¹Then David said, s“Here shall be the house of the Lord God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

David Prepares for Temple Building

²David commanded to gather together the tresident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he uset stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God. ³David also provided great quantities of iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for clamps, vas well as bronze in quantities beyond weighing, ⁴and cedar timbers without number, wfor the Sidonians and Tyrians brought great quantities of cedar to David. ⁵For David said, x“Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it.” So David provided materials in great quantity before his death.

Solomon Charged to Build the Temple

⁶Then he called for Solomon his son and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. ⁷David said to Solomon, “My son, yI had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. ⁸But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, z‘You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. ⁹Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. aI will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. bFor his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. ¹⁰cHe shall build a house for my name. dHe shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever.’

¹¹“Now, my son, ethe Lord be with you, so that you may succeed in building the house of the Lord your God, as he has spoken concerning you. ¹²fOnly, may the Lord grant you discretion and understanding, that when he gives you charge over Israel you may keep the law of the Lord your God. ¹³gThen you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel. hBe strong and courageous. Fear not; do not be dismayed. ¹⁴With great pains I have provided for the house of the Lord i100,000 talents1 of gold, a million talents of silver, and jbronze and iron beyond weighing, for there is so much of it; timber and stone, too, I have provided. To these you must add. ¹⁵You have an abundance of workmen: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of craftsmen without number, skilled in working ¹⁶gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Arise and work! kThe Lord be with you!”

¹⁷David also commanded lall the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, ¹⁸“Is not the Lord your God with you? And mhas he not given you peace2 on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and his people. ¹⁹Now nset your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God. Arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, oso that the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built pfor the name of the Lord.”

Wives and Husbands

¹Likewise, wives, kbe subject to your own husbands, so that leven if some do not obey the word, mthey may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, ²when they see your nrespectful and pure conduct. ³oDo not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— ⁴but let your adorning be pthe hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. ⁵For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, ⁶as Sarah obeyed Abraham, qcalling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and rdo not fear anything that is frightening.

⁷Likewise, shusbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker tvessel, since they are heirs with you1 of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Suffering for Righteousness' Sake

⁸Finally, all of you, uhave unity of mind, sympathy, vbrotherly love, wa tender heart, and xa humble mind. ⁹yDo not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, zbless, for ato this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. ¹⁰For

b“Whoever desires to love life

and see good days,

let him keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from speaking deceit;

¹¹let him turn away from evil and do good;

let him seek peace and pursue it.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹³Now cwho is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? ¹⁴dBut even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. eHave no fear of them, fnor be troubled, ¹⁵but gin your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, halways being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and irespect, ¹⁶jhaving a good conscience, so that, kwhen you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷For lit is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

¹⁸For Christ also msuffered2 nonce for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, othat he might bring us to God, being put to death pin the flesh but made alive qin the spirit, ¹⁹in which3 he went and qproclaimed4 to the spirits in prison, ²⁰because5 they formerly did not obey, rwhen God's patience waited in the days of Noah, swhile the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, teight persons, were brought safely through water. ²¹Baptism, which corresponds to this, unow saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but vas an appeal to God for a good conscience, wthrough the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and xis at the right hand of God, ywith angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

¹The word of the Lord that came to Micah aof Moresheth bin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw cconcerning dSamaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

²eHear, you peoples, all of you;1

fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,

and glet the Lord God be a witness against you,

hthe Lord from his holy temple.

³For behold, ithe Lord is coming out of jhis place,

and will come down and ktread upon the high places of the earth.

⁴And lthe mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will split open,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵All this is for mthe transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

nWhat is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not dSamaria?

And what is othe high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make dSamaria pa heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards,

and I will pour down her stones qinto the valley

and runcover her foundations.

⁷All sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,

tall her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste,

for from tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,

and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

⁸uFor this I will lament and wail;

I will go vstripped and naked;

I will make lamentation wlike the jackals,

and mourning xlike the ostriches.

⁹yFor her wound is incurable,

and it has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

¹⁰zTell it not in aGath;

weep not at all;

in Beth-le-aphrah

broll yourselves in the dust.

¹¹Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

cin nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come out;

the lamentation of Beth-ezel

shall take away from you its standing place.

¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because disaster has come down dfrom the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of eLachish;

it was the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

fthe transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts2

to gMoresheth-gath;

the houses of hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will again bring ia conqueror to you,

inhabitants of hMareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to jAdullam.

¹⁶kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

¹After this the Lord appointed xseventy-two1 others and ysent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. ²zAnd he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. aTherefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. ³Go your way; bbehold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. ⁴cCarry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and dgreet no one on the road. ⁵Whatever house you enter, first say, e‘Peace be to this house!’ ⁶And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, fit will return to you. ⁷And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for gthe laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. ⁸Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. ⁹Heal the sick in it and say to them, h‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ¹¹i‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that jthe kingdom of God has come near.’ ¹²I tell you, kit will be more bearable on lthat day for Sodom than for that town.

Woe to Unrepentant Cities

¹³m“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in nTyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴oBut it will be more bearable in the judgment for nTyre and Sidon than for you. ¹⁵And you, Capernaum, pwill you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to qHades.

¹⁶r“The one who hears you hears me, and sthe one who rejects you rejects me, and tthe one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

The Return of the Seventy-Two

¹⁷uThe seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, veven the demons are subject to us in your name!” ¹⁸And he said to them, w“I saw Satan xfall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹Behold, I have given you authority yto tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of zthe enemy, and anothing shall hurt you. ²⁰bNevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that cyour names are written in heaven.”

Jesus Rejoices in the Father's Will

²¹dIn that same hour ehe rejoiced fin the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, gLord of heaven and earth, that hyou have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and irevealed them to little children; yes, Father, for jsuch was your gracious will.2 ²²kAll things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is kexcept the Father, or who the Father is kexcept the Son and anyone lto whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²³Then turning to the disciples he said privately, m“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴For I tell you nthat many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵oAnd behold, a plawyer stood up to qput him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to rinherit eternal life?” ²⁶He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” ²⁷And he answered, s“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and tyour neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; udo this, and you will live.”

²⁹But he, vdesiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰Jesus replied, “A man wwas going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹Now by chance a xpriest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³²So likewise xa Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a ySamaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴He went to him and zbound up his wounds, pouring on zoil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵And the next day he took out two adenarii3 and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ ³⁶Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Martha and Mary

³⁸Now as they went on their way, Jesus4 entered a village. And a woman named bMartha cwelcomed him into her house. ³⁹And she had a sister called bMary, who dsat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” ⁴¹But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are eanxious and troubled about many things, ⁴²but one thing is necessary.5 Mary has chosen fthe good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”