1 Kings 8 22-1 Kings 8 66
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire congregation of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.He said: LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below, who keeps the gracious covenant with your servants who walk before you with all their heart.You have kept what you promised to your servant, my father David. You spoke directly to him and you fulfilled your promise by your power as it is today.Therefore, LORD God of Israel, keep what you promised to your servant, my father David: You will never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take care to walk before me as you have walked before me.Now LORD God of Israel, please confirm what you promised to your servant, my father David.But will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.Listen to your servant’s prayer and his petition, LORD my God, so that you may hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you today,so that your eyes may watch over this temple night and day, toward the place where you said,“ My name will be there,” and so that you may hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.Hear the petition of your servant and your people Israel, which they pray toward this place. May you hear in your dwelling place in heaven. May you hear and forgive.When a man sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before your altar in this temple,may you hear in heaven and act. May you judge your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing what he has done on his own head and providing justice for the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against you, and they return to you and praise your name, and they pray and plead with you for mercy in this temple,may you hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. May you restore them to the land you gave their ancestors.When the skies are shut and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they turn from their sins because you are afflicting them,may you hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, so that you may teach them to walk on the good way. May you send rain on your land that you gave your people for an inheritance.When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, when their enemy besieges them in the land and its cities, when there is any plague or illness,every prayer or petition that any person or that all your people Israel may have— they each know their own affliction— as they spread out their hands toward this temple,may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and may you forgive, act, and give to everyone according to all their ways, since you know each heart, for you alone know every human heart,so that they may fear you all the days they live on the land you gave our ancestors.Even for the foreigner who is not of your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name—for they will hear of your great name, strong hand, and outstretched arm, and will come and pray toward this temple—may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all the foreigner asks. Then all peoples of earth will know your name, to fear you as your people Israel do and to know that this temple I have built bears your name.When your people go out to fight against their enemies, wherever you send them, and they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your name,may you hear their prayer and petition in heaven and uphold their cause.When they sin against you— for there is no one who does not sin— and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, and their captors deport them to the enemy’s country— whether distant or nearby—and when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported and repent and petition you in their captors’ land:“ We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,”and when they return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to you in the direction of their land that you gave their ancestors, the city you have chosen, and the temple I have built for your name,may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and petition and uphold their cause.May you forgive your people who sinned against you and all their rebellions against you, and may you grant them compassion before their captors, so that they may treat them compassionately.For they are your people and your inheritance; you brought them out of Egypt, out of the middle of an iron furnace.May your eyes be open to your servant’s petition and to the petition of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to you.For you, Lord GOD, have set them apart as your inheritance from all peoples of the earth, as you spoke through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD, he got up from kneeling before the altar of the LORD, with his hands spread out toward heaven,and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice:“ Blessed be the LORD! He has given rest to his people Israel according to all he has said. Not one of all the good promises he made through his servant Moses has failed.May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave usso that he causes us to be devoted to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors.May my words with which I have made my petition before the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night. May he uphold his servant’s cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires.May all the peoples of the earth know that the LORD is God. There is no other!Be wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD our God to walk in his statutes and to keep his commands, as it is today.”The king and all Israel with him were offering sacrifices in the LORD’s presence.Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep and goats. In this manner the king and all the Israelites dedicated the LORD’s temple.On the same day, the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the LORD’s temple because that was where he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the fellowship offerings, since the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to accommodate the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings.Solomon and all Israel with him— a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt— observed the festival at that time in the presence of the LORD our God, seven days, and seven more days— fourteen days.On the fifteenth day he sent the people away. So they blessed the king and went to their homes rejoicing and with happy hearts for all the goodness that the LORD had done for his servant David and for his people Israel.
