Kings III 8

1 And it came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and his own house after twenty years, then king Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel in Sion, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, this is Sion,

2 in the month of Athanin.

3 And the priests took up the ark,

4 and the tabernacle of testimony, and the holy furniture that was in the tabernacle of testimony.

5 And the king and all Israel [were occupied] before the ark, sacrificing sheep [and] oxen, without number.

6 And the priests bring in the ark into its place, into the oracle of the house, even into the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubs.

7 For the cherubs spread out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubs covered the ark and its holy things above.

8 And the holy staves projected, and the ends of the holy staves appeared out of the holy places in front of the oracle, and were not seen without.

9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which Moses put [there] in Choreb, which [tables] the Lord made [as a covenant] with the children of Israel in their going forth from the land of Egypt.

10 And it came to pass when the priests departed out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house.

11 And the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, because the glory of the Lord filled the house.

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14 And the king turned his face, and the king blessed all Israel, (and the whole assembly of Israel stood: )

15 and he said, Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel today, who spoke by his mouth concerning David my father, and has fulfilled it with his hands, saying,

16 From the day that I brought out my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in [any] one tribe of Israel to build a house, so that my name should be there: but I chose Jerusalem that my name should be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel.

17 And it was in the heart of my father to build a house to the name of the Lord God of Israel.

18 And the Lord said to David my father, Forasmuch as it came into your heart to build a house to my name, you did well that it came upon your heart.

19 Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son that has proceeded out of your bowels, he shall build the house to my name.

20 And the Lord has confirmed the word that he spoke, and I am risen up in the place of my father David, and I have sat down on the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke, and I have built the house to the name of the Lord God of Israel.

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

22 And Solomon stood up in front of the altar before all the congregation of Israel; and he spread out his hands towards heaven:

23 and he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above and on the earth beneath, keeping covenant and mercy with your servant who walks before you with all his heart;

24 which you have kept towards your servant David my father: for you have spoken by your mouth and you have fulfilled it with your hands, as [at] this day.

25 And now, O Lord God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father, [the promises] which you have spoken to him, saying, There shall not be taken from you a man sitting before me on the throne of Israel, provided only your children shall take heed to their ways, to walk before me as you have walked before me.

26 And now, O Lord God of Israel, let, I pray you, your word to David my father be confirmed.

27 But will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? if the heaven and heaven of heavens will not suffice you, how much less even this house which I have built to your name?

28 Yet, O Lord God of Israel, you shall look upon my petition, to hear the prayer which your servant prays to you in your presence this day,

29 that your eyes may be open towards this house day and night, even towards the place which you said, My name shall be there, to hear the prayer which your servant prays at this place day and night.

30 And you shall listen to the prayer of your servant, and of your people Israel, which they shall pray towards this place; and you shall hear in your dwelling-place in heaven, and you shall do and be gracious.

31 Whatsoever trespasses any [one] shall commit against his neighbour, —and if he shall take upon him an oath so that he should swear, and he shall come and make confession before your altar in this house,

32 then shall you hear from heaven, and do, and you shall judge your people Israel, that the wicked should be condemned, to recompense his way upon his head; and to justify the righteous, to give to him according to his righteousness.

33 When your people Israel falls before enemies, because they shall sin against you, and they shall return and confess to your name, and they shall pray and supplicate in this house,

34 then shall you hear from heaven, and be gracious to the sins of your people Israel, and you shall restore them to the land which you gave to their fathers.

35 When the heaven is restrained, and there is no rain, because they shall sin against you, and the shall pray towards this place, and they shall make confession to your name, and shall turn from their sins when you shall have humbled them,

36 then you shall hear from heaven, and be merciful to the sins of your servant and of your people Israel; for you shall show them the good way to walk in it, and you shall give rain upon the earth which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

37 If there should be famine, if there should be death, because there should be blasting, locust, or if there be mildew, and if their enemy oppress them in [any] one of their cities, [with regard to] every calamity, every trouble,

38 every prayer, every supplication whatever shall be made by any man, as they shall know each the plague of his heart, and shall spread abroad his hands to this house,

39 then shall you listen from heaven, out of your established dwelling-place, and shall be merciful, and shall do, and recompense to [every] man according to his ways, as you shall know his heart, for you alone know the heart of all the children of men:

40 that they may fear you all the days that they live upon the land, which you have given to our fathers.

41 And for the stranger who is not of your people,

42 when they shall come and pray towards this place,

43 then shall you hear [them] from heaven, out of your established dwelling-place, and you shall do according to all that the stranger shall call upon you for, that all the nations may know your name, and fear you, as [do] your people Israel, and may know that your name has been called on this house which I have builded.

44 [If it be] that your people shall go forth to war against their enemies in the way by which you shall turn them, and pray in the name of the Lord towards the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built to your name,

45 then shall you hear from heaven their supplication and their prayer, and shall execute judgement for them.

46 [If it be] that they shall sin against you, (for there is not a man who will not sin, ) and you shall bring them and deliver them up before their enemies, and they that take [them] captive shall carry [them] to a land far or near,

47 and they shall turn their hearts in the land whither they have been carried captives, and turn in the land of their sojourning, and supplicate you, saying, We have sinned, we have done unjustly, we have transgressed,

48 and they shall turn to you with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies whither you have carried them captives, and shall pray to you towards their land which you have given to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built to your name:

49 then shall you hear from heaven your established dwelling-place,

50 and you shall be merciful to their unrighteousness wherein they have trespassed against you, and according to all their transgressions wherewith they have transgressed against you, and you shall cause them to be pitied before them that carried them captives, and they shall have compassion on them:

51 for [they are] your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the midst of the furnace of iron.

52 And let your eyes and your ears be opened to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them in all things for which they shall call upon you.

53 Because you have set them apart for an inheritance to yourself out of all the nations of the earth, as you spoke by the hand of your servant Moses, when you brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, O Lord God.

54 And it came to pass when Solomon had finished praying to the Lord all this prayer and supplication, that he rose up from before the altar of the Lord, [after] having knelt upon his knees, and his hands [were] spread out towards heaven.

55 And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

56 Blessed [be] the Lord this day, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he said: there has not failed one word amongst all his good words which he spoke by the hand of his servant Moses.

57 May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; let him not desert us nor turn from us,

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

59 And let these words, which I have prayed before the Lord our God, [be] near to the Lord our God day and night, to maintain the cause of your servant, and the cause of your people Israel for ever.

60 that all the nations of the earth may know that the Lord God, he [is] God, and there is none beside.

61 And let our hearts be perfect towards the Lord our God, to walk also holily in his ordinances, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

62 And the king and all the children of Israel offered sacrifice before the Lord.

63 And king Solomon offered for the sacrifices of peace-offering which he sacrificed to the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, and hundred and twenty thousand sheep: and the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

64 In that day the king consecrated the middle of the court in the front of the house of the Lord; for there he offered the whole burnt offering, and the sacrifices, and the fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar which was before the Lord [was too] little to bear the whole burnt offering and the sacrifices of peace-offerings.

65 And Solomon kept the feast in that day, and all Israel with him, even a great assembly from the entering in of Hemath to the river of Egypt, before the Lord our God in the house which he built, eating and drinking, and rejoicing before the Lord our God seven days.

66 And on the eighth day he sent away the people: and they blessed the king, and each departed to his tabernacle rejoicing, and [their] heart [was] glad because of the good things which the Lord had done to his servant David, and to Israel his people.