1 Kings 10

• 1. When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's reputation, which brought honor to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.
• 2. She arrived in Jerusalem with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of camels loaded with spices, huge quantities of gold, and precious jewels. When she met with Solomon, they talked about everything she had on her mind.
• 3. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.
• 4. When the queen of Sheba realized how wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built,
• 5. she was breathless. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the cup-bearers and their robes, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of the LORD.
• 6. She exclaimed to the king, "Everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true!
• 7. I didn't believe it until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. Truly I had not heard the half of it! Your wisdom and prosperity are far greater than what I was told.
• 8. How happy these people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom!
• 9. The LORD your God is great indeed! He delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because the LORD loves Israel with an eternal love, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness."
• 10. Then she gave the king a gift of nine thousand pounds of gold, and great quantities of spices and precious jewels. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.
• 11. (When Hiram's ships brought gold from Ophir, they also brought rich cargoes of almug wood and precious jewels.
• 12. The king used the almug wood to make railings for the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and to construct harps and lyres for the musicians. Never before or since has there been such a supply of beautiful almug wood.)
• 13. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba whatever she asked for, besides all the other customary gifts he had so generously given. Then she and all her attendants left and returned to their own land.
• 14. Each year Solomon received about twenty-five tons of gold.
• 15. This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders, all the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the land.
• 16. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, each containing over fifteen pounds of gold.
• 17. He also made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold, each containing nearly four pounds of gold. The king placed these shields in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.
• 18. Then the king made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.
• 19. The throne had six steps and a rounded back. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with the figure of a lion standing on each side of the throne.
• 20. Solomon made twelve other lion figures, one standing on each end of each of the six steps. No other throne in all the world could be compared with it!
• 21. All of King Solomon's drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver because silver was considered of little value in Solomon's day!
• 22. The king had a fleet of trading ships that sailed with Hiram's fleet. Once every three years the ships returned, loaded down with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
• 23. So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king in all the earth.
• 24. People from every nation came to visit him and to hear the wisdom God had given him.
• 25. Year after year, everyone who came to visit brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.
• 26. Solomon built up a huge force of chariots and horses. He had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses. He stationed many of them in the chariot cities, and some near him in Jerusalem.
• 27. The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones. And valuable cedarwood was as common as the sycamore wood that grows in the foothills of Judah.
• 28. Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia; the king's traders acquired them from Cilicia at the standard price.
• 29. At that time, Egyptian chariots delivered to Jerusalem could be purchased for 600 pieces of silver, and horses could be bought for 150 pieces of silver. Many of these were then resold to the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

Philippians 1

• 1. This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. It is written to all of God's people in Philippi, who believe in Christ Jesus, and to the elders and deacons.
• 2. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
• 3. Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.
• 4. I always pray for you, and I make my requests with a heart full of joy
• 5. because you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.
• 6. And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.
• 7. It is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a very special place in my heart. We have shared together the blessings of God, both when I was in prison and when I was out, defending the truth and telling others the Good News.
• 8. God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.
• 9. I pray that your love for each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding.
• 10. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.
• 11. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation--those good things that are produced in your life by Jesus Christ--for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
• 12. And I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News.
• 13. For everyone here, including all the soldiers in the palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ.
• 14. And because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians here have gained confidence and become more bold in telling others about Christ.
• 15. Some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives.
• 16. They preach because they love me, for they know the Lord brought me here to defend the Good News.
• 17. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me.
• 18. But whether or not their motives are pure, the fact remains that the message about Christ is being preached, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.
• 19. For I know that as you pray for me and as the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will all turn out for my deliverance.
• 20. For I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that causes me shame, but that I will always be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and that my life will always honor Christ, whether I live or I die.
• 21. For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better.
• 22. Yet if I live, that means fruitful service for Christ. I really don't know which is better.
• 23. I'm torn between two desires: Sometimes I want to live, and sometimes I long to go and be with Christ. That would be far better for me,
• 24. but it is better for you that I live.
• 25. I am convinced of this, so I will continue with you so that you will grow and experience the joy of your faith.
• 26. Then when I return to you, you will have even more reason to boast about what Christ Jesus has done for me.
• 27. But whatever happens to me, you must live in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ, as citizens of heaven. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing side by side, fighting together for the Good News.
• 28. Don't be intimidated by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself.
• 29. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.
• 30. We are in this fight together. You have seen me suffer for him in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of this great struggle.

