American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
In my Father's house are many {Or, abiding-places}mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
And against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of {That is, the most holy place}the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about.
And every {Or, guard chamber}lodge was one reed long, and one reed broad; and the space between the lodges was five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate toward the house was one reed.
And the side-chambers were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side-chambers round about, that they might have hold therein, and not have hold in the wall of the house.
Then he brought me forth into the outer court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate place, and which was over against the building toward the north.
Before the length of a hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits.
Over against the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner court, and over against the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery {Or, in three stories}in the third story.
And before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits' breadth inward, a way of {According to Septuagint and Syriac, a hundred cubits.}one cubit; and their doors were toward the north.
Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middlemost, in the building.
For they were in three stories, and they had not pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore the uppermost was straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost from the ground.
And the {Or, fence}wall that was without by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court before the chambers, the length thereof was fifty cubits.
For the length of the chambers that were in the outer court was fifty cubits: and, lo, before the temple were a hundred cubits.
And from under these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one goeth into them from the outer court.
In the thickness of the {Or, fence}wall of the court toward the east, before the separate place, and before the building, there were chambers.
And the way before them was like the appearance of the way of the chambers which were toward the north; {Or, they were as long as they, and as broad as they}according to their length so was their breadth: and all their egresses were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors.
And according to the doors of the chambers that were toward the south was a door at the head of the way, even the way directly before the {Or, fence}wall toward the east, as one entereth into them.
Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they are the holy chambers, where the priests that are near unto Jehovah shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; for the place is holy.
But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better:
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the {Or, presence}coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep {Greek: through. Or, will God through Jesus}in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the {Or, presence}coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;
then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore {Or, exhort chapter 5:11.}comfort one another with these words.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: {Or, We shall not all &c.}We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For our {Or, commonwealth}citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.