The Chronological Bible Reading Plan

The Chronological Bible Reading Plan
September 1

2 Chronicles 4-6

Chapter 4
Furnishings of the Temple
1 Then he made a bronze altar, twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in width and ten cubits in height.
2 Also he made the cast metal sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits and its circumference thirty cubits.
3 Now figures like oxen were under it and all around it, ten cubits, entirely encircling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast in one piece.
4 It stood on twelve oxen, three facing the north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them and all their hindquarters turned inwards.
5 It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it could hold 3,000 baths.
6 He also made ten basins in which to wash, and he set five on the right side and five on the left to rinse things for the burnt offering; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
7 Then he made the ten golden lampstands in the way prescribed for them and he set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.
8 He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred golden bowls.
9 Then he made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court, and overlaid their doors with bronze.
10 He set the sea on the right side of the house toward the southeast.
11 Huram also made the pails, the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of God:
12 the two pillars, the bowls and the two capitals on top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on top of the pillars,
13 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the pillars.
14 He also made the stands and he made the basins on the stands,
15 and the one sea with the twelve oxen under it.
16 The pails, the shovels, the forks and all its utensils, Huram-abi made of polished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.
17 On the plain of the Jordan the king cast them in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.
18 Thus Solomon made all these utensils in great quantities, for the weight of the bronze could not be found out.
19 Solomon also made all the things that were in the house of God: even the golden altar, the tables with the bread of the Presence on them,
20 the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn in front of the inner sanctuary in the way prescribed;
21 the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold, of purest gold;
22 and the snuffers, the bowls, the spoons and the firepans of pure gold; and the entrance of the house, its inner doors for the holy of holies and the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold.

Chapter 5
The Ark Is Brought into the Temple
1 Thus all the work that Solomon performed for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, even the silver and the gold and all the utensils, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.
2 Then Solomon assembled to Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.
3 All the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at the feast, that is in the seventh month.
4 Then all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark.
5 They brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils which were in the tent; the Levitical priests brought them up.
6 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim.
8 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles.
9 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles of the ark could be seen in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; and they are there to this day.
10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.
The Glory of God Fills the Temple
11 When the priests came forth from the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to divisions),
12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets
13 in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, “He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,
14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Chapter 6
Solomon’s Dedication
1 Then Solomon said,
“ The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.
2 “I have built You a lofty house,
And a place for Your dwelling forever.”
3 Then the king faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.
4 He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hands, saying,
5 ‘Since the day that I brought My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man for a leader over My people Israel;
6 but I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’
7 “Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
8 “But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart.
9 ‘Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will be born to you, he shall build the house for My name.’
10 “Now the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
11 “There I have set the ark in which is the covenant of the Lord, which He made with the sons of Israel.”
Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication
12 Then he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.
13 Now Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.
14 He said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no god like You in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;
15 who has kept with Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him; indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.
16 “Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’
17 “Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.
18 “But will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built.
19 “Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You;
20 that Your eye may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place of which You have said that You would put Your name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.
21 “Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; hear and forgive.
22 “If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house,
23 then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.
24 “If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house,
25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and to their fathers.
26 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them;
27 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.
28 “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,
29 whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house,
30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,
31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.
32 “Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name’s sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,
33 then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.
34 “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name,
35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
36 “When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land far off or near,
37 if they take thought in the land where they are taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly’;
38 if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which You have given to their fathers and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name,
39 then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.
40 “Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
41 “Now therefore arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.
42 “O Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David.”