2 Chronicles 6

2 Chronicles 6:1 Then Solomon said: Yahveh said he would dwell in total darkness,

2 Chronicles 6:2 but I have built an exalted temple for you, a place for your permanent residence.

2 Chronicles 6:3 Then the king turned and endorsed the entire congregation of Israel while they were standing.

2 Chronicles 6:4 He said: Praised be Yahveh God of Israel! He spoke directly to my father, David, and he has fulfilled the promise through his power. He said,

2 Chronicles 6:5 “Since the day I brought my people Israel out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen[1] a city to build a temple in among any of the tribes of Israel, so that my name would be there, and I have not chosen a man to be ruler over my people, Israel.

2 Chronicles 6:6 But I have chosen Jerusalem so that my name will be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.”

2 Chronicles 6:7 My father, David, had his heart set on building a temple for the name of Yahveh, the God of Israel.

2 Chronicles 6:8 However, Yahveh said to my father David, “Since you desired to build a temple for my name, you have done well to have this desire.

2 Chronicles 6:9 Yet, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your offspring, will make the temple for my name.”

2 Chronicles 6:10 So Yahveh has fulfilled what he promised. I have taken the place of my father, David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahveh promised. I have built the temple for the name of Yahveh, the God of Israel.

2 Chronicles 6:11 I have placed[2] the ark there, where Yahveh’s covenant is that he established with the Israelites.

2 Chronicles 6:12 Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahveh in the face of the entire congregation of Israel and spread out his hands.

2 Chronicles 6:13 For Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high and put it in the court. He stood on it, knelt on his knees in the face of the entire congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward the sky.

2 Chronicles 6:14 He said: Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in the sky or on the land, who guards his covenant and covenant faithfulness with your slaves who walk before you with all their heart.[3]

2 Chronicles 6:15 You have guarded what you promised to your slave, my father, David. You spoke directly to him, and you fulfilled your promise by your power, as it is today.

2 Chronicles 6:16 Therefore, Yahveh God of Israel, guard what you promised to your slave, my father David: “You will never  have a man cut off before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their way to walk in my instruction[4] as you have walked before me.”

2 Chronicles 6:17 Now, Yahveh God of Israel, please confirm what you promised to your slave David.

2 Chronicles 6:18 But will God indeed live on the land with humans? Notice, even the sky, the sky of skies, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.

2 Chronicles 6:19 Listen to your slave’s prayer and his petition, Lord my God, so that you may hear the cry and the prayer that your slave prays before you,

2 Chronicles 6:20 so that your eyes watch over this temple day and night, toward the place where you said you would place your name; and so that you may hear the prayer your slave prays toward this place.

2 Chronicles 6:21 Hear the petitions of your slave and your people Israel, which they pray toward this place. May you hear in your dwelling place in the sky. May you hear and forgive.

2 Chronicles 6:22 When a man who fails[5] his neighbor is forced to take an oath[6] and comes to take an oath before your altar in this temple,

2 Chronicles 6:23 may you hear in the sky and act. May you judge your slaves, condemning the wicked man by bringing what he has done on his head and providing justice for the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

2 Chronicles 6:24 When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have failed you, and they return to you and praise your name, and they pray and plead for favor before you in this temple,

2 Chronicles 6:25 may you hear in the sky and forgive the sin of your people Israel. May you restore them to the land you gave them and their ancestors.

2 Chronicles 6:26 When the skies are shut and there is no rain because they have failed you, and they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they turn from their failures because you are afflicting them,

2 Chronicles 6:27 may you hear in the sky and forgive the sin of your slaves and your people Israel, so that you may teach them the good way they should walk in. May you send rain on your land that you gave your people for an inheritance.

2 Chronicles 6:28 When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there is blight or mildew, locust, or grasshopper, when their enemies besiege them in the land and its cities, when there is any plague or illness,

2 Chronicles 6:29 every prayer or petition that any person or that all your people Israel may have- they each know their own affliction and suffering- as they spread out their hands toward this temple,

2 Chronicles 6:30 may you hear in the sky, your dwelling place, and may you forgive and give to everyone according to all their ways, since you know each heart, for you alone know the human heart,

2 Chronicles 6:31 so that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days they are living[7] on the land you gave our ancestors.

2 Chronicles 6:32 Even for the foreigner who is not of your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your strong hand and outstretched arm: when he comes and prays toward this temple,

2 Chronicles 6:33 may you hear in the sky in your dwelling place and do all the foreigner asks you. Then all the people of the land will know your name, to fear you as your people Israel do, and understand that this temple I have built bears your name.

2 Chronicles 6:34 When your people go out to fight against their enemies, wherever you send them, and they pray to you in the direction of this city you have chosen and the temple that I have built for your name,

2 Chronicles 6:35 may you hear their prayer and petition in the sky and bring them justice.

2 Chronicles 6:36 When they fail you, for there is no one who does not fail- and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, and their captors deport them to a distant or nearby country,

2 Chronicles 6:37 and when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported and repent and seek your favor in their captors’ land, saying: “We have failed and done wrong; we have been wicked,”

2 Chronicles 6:38 and when they return to you with all their heart and all their throat in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive, and when they pray in the direction of their land that you gave their ancestors, and the city you have chosen, and toward the temple I have built for your name,

2 Chronicles 6:39 may you hear their prayer and petitions in the sky, your dwelling place, and bring them justice. May you forgive your people who failed you.

