I Kings 8

¹Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, and all the chiefs of the tribes, and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to him in Jerusalem to take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion.

²And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, the seventh month.

³And all the responsible men of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.

⁴They took up the ark of the Lord, and the Tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests and the Levites took up.

⁵And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had come together there, were with him before the ark, making offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered.

⁶And the priests took the ark of the agreement of the Lord and put it in its place in the inner room of the house, in the most holy place, under the wings of the winged ones.

⁷For their wings were outstretched over the place where the ark was, covering the ark and its rods.

⁸The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place, in front of the inmost room; but they were not seen from outside: and there they are to this day.

⁹There was nothing in the ark but the two flat stones which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰Now when the priests had come out of the holy place, the house of the Lord was full of the cloud,

¹¹So that the priests were not able to keep their places to do their work because of the cloud, for the house of the Lord was full of the glory of the Lord.

¹²Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not seen by men;

¹³So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present.

¹⁴Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing to all the men of Israel; and they were all on their feet together.

¹⁵And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who himself gave his word to David my father, and with his strong hand has made his word come true, saying,

¹⁶From the day when I took my people Israel out of Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name; but I made selection of David to be king over my people Israel.

¹⁷Now it was in the heart of David my father to put up a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁸But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name;

¹⁹But you yourself will not be the builder of my house; but your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up a house for my name.

²⁰And the Lord has made his word come true; for I have taken my father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel, as the Lord gave his word; and I have made a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

²¹In it I have made a place for the ark, in which is the agreement which the Lord made with our fathers, when he took them out of the land of Egypt.

²²Then Solomon took his place before the altar of the Lord, all the men of Israel being present, and stretching out his hands to heaven,

²³Said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on the earth; keeping faith and mercy unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways with all their hearts.

²⁴And you have kept the word which you gave to your servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and with your hand you have made it come true this day.

²⁵So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to your servant David, my father, come true, when you said, You will never be without a man to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel before me, if only your children give attention to their ways, walking before me as you have done.

²⁶So now, O God of Israel, it is my prayer that you will make your word come true which you said to your servant David, my father.

²⁷But is it truly possible that God may be housed on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be your resting-place; how much less this house which I have made!

²⁸Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your servant, O Lord God, and to his prayer for grace; give ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant sends up to you this day;

²⁹That your eyes may be open to this house night and day, to this place of which you have said, My name will be there; hearing the prayer which your servant may make, turning to this place.

³⁰Give ear to the prayers of your servant, and the prayers of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this place; give ear in heaven your living-place, and hearing, have mercy.

³¹If a man does wrong to his neighbour, and has to take an oath, and comes before your altar to take his oath in this house:

³²Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of your servants, giving your decision against the wrongdoer, so that punishment for his sins may come on his head; and, by your decision, keeping from evil him who has done no wrong.

³³When your people Israel are overcome in war, because of their sin against you; if they are turned to you again, honouring your name, making prayers to you and requesting your grace in this house:

³⁴Then give ear in heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again into the land which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of their sin against you; if they make prayers with their faces turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away from their sin when you send trouble on them:

³⁶Then give ear in heaven, so that the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, may have forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for their heritage.

³⁷If there is no food in the land, or if there is disease, or if the fruits of the earth are damaged through heat or water, locust or worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers; whatever trouble, whatever disease there may be:

³⁸Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house:

³⁹Give ear in heaven your living-place, acting in mercy; and give to every man whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of all the children of men:

⁴⁰So that they may give you worship all the days of their life in the land which you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of your people Israel; when he comes from a far country because of the glory of your name:

⁴²(For they will have news of your great name and your strong hand and your out-stretched arm;) when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house:

⁴³Give ear in heaven your living-place, and give him his desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of the earth may have knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do your people Israel, and that they may see that this house which I have put up is truly named by your name.

⁴⁴If your people go out to war against their attackers, by whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayer to the Lord, turning their faces to this town of yours and to this house which I have made for your name:

⁴⁵Give ear in heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace, and see right done to them.

