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41Then he brought me to the nave, and measured the pilasters; on each side six cubits was the width of the pilasters. ²The width of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sidewalls of the entrance were five cubits on either side. He measured the length of the nave, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits. ³Then he went into the inner room and measured the pilasters of the entrance, two cubits; and the width of the entrance, six cubits; and the sidewalls of the entrance, seven cubits. ⁴He measured the depth of the room, twenty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits, beyond the nave. And he said to me, This is the most holy place. ⁵Then he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits thick; and the width of the side chambers, four cubits, all around the temple. ⁶The side chambers were in three stories, one over another, thirty in each story. There were offsets all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side chambers, so that they should not be supported by the wall of the temple. ⁷The passageway of the side chambers widened from story to story; for the structure was supplied with a stairway all around the temple. For this reason the structure became wider from story to story. One ascended from the bottom story to the uppermost story by way of the middle one. ⁸I saw also that the temple had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers measured a full reed of six long cubits. ⁹The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits; and the free space between the side chambers of the temple ¹⁰and the chambers of the court was a width of twenty cubits all around the temple on every side. ¹¹The side chambers opened onto the area left free, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south; and the width of the part that was left free was five cubits all around.

¹²The building that was facing the temple yard on the west side was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its depth ninety cubits. ¹³Then he measured the temple, one hundred cubits deep; and the yard and the building with its walls, one hundred cubits deep; ¹⁴also the width of the east front of the temple and the yard, one hundred cubits. ¹⁵Then he measured the depth of the building facing the yard at the west, together with its galleries on either side, one hundred cubits. The nave of the temple and the inner room and the outer vestibule ¹⁶were paneled, and, all around, all three had windows with recessed frames. Facing the threshold the temple was paneled with wood all around, from the floor up to the windows (now the windows were covered), ¹⁷to the space above the door, even to the inner room, and on the outside. And on all the walls all around in the inner room and the nave there was a pattern. ¹⁸It was formed of cherubim and palm trees, a palm tree between cherub and cherub. Each cherub had two faces: ¹⁹a human face turned toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion turned toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple all around; ²⁰from the floor to the area above the door, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall. ²¹The doorposts of the nave were square. In front of the holy place was something resembling ²²an altar of wood, three cubits high, two cubits long, and two cubits wide; its corners, its base, and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table that stands before the Lord.” ²³The nave and the holy place had each a double door. ²⁴The doors had two leaves apiece, two swinging leaves for each door. ²⁵On the doors of the nave were carved cherubim and palm trees, such as were carved on the walls; and there was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. ²⁶And there were recessed windows and palm trees on either side, on the sidewalls of the vestibule.

42Then he led me out into the outer court, toward the north, and he brought me to the chambers that were opposite the temple yard and opposite the building on the north. ²The length of the building that was on the north side was one hundred cubits, and the width fifty cubits. ³Across the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and facing the pavement that belonged to the outer court, the chambers rose gallery by gallery in three stories. ⁴In front of the chambers was a passage on the inner side, ten cubits wide and one hundred cubits deep, and its entrances were on the north. ⁵Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more away from them than from the lower and middle chambers in the building. ⁶For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer court; for this reason the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones. ⁷There was a wall outside parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers, fifty cubits long. ⁸For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those opposite the temple were one hundred cubits long. ⁹At the foot of these chambers ran a passage that one entered from the east in order to enter them from the outer court. ¹⁰The width of the passage is fixed by the wall of the court. On the south also, opposite the vacant area and opposite the building, there were chambers ¹¹with a passage in front of them; they were similar to the chambers on the north, of the same length and width, with the same exits and arrangements and doors. ¹²So the entrances of the chambers to the south were entered through the entrance at the head of the corresponding passage, from the east, along the matching wall. ¹³Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the vacant area are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings; there they shall deposit the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, for the place is holy. ¹⁴When the priests enter the holy place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the vestments in which they minister, for these are holy; they shall put on other garments before they go near to the area open to the people.”

¹⁵When he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faces east, and measured the temple area all around. ¹⁶He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ¹⁷Then he turned and measured the north side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ¹⁸Then he turned and measured the south side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ¹⁹Then he turned to the west side and measured, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed. ²⁰He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to make a separation between the holy and the common.

Psalm 89

¹I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.

²I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

³You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David:

⁴‘I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah

⁵Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,

⁷a God feared in the council of the holy ones, great and awesome above all that are around him?

⁸O Lord God of hosts, who is as mighty as you, O Lord? Your faithfulness surrounds you.

⁹You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.

¹⁰You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

¹¹The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it—you have founded them.

¹²The north and the south—you created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.

¹³You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.

¹⁴Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

¹⁵Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance;

¹⁶they exult in your name all day long, and extol your righteousness.

¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted.

¹⁸For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.

12A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ²She was pregnant and was crying out in birthpangs, in the agony of giving birth. ³Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. ⁴His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. ⁵And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; ⁶and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days. ⁷And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, ⁸but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. ¹¹But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.

¹²Rejoice then, you heavens and those who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” ¹³So when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. ¹⁴But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. ¹⁵Then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. ¹⁶But the earth came to the help of the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. ¹⁷Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁸Then the dragon took his stand on the sand of the seashore.