1 Kings 8

¹ Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the City of David, which is Zion.

² All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

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

⁴ 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.

⁵ King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.

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

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

⁸ The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. They are there to this day.

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

¹⁰ When the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD,

¹¹ so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.

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

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

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

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

¹⁶ 'Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of 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.'

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

¹⁸ But 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.

¹⁹ Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall come from your body—he shall build the house for my name.'

²⁰ The LORD has established his word that he spoke. I have risen in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

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

²² Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

²³ He said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and loyal love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart—

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

²⁵ Now therefore, 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—if only your sons guard their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.'

²⁶ Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed that you spoke to your servant David my father.

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

²⁸ Yet turn toward the prayer of your servant and toward his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you today—

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

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

³¹ "If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,

³² then hear in heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

³³ "When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn back to you and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house,

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

³⁵ "When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them,

³⁶ then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel—when you teach them the good way in which they should walk—and give rain on your land that you have given to your people as an inheritance.

³⁷ "If 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 cities—whatever plague, whatever sickness—

³⁸ whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any person or by all your people Israel—each knowing the affliction of his own heart—when he spreads out his hands toward this house,

³⁹ then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart you know—for you alone know the hearts of all the children of mankind—

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

⁴¹ "Moreover, concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, who comes from a distant land for the sake of your name—

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

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

⁴⁴ "If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way 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,

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

⁴⁶ "If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, and their captors carry them away to the land of the enemy, far or near,

⁴⁷ and they take it to heart in the land where they have been carried captive, and they repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, 'We have sinned and acted perversely; we have done wickedly,'

⁴⁸ and they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried 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,

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

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

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

⁵² let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to you.

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

⁵⁴ When Solomon finished praying all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread toward heaven.

⁵⁵ He 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. Not one word has failed of all his good promise that he made through Moses his servant.

⁵⁷ May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or abandon us,

⁵⁸ inclining our hearts to himself, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments that he commanded our fathers.

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

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

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

⁶² Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the LORD.

⁶³ Solomon offered as the peace offering that he sacrificed to the LORD twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

⁶⁴ On that day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of 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 receive the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵ So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him—a great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days: fourteen days.

⁶⁶ On the eighth day he sent the people away. 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.