⁴⁶If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,) and you are angry with them and give them up into the power of those who are fighting against them, so that they take them away as prisoners into a strange land, far off or near;

⁴⁷And if they take thought, in the land where they are prisoners, and are turned again to you, crying out in prayer to you in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done wrong, we have done evil;

⁴⁸And with all their heart and soul are turned again to you, in the land of those who took them prisoners, and make their prayer to you, turning their eyes to this land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I made for your name:

⁴⁹Then give ear to their prayer and to their cry in heaven your living-place, and see right done to them;

⁵⁰Answering with forgiveness the people who have done wrong against you, and overlooking the evil which they have done against you; let those who made them prisoners be moved with pity for them, and have pity on them;

⁵¹For they are your people and your heritage, which you took out of Egypt, out of the iron fireplace;

⁵²Let your eyes be open to your servant's prayer for grace and to the prayer of your people Israel, hearing them when their cry comes to you.

⁵³For you made them separate from all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, as you said by Moses your servant, when you took our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.

⁵⁴Then Solomon, after making all these prayers and requests for grace to the Lord, got up from his knees before the altar of the Lord, where his hands had been stretched out in prayer to heaven;

⁵⁵And, getting on his feet, he gave a blessing to all the men of Israel, saying with a loud voice,

⁵⁶Praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, as he gave them his word to do; every word of all his oath, which he gave by the hand of Moses his servant, has come true.

⁵⁷Now may the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; let him never go away from us or give us up;

⁵⁸Turning our hearts to himself, guiding us to go in all his ways, to keep his orders and his laws and his decisions, which he gave to our fathers.

⁵⁹And may these my words, the words of my prayer to the Lord, be before the Lord our God day and night, so that he may see right done to his servant and to his people Israel, day by day as we have need.

⁶⁰So that all the peoples of the earth may see that the Lord is God, and there is no other.

⁶¹Then let your hearts be without sin before the Lord our God, walking in his laws and keeping his orders as at this day.

⁶²Now the king, and all Israel with him, were making offerings before the Lord.

⁶³And Solomon gave to the Lord for peace-offerings, twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel kept the feast of the opening of the Lord's house.

⁶⁴The same day the king made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering there the burned offering and the meal offering and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar of the Lord for the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat of the peace-offerings.

⁶⁵So Solomon and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, (for the people had come together from the way into Hamath to the river of Egypt,) kept the feast at that time before the Lord our God, for two weeks, even fourteen days.

⁶⁶And on the eighth day he sent the people away, and, blessing the king, they went to their tents full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David his servant and to Israel his people.

I Kings 8

¹Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' households of the children of Israel, to king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.

²All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

³All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.

⁴They brought up the ark of the Lord, and the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these the priests and the Levites brought up.

⁵King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle, that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude.

⁶The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.

⁷For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above.

⁸The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there they are to this day.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord,

¹¹so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

¹²Then Solomon said, "The Lord has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

¹³I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever."

¹⁴The king turned his face about, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood.

¹⁵He said, "Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying,

¹⁶'Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.'

¹⁷"Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁸But 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.

¹⁹Nevertheless, you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.'

²⁰The Lord has established his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I 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.

²¹There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

²²Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;

²³and he said, "Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart;

²⁴who 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 this day.

²⁵Now therefore, may the 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 before me as you have walked before me.'

²⁶"Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father.

²⁷But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

²⁸Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and for his supplication, Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you this day;

²⁹that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, 'My name shall be there;' to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.

³⁰Listen to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

³¹"If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swear before your altar in this house;

³²then hear in heaven, and do, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

³³"When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you; if they turn again to you, and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house:

³⁴then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵"When the sky is 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:

³⁶then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and 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.

³⁷"If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;

³⁸whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

³⁹then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men;)

⁴⁰that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹"Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for your name's sake

⁴²(for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house;

⁴³hear in heaven, 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, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

⁴⁴"If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

⁴⁵then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶If 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 the land of the enemy, far off or near;

⁴⁷yet if they shall repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;'

⁴⁸if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name:

⁴⁹then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;

⁵⁰and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

⁵¹(for they are your people, and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron);

⁵²that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.

⁵³For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord God."

⁵⁴It was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward heaven.

⁵⁵He stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

⁵⁶"Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant.

⁵⁷May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us, nor forsake us;

⁵⁸that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as every day shall require;

⁶⁰that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord, he is God. There is none else.

⁶¹"Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day."

⁶²The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord.

⁶³Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord, two and twenty thousand head of cattle, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

⁶⁴The same day the king made the middle of the court holy that was before the house of the Lord; for there he offered the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.

⁶⁶On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.