Ezekiel 40

• 1. On April 28, during the twenty-fifth year of our captivity--fourteen years after the fall of Jerusalem--the LORD took hold of me.
• 2. In a vision of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain. From there I could see what appeared to be a city across from me toward the south.
• 3. As he brought me nearer, I saw a man whose face shone like bronze standing beside a gateway entrance. He was holding in his hand a measuring tape and a measuring rod.
• 4. He said to me, "Son of man, watch and listen. Pay close attention to everything I show you. You have been brought here so I can show you many things. Then you will return to the people of Israel and tell them everything you have seen."
• 5. I could see a wall completely surrounding the Temple area. The man took a measuring rod that was 10 1/2 feet long and measured the wall, and the wall was 10 1/2 feet thick and 10 1/2 feet high.
• 6. Then he went over to the gateway that goes through the eastern wall. He climbed the steps and measured the threshold of the gateway; it was 10 1/2 feet deep.
• 7. There were guard alcoves on each side built into the gateway passage. Each of these alcoves was 10 1/2 feet square, with a distance between them of 8 3/4 feet along the passage wall. The gateway's inner threshold, which led to the foyer at the inner end of the gateway passage, was 10 1/2 feet deep.
• 8. He also measured the foyer of the gateway
• 9. and found it to be 14 feet deep, with supporting columns 3 1/2 feet thick. This foyer was at the inner end of the gateway structure, facing toward the Temple.
• 10. There were three guard alcoves on each side of the gateway passage. Each had the same measurements, and the dividing walls separating them were also identical.
• 11. The man measured the gateway entrance, which was 17 1/2 feet wide at the opening and 22 3/4 feet wide in the gateway passage.
• 12. In front of each of the guard alcoves was a 21-inch curb. The alcoves themselves were 10 1/2 feet square.
• 13. Then he measured the entire width of the gateway, measuring the distance between the back walls of facing guard alcoves; this distance was 43 3/4 feet.
• 14. He measured the dividing walls all along the inside of the gateway up to the gateway's foyer; this distance was 105 feet.
• 15. The full length of the gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet from one end to the other.
• 16. There were recessed windows that narrowed inward through the walls of the guard alcoves and their dividing walls. There were also windows in the foyer structure. The surfaces of the dividing walls were decorated with carved palm trees.
• 17. Then the man brought me through the gateway into the outer courtyard of the Temple. A stone pavement ran along the walls of the courtyard, and thirty rooms were built against the walls, opening onto the pavement.
• 18. This pavement flanked the gates and extended out from the walls into the courtyard the same distance as the gateway entrance. This was the lower pavement.
• 19. Then the man measured across the Temple's outer courtyard between the outer and inner gateways; the distance was 175 feet.
• 20. There was a gateway on the north just like the one on the east, and the man measured it.
• 21. Here, too, there were three guard alcoves on each side, with dividing walls and a foyer. All the measurements matched those of the east gateway. The gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves.
• 22. The windows, the foyer, and the palm tree decorations were identical to those in the east gateway. There were seven steps leading up to the gateway entrance, and the foyer was at the inner end of the gateway passage.
• 23. Here on the north side, just as on the east, there was another gateway leading to the Temple's inner courtyard directly opposite this outer gateway. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet.
• 24. Then the man took me around to the south gateway and measured its various parts, and he found they were exactly the same as in the others.
• 25. It had windows along the walls as the others did, and there was a foyer where the gateway passage opened into the outer courtyard. And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide between the back walls of facing guard alcoves.
• 26. This gateway also had a stairway of seven steps leading up to it, and there were palm tree decorations along the dividing walls.
• 27. And here again, directly opposite the outer gateway, was another gateway that led into the inner courtyard. The distance between the two gateways was 175 feet.
• 28. Then the man took me to the south gateway leading into the inner courtyard. He measured it and found that it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
• 29. Its guard alcoves, dividing walls, and foyer were the same size as those in the others. It also had windows along its walls and in the foyer structure. And like the others, the gateway passage was 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide.
• 30. (The foyers of the gateways leading into the inner courtyard were 8 3/4 feet deep and 43 3/4 feet wide.)
• 31. The foyer of the south gateway faced into the outer courtyard. It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight steps leading to its entrance.
• 32. Then he took me to the east gateway leading to the inner courtyard. He measured it and found that it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
• 33. Its guard alcoves, dividing walls, and foyer were the same size as those of the others, and there were windows along the walls and in the foyer structure. The gateway passage measured 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide.
• 34. Its foyer faced into the outer courtyard. It had palm tree decorations on its columns, and there were eight steps leading to its entrance.
• 35. Then he took me around to the north gateway leading to the inner courtyard. He measured it and found that it had the same measurements as the other gateways.
• 36. The guard alcoves, dividing walls, and foyer of this gateway had the same measurements as in the others and the same window arrangements. The gateway passage measured 87 1/2 feet long and 43 3/4 feet wide.
• 37. Its foyer faced into the outer courtyard, and it had palm tree decorations on the columns. There were eight steps leading to its entrance.
• 38. A door led from the foyer of the inner gateway on the north side into a side room where the meat for sacrifices was washed before being taken to the altar.
• 39. On each side of this foyer were two tables, where the sacrificial animals were slaughtered for the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings.
• 40. Outside the foyer, on each side of the stairs going up to the north entrance, there were two more tables.
• 41. So there were eight tables in all, four inside and four outside, where the sacrifices were cut up and prepared.
• 42. There were also four tables of hewn stone for preparation of the burnt offerings, each 31 1/2 inches square and 21 inches high. On these tables were placed the butchering knives and other implements and the sacrificial animals.
• 43. There were hooks, each three inches long, fastened to the foyer walls and set on the tables where the sacrificial meat was to be laid.
• 44. Inside the inner courtyard there were two one-room buildings for the singers, one beside the north gateway, facing south, and the other beside the south gateway, facing north.
• 45. And the man said to me, "The building beside the north inner gate is for the priests who supervise the Temple maintenance.
• 46. The building beside the south inner gate is for the priests in charge of the altar--the descendants of Zadok--for they alone of all the Levites may approach the LORD to minister to him."
• 47. Then the man measured the inner courtyard and found it to be 175 feet square. The altar stood there in the courtyard in front of the Temple.
• 48. Then he brought me to the foyer of the Temple. He measured its supporting columns and found them to be 8 3/4 feet square. The entrance was 24 1/2 feet wide with walls 5 1/4 feet thick.
• 49. The depth of the foyer was 35 feet and the width was 19 1/4 feet. There were ten steps leading up to it, with a column on each side.

New Living Translation: 280 of 365 days.