Ezekiel 43
The Glory of the Lord Fills the Temple
1 Then he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east, and led me out.†
2 Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was approaching from the way of the gate which faces east. The sound of His camp was like the sound of many voices redoubled upon each other, and the earth shone forth His glory with a brightness all around.
3 The vision I saw was like the vision I saw when I entered to anoint the city, and the vision of the chariot I saw was like the vision I saw by the River Chebar; so I fell on my face.
4 Then the glory of the Lord entered into the house by way of the gate which faces toward the east.
5 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the house was full of the Lord’s glory.
6 Then I stood, and behold, there was a voice from the house, and a Man was standing with me.
7 He said to me, “Son of man, you have seen the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the house of Israel forever. No more will the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their leaders, by their fornication or murders of the leaders in their midst.
8 When they set My threshold by their thresholds, and My doorpost by their doorposts, with a wall between them and Me, they desecrated My holy name by their lawlessness, and I destroyed them in My anger and with slaughter.
9 Now let them remove their fornication from My presence, and the murders of their leaders, and I will dwell in their midst forever.
10 “As for you, son of man, explain this house to the house of Israel, and they will cease from the shame of their sins; and describe to them its vision and its plan.
11 They shall take the chastisements for all the things they did, and you shall describe the house, its design, its exits, and its substance, and all its ordinances. You shall make known its laws to them and write them out in their sight. Then they will keep all My requirements and all My ordinances and perform them.
12 You will also show them the diagram of the house to be on the mountaintop and all its boundaries roundabout. It shall all be most holy.
Measurements of the Altar
13 “These are the measurements of the altar in cubits (where a cubit equals one cubit and a handbreadth): from the drain up one cubit high and one cubit wide, with a projection all around its edge of one span. This is the height of the altar:†
14 the depth of the hollow which is toward the great mercy seat, below this, two cubits; and its width, one cubit; and from the little mercy seat to the great mercy seat, four cubits; and the width, one cubit.
15 The altar shall be four cubits, and from the altar and above the four horns, one cubit.
16 The altar shall be twelve cubits long, up to fourteen wide, in its four directions,
17 and its projection which goes all around it on all sides is a half of a cubit, so the outcropping all around is a cubit. Its stairs face to the east.”
18 Then He said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘These are the ordinances for the altar on the day of its construction, for offering up whole burnt offerings and pouring out blood on it.†
19 You shall offer a young bull for a sin offering to the priests, the Levites, who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach Me to minister liturgically to Me,’ says the Lord God.
20 ‘They shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the mercy seat, and on the step around it; and they shall make atonement for it.
21 Then they shall take the calf of the sin offering and consume it by fire in the appointed place, set apart from the house, outside the sanctuary.
22 On the second day they shall take two kids of goats without blemish for a sin offering, and they shall make atonement for the altar, as they made atonement with the calf.
23 After they finish the atonement, they shall offer a calf from the herd without blemish, and a ram from the flock without blemish.
24 They shall offer them before the Lord; and the priests shall throw salt on them and offer them up as whole burnt offerings to the Lord.
25 Every day for seven days, you shall prepare a goat for a sin offering; and you shall prepare a calf and a ram from the flock, and they shall offer them without blemish for seven days.
26 So they shall make atonement for the altar, and purify it, and fill their hands.
27 It will be when these days are over, on the eighth day, the priests shall offer your whole burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar, and I shall accept you,’ says the Lord.”
Psalms 141
1 Understanding; by David, when he was in the cave; a prayer.
2 I cried to the Lord with my voice, With my voice I prayed to the Lord.
3 I shall pour out my supplication before Him; I shall declare my affliction in His presence.
4 When my spirit fainted within me, Then You knew my paths; For on the way I was going, they hid a trap for me.
5 I looked on my right, and saw There was no one who knew me; Refuge failed me, And there was no one who cared for my soul.
6 I cried to You, O Lord; I said, “You are my hope, My portion in the land of the living.
7 Attend to my supplication, For I was humbled exceedingly; Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than I.
8 Bring my soul out of prison To give thanks to Your name, O Lord; The righteous shall wait for me, until You reward me.”
Proverbs of Solomon 30
11 An evil offspring curses his father And does not bless his mother.†
12 An evil offspring judges himself righteous, But is not washed from his uncleanness.
13 An evil offspring has haughty eyes And exalts himself with his eyelids;
14 An evil offspring has teeth like swords And molars like knives, so as to destroy
15 And to devour the poor from the earth, And their needy from among men.
Revelation 12
The Woman, Her Child and the Dragon
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.†
2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
The Child
3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.†
4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.†
6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.†
War in Heaven
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,†
8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
War on Earth
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. †
14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.†