2 Chronicles 6: 1 - 7: 22
| 1Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. 2But I have built you a house and home, a place for you to dwell in forever.” |
| 3The king turned his face, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood. |
| 4He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and has with his hands fulfilled it, saying, 5‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there and I chose no man to be prince over my people Israel; 6but now I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’ 7Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 8But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart; 9nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son who will come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.’ |
| 10“The LORD has performed his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, 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. 11There I have set the ark, in which is the LORD’s covenant, which he made with the children of Israel.” |
| 12He stood before the LORD’s altar in the presence of all the assembly 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 set it in the middle of the court; and he stood on it, and knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands towards heaven) 14and he said, “LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth; you who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart; 15who have kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today. |
| 16“Now therefore, LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ 17Now therefore, LORD, the God of Israel, let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David. |
| 18“But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house which I have built! 19Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you; 20that your eyes may be open towards this house day and night, even towards the place where you have said that you would put your name; to listen to the prayer which your servant will pray towards this place. 21Listen to the petitions of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray towards this place. Yes, hear from your dwelling place, even from heaven; and when you hear, forgive. |
| 22“If a man sins against his neighbour, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house; 23then hear from heaven, act, and judge your servants, bringing retribution to the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. |
| 24“If your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house; 25then 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 sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray towards this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them; 27then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants of your people Israel, when you 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, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 29whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread out his hands towards this house; 30then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men) 31that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so 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, 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 towards this house; 33then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; 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“If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to you towards this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name; 35then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. |
| 36“If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near; 37yet if they come to their senses in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;’ 38if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and towards the house which I have built for your name; 39then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you. |
| 40“Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place. |
| 41“Now therefore arise, LORD God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness. |
| 42“LORD God, don’t turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant.” |
| 1Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the LORD’s glory filled the house. 2The priests could not enter into the LORD’s house, because the LORD’s glory filled the LORD’s house. 3All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the LORD’s glory was on the house. They bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, worshipped, and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, |
| “For he is good; |
| for his loving kindness endures forever.” |
| 4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. 5King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated God’s house. 6The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to give thanks to the LORD, when David praised by their ministry, saying “For his loving kindness endures forever.” The priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood. |
| 7Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court that was before the LORD’s house holy; for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat. |
| 8So Solomon held the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt. |
| 9On the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly; for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. 10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people. |
| 11Thus Solomon finished the LORD’s house and the king’s house; and he successfully completed all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the LORD’s house and in his own house. |
| 12The LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice. |
| 13“If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence amongst my people; 14if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer that is made in this place. 16For now I have chosen and made this house holy, that my name may be there forever; and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. |
| 17“As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances; 18then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.’ |
| 19But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; 20then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword amongst all peoples. 21This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall say, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?’ 22They shall answer, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took other gods, worshipped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all this evil on them.’” |
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