Prays
for Wisdom
(1 Kings 3.1-15)
2 Chronicles 1
Solomon, the son of King David, took firm control of the
kingdom of Israel, and the LORD his
God blessed him and made him very powerful.
2King
Solomon gave an order to all the officers in charge of
units of a thousand men and of a hundred men, all the
government officials, all the heads of families, and all
the rest of the people, 3commanding them to go
with him to the place of worship at Gibeon. They went
there because that was where the Tent of the LORD's presence was located, which Moses,
the LORD's servant, had made in the
wilderness. ( 4The Covenant Box, however, was
in Jerusalem, kept in a tent which King David had set up
when he brought the Box from Kiriath Jearim.) 5The
bronze altar which had been made by Bezalel, the son of
Uri and grandson of Hur, was also in Gibeon in front of
the Tent of the LORD's presence.
King Solomon and all the people worshiped the LORD there. 6In front of the
Tent the king worshiped the LORD by
offering sacrifices on the bronze altar; he had a
thousand animals killed and burned whole on it.
7That
night God appeared to Solomon and asked, "What would
you like me to give you?"
8Solomon
answered, "You always showed great love for my
father David, and now you have let me succeed him as
king. 9O LORD God,
fulfill the promise you made to my father. You have made
me king over a people who are so many that they cannot be
counted, 10so give me the wisdom and knowledge
I need to rule over them. Otherwise, how would I ever be
able to rule this great people of yours?"
11God
replied to Solomon, "You have made the right choice.
Instead of asking for wealth or treasure or fame or the
death of your enemies or even for long life for yourself,
you have asked for wisdom and knowledge so that you can
rule my people, over whom I have made you king. 12I will
give you wisdom and knowledge. And in addition, I will
give you more wealth, treasure, and fame than any king
has ever had before or will ever have again."
King Solomon's Power
and Wealth
(1 Kings 10.26 -29)
13So
Solomon left the place of worship at Gibeon, where the
Tent of the LORD's presence was,
and returned to Jerusalem. There he ruled over Israel. 14He
built up a force of fourteen hundred chariots and twelve
thousand cavalry horses. Some of them he kept in
Jerusalem, and the rest he stationed in various other
cities. 15During his reign silver and gold
became as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar was as
plentiful as ordinary sycamore in the foothills of Judah.
16The king's agents controlled the export of
horses from Musri and Cilicia, 17and the
export of chariots from Egypt. They supplied the Hittite
and Syrian kings with horses and chariots, selling
chariots for 600 pieces of silver each and horses for 150
each.
Preparations
for Building the Temple
(1 Kings 5.1-18)
2 Chronicles 2 King
Solomon decided to build a temple where the LORD would be worshiped, and also to build
a palace for himself. 2He put 70,000 men to
work transporting materials, and 80,000 to work cutting
stone in the hill country. There were 3,600 others
responsible for supervising the work.
3Solomon
sent a message to King Hiram of Tyre: "Do business
with me as you did with my father, King David, when you
sold him cedar logs for building his palace. 4I am
building a temple to honor the LORD
my God. It will be a holy place where my people and I
will worship him by burning incense of fragrant spices,
where we will present offerings of sacred bread to him
continuously, and where we will offer burnt offerings
every morning and evening, as well as on Sabbaths, New
Moon Festivals, and other holy days honoring the LORD our God. He has commanded Israel to
do this forever. 5I intend to build a
great temple, because our God is greater than any other
god. 6Yet no one can really build a temple for
God, because even all the vastness of heaven cannot
contain him. How then can I build a temple that would be
anything more than a place to burn incense to God? 7Now
send me a man with skill in engraving, in working gold,
silver, bronze, and iron, and in making blue, purple, and
red cloth. He will work with the craftsmen of Judah and
Jerusalem whom my father David selected. 8I know
how skillful your lumbermen are, so send me cedar,
cypress, and juniper logs from Lebanon. I am ready to
send my men to assist yours 9in preparing
large quantities of timber, because this temple I intend
to build will be large and magnificent. 10As
provisions for your lumbermen, I will send you 100,000
bushels of wheat, 100,000 bushels of barley, 110,000
gallons of wine, and 110,000 gallons of
olive oil."
