1 Kings 8

¹Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the city of David — that is, Zion.

²And all the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the feast — that is, the seventh month.

³And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests lifted the ark.

⁴And they brought up the ark of the LORD and the tent of meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up.

⁵And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had gathered to him were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle — which could not be counted or numbered because of the multitude.

⁶And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, to the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim.

⁷For the cherubim were spreading wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim sheltered the ark and its poles from above.

⁸And the poles extended so that the tips of the poles were seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they were not seen outside; and they are there to this day.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets which Moses placed there at Horeb, where the LORD cut a covenant with the children of Israel when they went out from the land of Egypt.

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

¹¹And the priests could not stand to minister because 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 thick darkness.

¹³I have indeed built a lofty house for you, a place for your dwelling forever.

¹⁴And the king turned his face and blessed all the assembly of Israel, and all the assembly of Israel was standing.

¹⁵And he said, 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke by his mouth to David my father and by his hand has fulfilled, saying...'

¹⁶From the day that I brought out my people Israel from Egypt, I did not choose a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house for my name to be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.

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

¹⁸And the LORD said to David my father, 'Because it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.'

¹⁹But you shall not build the house; rather, your son, the one who comes forth from your loins, he shall build the house for my name.

²⁰And the LORD fulfilled his word that he spoke, and I arose in the place of David my father and sat on the throne of Israel, as the LORD spoke, and I built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

²¹And I set there 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.

²²And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his palms toward the heavens.

²³And he said, LORD, God of Israel, there is none like you, God in the heavens above and upon the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and loyal love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

²⁴who kept for your servant David my father what you spoke to him; you spoke with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled it, as it is this day.

²⁵And now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised him, saying, 'There shall not be cut off from you a man before me sitting on the throne of Israel — only if your sons keep their way to walk before me as you walked before me.'

²⁶And now, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, please, the word that you spoke to your servant David my father.

²⁷But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house which I have built!

²⁸Yet turn to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, by hearing the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying before you this day.

²⁹May your eyes be open toward this house night and day, toward the place about which you said, My name will be there, to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.

³⁰And may you hear the supplication of your servant and your people Israel, which they pray toward this place; and you — hear from the place of your dwelling in the heavens, and hear and forgive.

³¹When a man sins against his neighbor and one takes up against him an oath to bind him to it, and the oath comes before your altar in this house,

³²And you, hear from the heavens and act and judge your servants — condemning the guilty to return his conduct upon his head, and acquitting the innocent to give to him according to his righteousness.

³³When your people Israel are struck down before an enemy because they sinned against you, and they return to you and confess your name and pray and implore before you in this house.

³⁴And you, hear from the heavens and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land that you gave to their fathers.

³⁵When 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 because you have afflicted them,

³⁶then may you 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 upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

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

³⁸any prayer, any supplication that may come from any person, from all your people Israel, who shall each know the affliction of his own heart and shall spread out his palms toward this house:

³⁹then you, hear in heaven, the foundation of your dwelling, and forgive, and act, and render to each man according to all his ways, since you know his heart— for you alone know the heart of all the sons of mankind.

⁴⁰so that they may fear you all the days that they live upon the face of the land that you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹And also the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel but comes from a distant land for the sake of your name—

⁴²for they will hear of your great name and of your strong hand and your outstretched arm— and he comes and prays toward this house,

⁴³you, hear in heaven, the foundation of your dwelling, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel do, and to know that your name is called over this house that I have built.

⁴⁴When your people go out to battle against their enemy by the way that you send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name,

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

⁴⁶When they sin against you, for there is no person who does not sin, and you are angry with them and give them over before an enemy, so that their captors carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near,

⁴⁷and they bring it back to their heart in the land where they have been taken captive, and they turn back and plead for grace to you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have acted wickedly,’

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

⁴⁹then hear in heaven, the fixed place of your dwelling, their prayer and their supplication, and uphold their cause,

⁵⁰and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions by which they have transgressed against you, and grant them compassion before their captors, that they may have compassion on them—

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

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 call to you.

⁵³For you have set them apart for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you spoke through the hand of Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.

⁵⁴And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished praying to the LORD all this prayer and supplication, that he rose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his palms spread out toward heaven,

⁵⁵Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:

⁵⁶Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has fallen of all his good word that he spoke by the hand of Moses his servant.

⁵⁷May the LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; may he 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 judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹And may these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires;

⁶⁰so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other.

⁶¹Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

⁶²Then the king, and all Israel with him, were offering sacrifice before the LORD.

⁶³And Solomon offered as the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he sacrificed to the LORD, twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

⁶⁴On that day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offering and the grain 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 Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, 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 done for David his servant and for Israel his people.