killed.

With such crowds in the city, it was hard for the people from Nazareth
to get through the narrow streets. All along the streets they saw
shops. Some of the shopkeepers were selling goods that had been
brought down from Galilee--fish and oil and wine and fruit. Besides
the merchants there were shoemakers, butchers, carpenters, tailors. On
the side streets gold-smiths and jewelers were making things for the
rich people. Here and there was a merchant selling fine silks which
had been brought from the Far East. A man could buy almost anything he
wanted in Jerusalem, provided that he had the money.

[Illustration]

The travelers from Galilee pushed their way through the crowded
streets, and on up to the Temple on the hill. Here was God's own
house! How large it was! Herod the Great had built this Temple. Ten
thousand men had worked many years to build it, and it was not quite
finished yet. Eight gates led into the beautiful building with the
white walls and the golden towers. Inside there was room for many
thousands of people.

What a clatter and a clamor and a tumult there was! It seemed as
though all the world were there. Doves and cattle, as well as lambs,
were offered in the Temple as a sacrifice to God. You could hear the
poor creatures calling out--the cows lowing, the lambs bleating, the
doves singing their sweet, sad song. Money was clinking on the tables.
Only one kind of coin could be used as an offering, and travelers had
to exchange those they were carrying for Jewish money. The men who
made the exchange often cheated the visitors.

The people from Galilee separated when they came to the Court of the
Women. The women and girls could go no farther, but the men and boys
went up some steps into the Court of Israel. There they watched the
priests of the Temple taking the doves and lambs and cattle that the
worshipers had brought, and offering them up as a sacrifice. The
priests killed the animals, and let the blood drip on the altar where
the sacrifices were given to God.

The Court of Israel was as far as anyone could go, unless he were a
priest. There was another room called the Holy Place, which only
priests could enter. To the people it was a place of great mystery.
Then farther on was a still more mysterious room called the Holy of
Holies. Even a priest did not dare to step inside that door. That was
the secret place of God. Only the high priest, who was head of all the
priests, could enter the