Daily Readings for October 16
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2Chronicles 7

 

1.Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Yahweh filled the house. 2.The priests could not enter into the house of Yahweh, because the glory of Yahweh filled Yahweh's house. 3.All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the glory of Yahweh was on the house; and they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped, and gave thanks to Yahweh, saying, "For he is good; for his loving kindness endures for ever." 4.Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before Yahweh. 5.King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6.The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of Yahweh, which David the king had made to give thanks to Yahweh, when David praised by their ministry, saying "For his loving kindness endures for ever." The priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.

7.Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court holy that was before the house of Yahweh; for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat. 8.So Solomon held the feast at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt. 9.On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. 10.On the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people. 11.Thus Solomon finished the house of Yahweh, and the king's house: and he successfully completed all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of Yahweh, and in his own house.

12.Yahweh appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

13."If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14.if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15.Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place. 16.For now have I chosen and made this house holy, that my name may be there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

17."As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances; 18.then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.' 19.But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; 20.then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21.This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall say, 'Why has Yahweh done thus to this land, and to this house?' 22.They shall answer, 'Because they abandoned Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and took other gods, worshiped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all this evil on them.'"

 

Ezekiel 42

 

1.Then he brought me forth into the outer court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the room that was over against the separate place, and which was over against the building toward the north. 2.Before the length of one hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits. 3.Over against the twenty [cubits] which belonged to the inner court, and over against the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in the third story. 4.Before the rooms was a walk of ten cubits' breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors were toward the north. 5.Now the upper rooms were shorter; for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middle, in the building. 6.For they were in three stories, and they didn't have pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore [the uppermost] was straitened more than the lowest and the middle from the ground. 7.The wall that was outside by the side of the rooms, toward the outer court before the rooms, its length was fifty cubits. 8.For the length of the rooms that were in the outer court was fifty cubits: and behold, before the temple were one hundred cubits. 9.From under these rooms was the entry on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court. 10.In the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, before the separate place, and before the building, there were rooms. 11.The way before them was like the appearance of [the way of] the rooms which were toward the north; according to their length so was their breadth: and all their exits were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors. 12.According to the doors of the rooms that were toward the south was a door at the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one enters into them. 13.Then he said to me, The north rooms and the south rooms, which are before the separate place, they are the holy rooms, where the priests who are near to Yahweh shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy. 14.When the priests enter in, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their garments in which they minister; for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and shall approach to that which pertains to the people. 15.Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it all around. 16.He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around. 17.He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around. 18.He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 19.He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. 20.He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall around it, the length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.

 

John 8

 

1.but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2.Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them. 3.The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the midst, 4.they told him, "Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. 5.Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such.[22] What then do you say about her?" 6.They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of.

But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger. 7.But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her." 8.Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.

9.They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle. 10.Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, "Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?"

11.She said, "No one, Lord."

Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more."

12.Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world.[23] He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life."

13.The Pharisees therefore said to him, "You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid."

14.Jesus answered them, "Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don't know where I came from, or where I am going. 15.You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. 16.Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. 17.It's also written in your law that the testimony of two people is valid.[24] 18.I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me."

19.They said therefore to him, "Where is your Father?"

Jesus answered, "You know neither me, nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." 20.Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. Yet no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. 21.Jesus said therefore again to them, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can't come."

22.The Jews therefore said, "Will he kill himself, that he says, 'Where I am going, you can't come?'"

23.He said to them, "You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24.I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am²⁵ he, you will die in your sins."

25.They said therefore to him, "Who are you?"

Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. 26.I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world."

27.They didn't understand that he spoke to them about the Father. 28.Jesus therefore said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things. 29.He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn't left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him."

30.As he spoke these things, many believed in him. 31.Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, "If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 32.You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."[26]

33.They answered him, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, 'You will be made free?'"

34.Jesus answered them, "Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. 35.A bondservant doesn't live in the house forever. A son remains forever. 36.If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37.I know that you are Abraham's seed, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. 38.I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father."

39.They answered him, "Our father is Abraham."

Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40.But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn't do this. 41.You do the works of your father."

They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God."

42.Therefore Jesus said to them, "If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven't come of myself, but he sent me. 43.Why don't you understand my speech? Because you can't hear my word. 44.You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father. 45.But because I tell the truth, you don't believe me. 46.Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47.He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don't hear, because you are not of God."

48.Then the Jews answered him, "Don't we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?"

49.Jesus answered, "I don't have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50.But I don't seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. 51.Most certainly, I tell you, if a person keeps my word, he will never see death."

52.Then the Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and you say, 'If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.' 53.Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?"

54.Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is our God. 55.You have not known him, but I know him. If I said, 'I don't know him,' I would be like you, a liar. But I know him, and keep his word. 56.Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it, and was glad."

57.The Jews therefore said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?"

58.Jesus said to them, "Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.²⁷"

59.Therefore they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden, and went out of the temple, having gone through their midst, and so passed by.

 

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