everyone who has determined to follow God, ¹  the Lord God of his ancestors, even if he is not ceremonially clean according to the standards of the temple.” ² 

The Lord God of their ancestors ¹  continually warned them through his messengers, ²  for he felt compassion for his people and his dwelling place.

Certainly ¹  spending just one day in your temple courts is better than spending a thousand elsewhere. ²  I would rather stand at the entrance ³  to the temple of my God than live ⁴  in the tents of the wicked.

When the Moabites plead with all their might at their high places, ¹  and enter their temples to pray, their prayers will be ineffective! ² 

I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ¹  that will be better than sons and daughters. I will set up a permanent monument ²  for them that will remain.

But those who harvest the grain ¹  will eat it, and will praise the Lord. Those who pick the grapes will drink the wine ²  in the courts of my holy sanctuary.”

Before two years are over, I will bring back to this place everything that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from it and carried away to Babylon.

‘We ¹  are ashamed because we have been insulted. ²  Our faces show our disgrace. ³  For foreigners have invaded the holy rooms ⁴  in the Lord’s temple.’

Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed ¹  women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. ² 

Then he measured the width from before the lower gate to the front of the exterior of the inner court as 175 feet ¹  on the east and on the north.

Opposite the gate on the north and the east was a gate of the inner court; he measured the distance from gate to gate at 175 feet. ¹ 

No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple ¹  of the Lord anymore. ²  So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

Announce a holy fast; ¹  proclaim a sacred assembly. Gather the elders and ²  all the inhabitants of the land to the temple of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, ¹  who fill the house of their master ²  with wealth taken by violence and deceit. ³ 

Then I will surround my temple ¹  to protect it like a guard ²  from anyone crossing back and forth; so no one will cross over against them anymore as an oppressor, for now I myself have seen it.

Then ¹  he ²  sat down opposite the offering box, ³  and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts.

If we allow him to go on in this way, ¹  everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary ²  and our nation.”

King Jehoash of Judah collected all the sacred items that his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had consecrated, as well as his own sacred items and all the gold that could be found in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He sent it all ¹  to King Hazael of Syria, who then withdrew ²  from Jerusalem.

He put the cherubs in the inner sanctuary of the temple. ¹  Their wings were spread out. One of the first cherub’s wings touched one wall and one of the other cherub’s wings touched the opposite wall. The first cherub’s other wing touched the second cherub’s other wing in the middle of the room. ² 

Now, look, I have made every effort to supply what is needed to build the Lord’s temple. ¹  I have stored up 100,000 talents ²  of gold, 1,000,000 ³  talents of silver, and so much bronze and iron it cannot be weighed, as well as wood and stones. Feel free to add more!