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.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give him thanks! Praise his name!

“Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word. ¹  Don’t be afraid of what scares them; don’t be terrified.

Isaiah ¹  asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

Your gates will remain open at all times; they will not be shut during the day or at night, so that the wealth of nations may be delivered, with their kings leading the way. ¹ 

Sounds of violence ¹  will no longer be heard in your land, or the sounds of ²  destruction and devastation within your borders. You will name your walls, ‘Deliverance,’ and your gates, ‘Praise.’

Come through! Come through the gates! Prepare the way for the people! Build it! Build the roadway! Remove the stones! Lift a signal flag for the nations!

“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim ¹  this message: ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. ²  Hear what the Lord has to say.

“The people of Judah are in mourning. The people in her cities are pining away. They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. ¹  Cries of distress come up to me ²  from Jerusalem. ³ 

As you stand in those places ¹  announce, ‘Listen, all you people who pass through these gates. Listen, all you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah and all you citizens of Jerusalem. Listen to what the Lord says. ² 

The Lord says, ‘Be very careful if you value your lives! ¹  Do not carry any loads ²  in through ³  the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. ¹  Announce there what I tell you. ² 

Say: ‘Listen, O king of Judah who follows in David’s succession. ¹  You, your officials, and your subjects who pass through the gates of this palace must listen to what the Lord says. ² 

Out of those places you will hear songs of thanksgiving ¹  and the sounds of laughter and merriment. I will increase their number and they will not dwindle away. ²  I will bring them honor and they will no longer be despised.

ל (Lamed) Neither the kings of the earth nor the people of the lands ¹  ever thought ²  that enemy or foe would enter the gates ³  of Jerusalem. ⁴ 

Then a wind ¹  came into me and stood me on my feet. The Lord ²  spoke to me and said, “Go shut yourself in your house.

Then the glory of the Lord arose from the cherub and moved to the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud while the court was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory.

“‘See here – this was the iniquity ¹  of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help ²  the poor and needy.

Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now they will commit immoral acts with her.’

Then he brought me to the outer sanctuary, and measured the jambs; the jambs were 10½ feet ¹  wide on each side.