2 Chronicles 6:40 Now, my God, please let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

2 Chronicles 6:41 Now therefore: Arise, Yahveh God, come to your resting place, you and your mighty ark. May your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and may your faithful people enjoy[8] goodness.

2 Chronicles 6:42 Yahveh God, do not reject your anointed one; remember the covenant faithfulness to your slave David.

[1] בָּחַר = choose, try out, test. 2 Chronicles 6:5, 6, 34, 38; 7:12, 16; 11:1; 12:13; 13:3, 17; 29:11; 33:7. 2 Chronicles 2:12; 6:3, 4, 13; 9:8; 20:26; 30:27; 31:8, 10.

[2]  שׂוּם = place, put. 2 Chronicles 6:11, 20; 12:13; 18:26; 23:15, 18; 33:7, 14.

[3] לֵב = heart.  2 Chronicles 6:14, 38; 7:10, 11, 16; 9:23; 12:14; 17:6; 24:4; 25:19; 26:16; 30:12, 22; 32:25, 26.

[4] תּוֹרָה = instruction. 2 Chronicles 6:16; 12:1; 14:4; 15:3; 17:9; 19:10; 23:18; 25:4; 30:16; 31:3, 4, 21; 33:8; 34:14, 15, 19; 35:26.

[5] חָטָא = fail. 2 Chronicles 6:22, 24, 26, 36, 37, 39; 29:24.

[6] אָלָה = oath.  2 Chronicles 6:22; 34:24.

[7] חַי = living. 2 Chronicles 6:31; 10:6; 18:13; 25:12.

[8] שָׂמַח = enjoy, rejoice. Chronicles 6:41; 15:15; 20:27; 23:21; 24:10; 29:36; 30:25.

links:

ACST 52- The Change
real presence – Devotions
staying real

The 2 Chronicles shelf in Jeff’s library

2 Chronicles 5

2 Chronicles 5:1 So all the work Solomon did for Yahveh’s temple was completed. Then Solomon brought the consecrated things of his father David- the silver, the gold, and all the utensils- and put them in the treasuries of God’s temple.

2 Chronicles 5:2 At that time, Solomon collected[1] at Jerusalem the elders of Israel — all the tribal heads, the ancestral chiefs of the Israelites — in order to bring the ark of the covenant of Yahvehup from the city of David, that is, Zion.

2 Chronicles 5:3 So all the men of Israel were assembled in the king’s presence at the festival; this was in the seventh month.

2 Chronicles 5:4 All the elders of Israel came, and the Levites picked up the ark.

2 Chronicles 5:5 The priests and the Levites brought up the ark, the conference tent, and the sacred utensils that were in the tent.

2 Chronicles 5:6 King Solomon and the entire congregation[2] of Israel who had gathered around him were in the face of the ark sacrificing sheep, goats, and cattle that could not be counted or numbered because there were so many.

2 Chronicles 5:7 The priests brought the ark of Yahveh’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the holiest place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

2 Chronicles 5:8 And the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark so that the cherubim formed a cover above the ark and its poles.

2 Chronicles 5:9 The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the sacred place in the face of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside; they are still there today.

2 Chronicles 5:10 Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had put in it at Horeb, where Yahveh had established a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

2 Chronicles 5:11 Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless[3] of their divisions. When the priests came out of the sacred place,

2 Chronicles 5:12 the Levitical singers dressed in fine linen and carrying cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing east of the altar, and with them were 120 priests blowing trumpets. The Levitical singers were descendants of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun and their sons and relatives.

2 Chronicles 5:13 The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank Yahveh with one voice. They raised their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to Yahveh: For he is good; his covenant faithfulness endures permanently. The temple, Yahveh’s temple, was filled with a cloud.

2 Chronicles 5:14 And because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering,[4] because the impressive appearance of Yahveh filled God’s temple.

[1] קָהַל = collect. 2 Chronicles 5:2, 3; 11:1; 20:26.

[2] עֵדָה = congregation. 2 Chronicles 5:6.

[3] שָׁמַר = be careful, guard, regard. 2 Chronicles 5:11; 6:14, 15, 16; 7:17; 12:10; 13:11; 19:7; 23:6; 33:8; 34:9, 21, 22, 31.

[4] שָׁרָת = minister.  2 Chronicles 5:14; 8:14; 9:4; 13:10; 17:19; 22:8; 23:6; 29:11; 31:2.

links:

all hands on deck
God alone is Immortal
God is Different
present and accounted for – Devotions

The 2 Chronicles shelf in Jeff’s library

2 Chronicles 4

2 Chronicles 4:1 He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.

2 Chronicles 4:2 He made the cast metal basin, ten cubits from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was five cubits high and thirty cubits in circumference.

2 Chronicles 4:3 The likeness of oxen was below it, completely encircling it, ten every ten cubits, surrounding the basin. The oxen were cast in two rows when the basin was cast.

