The Holy Spirit is making clear that the way into the holy place had not yet appeared as long as the old tabernacle ¹  was standing.

One day some men ¹  were burying a man when they spotted ²  a raiding party. So they threw the dead man ³  into Elisha’s tomb. When the body ⁴  touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man ⁵  came to life and stood on his feet.

They slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it on the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and splashed the blood on the altar; next they slaughtered the lambs and splashed the blood on the altar.

“Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ¹ 

Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one ¹  that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel. ²  Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies. ³ 

Look! You are driving me off the land ¹  today, and I must hide from your presence. ²  I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me.”

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – on that day all the fountains of the great deep ¹  burst open and the floodgates of the heavens ²  were opened.

In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! ¹  So Jacob ²  said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! ³  Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked ⁴  me?”

That is why to this day ¹  the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because he struck ²  the socket of Jacob’s hip near the attached sinew.

The Lord did so; a ¹  thick ²  swarm of flies came into ³  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ⁴  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ⁵  because of the swarms of flies.

The Lord was furious with Israel. ¹  He said, “This nation ²  has violated the terms of the agreement I made with their ancestors ³  by disobeying me. ⁴ 

As Samuel was offering burnt offerings, the Philistines approached to do battle with Israel. ¹  But on that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines. He caused them to panic, and they were defeated by ²  Israel.

He has sacrificed many cattle, steers, and sheep and has invited all the king’s sons, Abiathar the priest, and Joab, the commander of the army, but he has not invited your servant Solomon.

When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, ¹  as they acknowledge their pain ²  and spread out their hands toward this temple,

He followed in the footsteps of ¹  the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, ²  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ³  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated ¹  them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence.

When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, ¹  as they acknowledge their intense pain ²  and spread out their hands toward this temple,

He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire, ¹  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ²  whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.

Everyone who did not come within three days would thereby forfeit all his property, in keeping with the counsel of the officials and the elders. Furthermore, he himself would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

The Lord strengthens and protects me; ¹  I trust in him with all my heart. ²  I am rescued ³  and my heart is full of joy; ⁴  I will sing to him in gratitude. ⁵