One Year Bible.

Constructing the Ark

¹Bezalel went on to construct the ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. ²He overlaid it with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it. ³And he cast four gold rings for its four feet, two rings on one side and two on the other. ⁴Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. ⁵He inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark in order to carry it.

The Mercy Seat

⁶He constructed a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. ⁷He made two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat, ⁸one cherub on one end and one on the other, all made from one piece of gold. ⁹And the cherubim had wings that spread upward, overshadowing the mercy seat. The cherubim faced each other, looking toward the mercy seat.

The Table of Showbread

¹⁰He also made the table of acacia wood two cubits long, a cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high. ¹¹He overlaid it with pure gold and made a gold molding around it. ¹²And he made a rim around it a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim.

¹³He cast four gold rings for the table and fastened them to the four corners at its four legs. ¹⁴The rings were placed close to the rim, to serve as holders for the poles used to carry the table. ¹⁵He made the poles of acacia wood for carrying the table and overlaid them with gold.

¹⁶He also made the utensils for the table out of pure gold: its plates and dishes, as well as its bowls and pitchers for pouring drink offerings.

The Lampstand

¹⁷Then he made the lampstand out of pure hammered gold, all of one piece: its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals. ¹⁸Six branches extended from the sides, three on one side and three on the other. ¹⁹There were three cups shaped like almond blossoms on the first branch, each with buds and petals, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches that extended from the lampstand.

²⁰And on the lampstand were four cups shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. ²¹A bud was under the first pair of branches that extended from the lampstand, a bud under the second pair, and a bud under the third pair. ²²The buds and branches were all of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold.

²³He also made its seven lamps, its wick trimmers, and trays of pure gold. ²⁴He made the lampstand and all its utensils from a talent of pure gold.

The Altar of Incense

²⁵He made the altar of incense out of acacia wood. It was square, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high. Its horns were of one piece. ²⁶And he overlaid with pure gold the top and all the sides and horns. Then he made a molding of gold around it.

²⁷He made two gold rings below the molding on opposite sides to hold the poles used to carry it. ²⁸And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.

²⁹He also made the sacred anointing oil and the pure, fragrant incense, the work of a perfumer.

The Bronze Altar

¹Bezalel constructed the altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. ²He made a horn at each of its four corners, so that the horns and altar were of one piece, and he overlaid the altar with bronze.

³He made all the altar’s utensils of bronze — its pots, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks, and firepans. ⁴He made a grate of bronze mesh for the altar under its ledge, halfway up from the bottom.

⁵At the four corners of the bronze grate he cast four rings as holders for the poles. ⁶And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. ⁷Then he inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar for carrying it. He made the altar with boards so that it was hollow.

The Bronze Basin

⁸Next he made the bronze basin and its stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

The Courtyard

⁹Then he constructed the courtyard. The south side of the courtyard was a hundred cubits long and had curtains of finely spun linen, ¹⁰with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts. ¹¹The north side was also a hundred cubits long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases. The hooks and bands of the posts were silver. ¹²The west side was fifty cubits long and had curtains, with ten posts and ten bases. The hooks and bands of the posts were silver. ¹³And the east side, toward the sunrise, was also fifty cubits long.

¹⁴The curtains on one side of the entrance were fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases. ¹⁵And the curtains on the other side were also fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases as well. ¹⁶All the curtains around the courtyard were made of finely spun linen. ¹⁷The bases for the posts were bronze, the hooks and bands were silver, and the plating for the tops of the posts was silver. So all the posts of the courtyard were banded with silver.

¹⁸The curtain for the entrance to the courtyard was embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It was twenty cubits long and, like the curtains of the courtyard, five cubits high, ¹⁹with four posts and four bronze bases. Their hooks were silver, as well as the bands and the plating of their tops. ²⁰All the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the surrounding courtyard were bronze.

An Inventory of Materials

²¹This is the inventory for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, as recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. ²²Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything that the LORD had commanded Moses. ²³With him was Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen.

²⁴All the gold from the wave offering used for the work on the sanctuary totaled 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

²⁵The silver from those numbered among the congregation totaled 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel— ²⁶a beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone twenty years of age or older who had crossed over to be numbered, a total of 603,550 men.

²⁷The hundred talents of silver were used to cast the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil— 100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent per base.

²⁸With the 1,775 shekels [of silver] he made the hooks for the posts, overlaid their tops, and supplied bands for them.

²⁹The bronze from the wave offering totaled 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. ³⁰He used it to make the bases for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the bronze altar and its bronze grating, all the utensils for the altar, ³¹the bases for the surrounding courtyard and its gate, and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and its surrounding courtyard.

The Death of Lazarus

¹At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.) ³So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

⁴When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days, ⁷and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

⁸“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”

⁹Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world. ¹⁰But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”

¹¹After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”

¹²His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.” ¹³They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

¹⁴So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

¹⁶Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

Jesus Comforts Martha and Mary

¹⁷When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb. ¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed at home.

²¹Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.”

²³“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

²⁴Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. ²⁶And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she answered, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

²⁸After Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside to tell her, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” ²⁹And when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.

³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. ³¹When the Jews who were in the house consoling Mary saw how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. ³²When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴“Where have you put him?” He asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they answered.

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

³⁷But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus

³⁸Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹“Take away the stone,” Jesus said.

“Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”

⁴⁰Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴²I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”

⁴³After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth.

“Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.

The Plot to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

⁴⁹But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

⁵¹Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵²and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.

⁵³So from that day on they plotted to kill Him. ⁵⁴As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples.

⁵⁵Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.