1 Kings 8

1Then Solomon assembled Israel's elders, all the tribal heads, and the chiefs of the fathers of the Israelites to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of Yahweh's covenant from David's city, which is Zion.

2All the men of Israel gathered to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, the seventh month.

3All Israel's elders came, and the priests carried the ark.

4They brought up the ark of Yahweh, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up.

5King Solomon and all Israel's assembly who had gathered to him stood with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted nor numbered for their multitude.

6The priests brought the ark of Yahweh's covenant to its place in the house's oracle, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim.

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

8The poles protruded such that their ends were visible from the holy place before the oracle, but they were not visible outside; they remain there to this day.

9There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses placed there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they came out from the land of Egypt.

10When the priests came out from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of Yahweh.

11The priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh had filled the house of Yahweh.

12Then Solomon said, "Yahweh said he would dwell in thick darkness."

13I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for your dwelling forever.

14The king turned his face and blessed Israel's whole assembly, while Israel's whole assembly stood.

15He said, "Blessed is Yahweh, God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father and fulfilled it with his hand, saying,"

16From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build a house so my name would be there, but I chose David to be over my people Israel.

17It was in my father David's heart to build a house for the name of Yahweh, God of Israel.

18Yahweh 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.

19Only you will not build the house, but your son who comes forth from your loins—he will build the house for my name.

20Yahweh has fulfilled his word that he spoke, and I have arisen in place of David my father and sit on Israel's throne, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, God of Israel.

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

22Solomon stood before Yahweh's altar in the presence of all Israel's assembly and spread his hands toward the heavens.

23And he said, "Yahweh, God of Israel, no God is like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, who guards the covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart."

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

25So now, Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you spoke to him, saying, “No man will ever fail you before me who sits on Israel’s throne, only if your sons guard their way to walk before me as you walked before me.”

26Now, God of Israel, please let your words prove true, your word that you spoke to your servant David my father.

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

28Turn to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, Yahweh my God, to hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you today.

29for your eyes to be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said that my name shall be there, to hear the prayer that your servant shall pray toward this place.

30Hear the plea of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

31If a man sins against his neighbor and an oath is laid upon him to make him swear, and he comes with the oath before your altar in this house.

32You will hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his own head, and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness.

33When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they return to you, confess your name, pray, and beseech you in this house.

34You hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave their fathers.

35When the heavens are restrained and no rain falls because they sin against you, and they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin because you afflict them,

36You hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel when you direct them in the good way they should walk, and give rain upon your land, which you have given your people for an inheritance.

37If famine is in the land, pestilence, if blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar arises; if his enemy besieges him in the land at his gates; any plague, any sickness.

38Every prayer and every supplication that any person utters, or all your people Israel, as each knows the stroke upon his heart and stretches out his hands toward this house.

39You will hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive and act and give to every person according to all his ways, whose heart you know—for you alone know the hearts of all the children of men.

40so that they fear you all the days they live on the land you gave our fathers.

41Moreover, concerning the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, when he comes from a distant land because of your name,

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

43Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner calls to you for, so that all peoples of the earth may know your name to fear you, as your people Israel do, and know that your name is called upon this house that I have built.

44When your people set out to fight their enemies along whatever path you send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city you chose there and the house I built for your name,

45Hear from heaven their prayer and plea, and do justice for them.

46When they sin against you—for no human avoids sin—and you become angry with them and hand them over to a foe so their captors carry them to the foe's land, far away or nearby;

47If they take it to heart in the land where they were taken captive, repent, and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, "We have sinned, done wrong, and acted wickedly,"

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

49then hear their prayer and plea from heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause.

50Forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions in which they have rebelled against you, and give them compassion before their captors, that they may have mercy 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 your servant's plea and to your people Israel's plea, to hear them whenever they call to you.

53For you set them apart as your inheritance from all the earth's peoples, as you spoke through your servant Moses when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.

54When Solomon finished praying to Yahweh all this prayer and supplication, he arose from before Yahweh's altar, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven.

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

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

57May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us nor forsake us.

58That he may turn our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

59May these words of mine, which I have pleaded before Yahweh, be near Yahweh our God day and night, to uphold justice for his servant and justice for his people Israel, the matter of each day in its day.

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

61Let your heart be whole with Yahweh our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, as on this day.

62The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before Yahweh.

63Solomon offered peace offerings to Yahweh—twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep—so the king and all the Israelites dedicated Yahweh's house.

64On that day the king consecrated the middle of the court before Yahweh's house, for there he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat portions of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar before Yahweh was too small to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat portions of the peace offerings.

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

66On the eighth day he dismissed the people, and they blessed the king before going to their tents joyful and glad-hearted because of all the goodness that Yahweh had done for David his servant and for Israel his people.