28 Next he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurements as the others. 29Its gate chambers, side pillars, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both the gateway and its portico had windows all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 30(The porticoes around the inner court were twenty-five cubits long and five cubits deep.) 31Its portico faced the outer court, and its side pillars were decorated with palm trees. Eight steps led up to it.

32 And he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurements as the others. 33Its gate chambers, side pillars, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both the gateway and its portico had windows all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34Its portico faced the outer court, and its side pillars were decorated with palm trees on each side. Eight steps led up to it.

35 Then he brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measurements as the others, 36as did its gate chambers, side pillars, and portico. It also had windows all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 37Its portico faced the outer court, and its side pillars were decorated with palm trees on each side. Eight steps led up to it.

38 There was a chamber with a doorway by the portico in each of the inner gateways. There the burnt offering was to be washed. 39Inside the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings were to be slaughtered.

40 Outside, as one goes up to the entrance of the north gateway, there were two tables on one side and two more tables on the other side of the gate’s portico. 41So there were four tables inside the gateway and four outside — eight tables in all — on which the sacrifices were to be slaughtered.

42 There were also four tables of dressed stone for the burnt offering, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit high. On these were placed the utensils used to slaughter the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.

43 The double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadth long, were fastened all around the inside of the room, and the flesh of the offering was to be placed on the tables.

44 Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two chambers, one beside the north gate and facing south, and another beside the south gate and facing north.

45 Then the man said to me: “The chamber that faces south is for the priests who keep charge of the temple, 46and the chamber that faces north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, the only Levites who may approach the Lord to minister before Him.”

47 Next he measured the court. It was square, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.

48 Then he brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the side pillars of the portico to be five cubits on each side. The width of the gateway was fourteen cubits and its sidewalls were three cubits on either side. 49The portico was twenty cubits wide and twelve cubits deep, and ten steps led up to it.There were columns by the side pillars, one on each side.

1 Then the man brought me into the outer sanctuary and measured the side pillars to be six cubits wide on each side. 2The width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side. He also measured the length of the outer sanctuary to be forty cubits, and the width to be twenty cubits.

3 And he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the side pillars at the entrance to be two cubits wide. The entrance was six cubits wide, and the walls on each side were seven cubits wide. 4Then he measured the room adjacent to the inner sanctuary to be twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. And he said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.”

5 Next he measured the wall of the temple to be six cubits thick, and the width of each side room around the temple was four cubits. 6The side rooms were arranged one above another in three levels of thirty rooms each. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports would not be fastened into the wall of the temple itself. 7The side rooms surrounding the temple widened at each successive level, because the structure surrounding the temple ascended by stages corresponding to the narrowing of the temple wall as it rose upward. And so a stairway went up from the lowest story to the highest, through the middle one.

8 I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the full length of a rod, six long cubits. 9The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick, and the open area between the side rooms of the temple 10and the outer chambers was twenty cubits wide all around the temple. 11The side rooms opened into this area, with one entrance on the north and another on the south. The open area was five cubits wide all around.

12 Now the building that faced the temple courtyard on the west was seventy cubits wide, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, with a length of ninety cubits.

13 Then he measured the temple to be a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long. 14The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits.

15 Next he measured the length of the building facing the temple courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The outer sanctuary, the inner sanctuary, and the porticoes facing the court, 16as well as the thresholds and the beveled windows and the galleries all around with their three levels opposite the threshold, were overlaid with wood on all sides. They were paneled from the ground to the windows, and the windows were covered.

17 In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary on all the walls, spaced evenly around the inner and outer sanctuary, 18were alternating carved cherubim and palm trees. Each cherub had two faces: 19the face of a man was toward the palm tree on one side, and the face of a young lion was toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved all the way around the temple. 20Cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the outer sanctuary from the floor to the space above the entrance.

21 The outer sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe, and the doorframe of the sanctuary was similar.

22 There was an altar of wood three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. And the man told me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.”

23 Both the outer sanctuary and the inner sanctuary had double doors, 24and each door had two swinging panels. There were two panels for one door and two for the other. 25Cherubim and palm trees like those on the walls were carved on the doors of the outer sanctuary, and there was a wooden canopy outside, on the front of the portico. 26There were beveled windows and palm trees on the sidewalls of the portico. The side rooms of the temple also had canopies.

1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? 2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy? 6But He gives us more grace. This is why it says:

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.” 14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.