11King
Hiram sent Solomon a letter in reply. He wrote,
"Because the LORD loves his
people, he has made you their king. 12Praise
the LORD God of Israel, Creator of
heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son,
full of understanding and skill, who now plans to build a
temple for the LORD and a palace
for himself. 13I am sending you a wise
and skillful master metalworker named Huram. 14His
mother was a member of the tribe of Dan and his father
was a native of Tyre. He knows how to make things out of
gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood. He can work
with blue, purple, and red cloth, and with linen. He can
do all sorts of engraving and can follow any design
suggested to him. Let him work with your skilled workers
and with those who worked for your father, King David. 15So
now send us the wheat, barley, wine, and olive oil that
you promised. 16In the mountains of Lebanon we
will cut down all the cedars you need, tie them together
in rafts, and float them by sea as far as Joppa. From
there you can take them to Jerusalem."
Jerusalem and the
Nations
Zechariah 14 The
day when the LORD will sit in
judgment is near. Then Jerusalem will be looted, and the
loot will be divided up before your eyes. 2The
LORD will bring all the nations
together to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be
taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of
the people will go into exile, but the rest of them will
not be taken away from the city. 3Then the LORD will go out and fight against those
nations, as he has fought in times past. 4At
that time he will stand on the Mount of Olives, to the
east of Jerusalem. Then the Mount of Olives will be split
in two from east to west by a large valley. Half of the
mountain will move northward, and half of it southward. 5You
will escape through this valley that divides the mountain
in two. You will flee as your ancestors did when the
earthquake struck in the time of King Uzziah of Judah.
The LORD my God will come, bringing
all the angels with him.
6When
that time comes, there will no longer be cold or frost, 7nor
any darkness. There will always be daylight, even at
nighttime. When this will happen is known only to the LORD.
8When
that day comes, fresh water will flow from Jerusalem,
half of it to the Dead Sea and the other half to the
Mediterranean. It will flow all year long, in the dry
season as well as the wet. 9Then the LORD will be king over all the earth;
everyone will worship him as God and know him by the same
name.
10The
whole region, from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the
south, will be made level. Jerusalem will tower above the
land around it; the city will reach from the Benjamin
Gate to the Corner Gate, where there had been an earlier
gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal wine
presses. 11The people will live there in
safety, no longer threatened by destruction.
12The
LORD will bring a terrible disease
on all the nations that make war on Jerusalem. Their
flesh will rot away while they are still alive; their
eyes and their tongues will rot away.
13At
that time the LORD will make them
so confused and afraid that everyone will seize the man
next to him and attack him. 14The men of Judah
will fight to defend Jerusalem. They will take as loot
the wealth of all the nations--gold, silver, and clothing
in great abundance.
15A terrible
disease will also fall on the horses, the mules, the
camels, and the donkeys--on all the animals in the camps
of the enemy.
16Then
all of the survivors from the nations that have attacked
Jerusalem will go there each year to worship the LORD Almighty as king and to celebrate the
Festival of Shelters. 17If any nation refuses
to go and worship the LORD Almighty
as king, then rain will not fall on their land. 18If
the Egyptians refuse to celebrate the Festival of
Shelters, then they will be struck by the same disease
that the LORD will send on every
nation that refuses to go. 19This will be the
punishment that will fall on Egypt and on all the other
nations if they do not celebrate the Festival of
Shelters.
20At
that time even the harness bells of the horses will be
inscribed with the words "Dedicated to the LORD." The cooking pots in the Temple
will be as sacred as the bowls before the altar. 21Every
cooking pot in Jerusalem and in all Judah will be set
apart for use in the worship of the LORD
Almighty. The people who offer sacrifices will use them
for boiling the meat of the sacrifices. When that time
comes, there will no longer be any merchant in the Temple
of the LORD Almighty.
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