Solomon’s words to the people
6
📚Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 2 📚But I have built a lofty house for you, a place for your dwelling forever”. 3 📚And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel; and all the congregation of Israel stood.
4 📚And he said, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who has fulfilled with his hands what he spoke with his mouth to my father David, saying, 5 📚‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there; nor did I chose any man to be a ruler over my people Israel. 6 📚But I have chosen Jerusalem, so that my name might be there, and 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 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 to have it in your heart. 9 📚However you shall not build the house, but your son who will be born to you shall build the house for my name.’
10 📚“So the LORD has fulfilled his word that he spoke, for I have risen up in the place of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 11 📚And I have put the ark in it, in which is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel”.
Solomon’s prayer about the temple
12 📚And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands. 13 📚For Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long and five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard; and he stood on it, and knelt on his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven,
6:13 This verse in not in 1 Kings 8.⚜
14 📚and said, “O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens, or on the earth, who keeps covenant and shows mercy to your servants who walk before you with all their hearts. 15 📚You have kept what you promised to your servant David, my father, and have fulfilled with your hand what you spoke with your mouth, as it is today.
16 📚“Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep what you have promised to your servant David, my father, saying, ‘You will not lack a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children are careful about their way to walk in my law, as you have walked before me.’ 17 📚Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let your word, which you spoke to your servant David, come true.
18 📚“But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? See, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house which I have built! 19 📚So have regard for the prayer of your servant, and for his supplication, O LORD my God, to hear the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you, 20 📚that your eyes may be open on this house day and night, on the place of which you have said that you would put your name there, to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place. 21 📚So hear the supplications of your servant, and of your people Israel, which they will make toward this place. Hear from your dwelling place, from heaven; and when you hear, forgive.
22 📚“If a man sins against his neighbour, and is made to take an oath, and the oath comes 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 📚“And if your people Israel are defeated by the enemy, because they have sinned against you, and return 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 again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.
26 📚“When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place, and confess your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, 27 📚then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel, when you have taught them the good way in which they should walk, and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
28 📚“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillars, if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land, whatever plague or whatever sickness there may be, 29 📚then whatever prayer or supplication made by anyone, or by all your people Israel, when each one knows his own plague and his own grief, and spreads out his hands in this house, 30 📚then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each man according to all his ways. You know their heart, for you alone know the hearts of the children of men. 31 📚Do this that they may fear you, and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
32 📚“Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, but has come from a far country because of your great name and your mighty hand and your stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house, 33 📚then hear from heaven, from your dwelling place, and act in accordance with all for which the foreigner calls to you, so that all people of the earth may know your name, and fear you, as your people Israel do, and may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.
34 📚“If your people go out to war against their enemies by the way that you 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 from heaven hear their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
36 📚“If they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin) and you are angry with them, and deliver them up to their enemies, and they carry them away captives to a land far off or near, 37 📚if they take thought in the land where they are carried captive, and turn and pray to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and have acted wickedly’; 38 📚if they turn back to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land which you gave to their fathers, and toward 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 their supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 📚“Now, my God, I beseech you, let your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
41 📚“Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness.
42 📚O LORD God, do not turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your mercies to your servant David”.