2 Chronicles 4:4 It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The basin was on top of them, and all their hindquarters were toward the center.

2 Chronicles 4:5 The basin was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or a lily blossom. It could hold 3,000 baths.

2 Chronicles 4:6 He made ten basins for washing, and he put five on the right and five on the left. The parts of the ascending offerings were rinsed in them, but the priests used the basin for washing.

2 Chronicles 4:7 He made the ten gold lampstands according to their judgment[1] and put them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left.

2 Chronicles 4:8 He made ten tables and placed them in the sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left. He also made a hundred gold bowls.

2 Chronicles 4:9 He made the courtyard of the priests and the large court, and doors for the court. He overlaid the doors with bronze.

2 Chronicles 4:10 He put the basin on the right side, toward the southeast.

2 Chronicles 4:11 Then Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was doing for King Solomon in God’s temple:

2 Chronicles 4:12 two pillars; the bowls and the capitals on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars;

2 Chronicles 4:13 the four hundred pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating, covering both capitals’ bowls on top of the pillars).

2 Chronicles 4:14 He also made the water carts and the basins on the water carts.

2 Chronicles 4:15 The one basin and the twelve oxen underneath it,

2 Chronicles 4:16 the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all their utensils — Huram-abi made them for King Solomon for Yahveh’s temple. All these were made of polished bronze.

2 Chronicles 4:17 The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zeredah.

2 Chronicles 4:18 Solomon made all these utensils in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

2 Chronicles 4:19 Solomon also made all the equipment in God’s temple: the gold altar; the tables on which to put the Bread of the Presence;

2 Chronicles 4:20 the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn[2] in the face of the inner sanctuary, according to the judgment;

2 Chronicles 4:21 the flowers, lamps, and gold tongs– of purest gold;

2 Chronicles 4:22 the wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, and firepans — of purest gold; the entryway to the temple, its inner doors to the most sacred place, and the doors of the temple sanctuary — of gold.

[1] מִשְׁפָּט = judgment, justice. 2 Chronicles 4:7, 20; 6:35, 39; 7:17; 8:14; 9:8; 19:6, 8, 10; 30:16; 33:8; 35:13.

[2]  בָּעַר = burn, consume.  2 Chronicles 4:20; 13:11; 19:3; 28:3.

links:

something magnificent
the glory that was – Devotions

The 2 Chronicles shelf in Jeff’s library

2 Chronicles 3

2 Chronicles 3:1 Solomon began to build  Yahveh’s house in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where Yahveh had appeared to his father David, at the site David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 Chronicles 3:2 He began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

2 Chronicles 3:3 These are Solomon’s foundations for building God’s house: According to the old standard, the length in cubits was sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits.

2 Chronicles 3:4 The portico, which was across the face extending across the width of the house, was twenty cubits wide; its height was twenty cubits; he overlaid its inner surface with pure[1] gold.

2 Chronicles 3:5 The larger room he paneled with cypress wood, overlaid with fine gold, and decorated with palm trees and chains.

2 Chronicles 3:6 He adorned the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was the gold of Parvaim.

2 Chronicles 3:7 He overlaid the house – the beams, the thresholds, its walls, and doors- with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.

2 Chronicles 3:8 Then he made the most sacred[2] place; its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits. He overlaid it with 600 talents of fine gold.

2 Chronicles 3:9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold, and he overlaid the ceiling with gold.

2 Chronicles 3:10 He made two cherubim of sculptured work inside the most sacred place and overlaid them with gold.

2 Chronicles 3:11 The overall length of the wings of the cherubim was twenty cubits: the wing of one was five cubits, touching the wall of the room; its other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub.

2 Chronicles 3:12 The wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room; its other wing was five cubits, reaching the wing of the other cherub.

2 Chronicles 3:13 The wingspan of these cherubim was twenty cubits. They stood on their feet and faced the larger room.

2 Chronicles 3:14 He made the curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarn, and fine linen, and he wove cherubim into it.

2 Chronicles 3:15 In the face of the temple, he made two pillars, each thirty-five cubits high. The capital on top of each was five cubits high.

2 Chronicles 3:16 He had made chainwork in the inner sanctuary and also put it on top of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork.

2 Chronicles 3:17 Then he set up the pillars in face of the sanctuary, one on the right and one on the left. He named[3] the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.

[1] טָהוֹר = pure. 2 Chronicles 3:4; 9:17; 13:11; 30:17.

[2] קֹדֶשׁ = sacred. 2 Chronicles 3:8, 10; 4:22; 5:1, 5, 7, 11; 8:11; 15:18; 20:21; 23:6; 24:7; 29:5, 7, 33; 30:19, 27; 31:6, 12, 14, 18; 35:3, 5, 13.

[3] קָרָא = invite, cry out, convene, name.  2 Chronicles 3:17; 6:33; 7:14; 10:3; 14:11; 18:8, 12; 20:3, 26; 24:6; 32:18; 34:18, 24, 30.

links:

an audience of one
the most holy place

The 2 Chronicles shelf in Jeff’s library