The Second Book of the Chronicles

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 6 -

(1 Kings 8:12–21)

Then Solomon prayed, “Yahweh, you said that you would live in a dark cloud.

But now I have built a glorious temple for you to live in forever!”

Then while all the people stood there, Solomon turned toward the people and asked God to bless them.

He said to them, “Let us praise Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelites belong, who has caused to happen what he promised to my father David. What he said to David was this:

’From the time that I brought my people out of Egypt, I have never chosen a city in Israel in which a temple should be built for people to worship me there. Nor did I choose anyone to be the leader of my Israelite people.

But now I have chosen Jerusalem to be the place for people to worship me, and I have chosen you, David, to rule my Israelite people.’”

Then Solomon said further, “My father David wanted to build a temple for Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelites belong.

But Yahweh said to him, ’It is good that you wanted to build a house for me.

However, you are not the one who I want to build the temple, It is one of your own sons who will build it.’

And Yahweh has done what he promised to do. I have become the king of Israel to rule after my father, and I am ruling the people, as Yahweh promised, and I have arranged for this temple to be built for us to worship Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelites belong.

I have put the sacred chest in the temple, in which are the stone tablets showing the covenant that Yahweh made with us Israelite people.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

(1 Kings 8:22–53)

Then Solomon stood in front of the altar that was in front of the people of Israel who had gathered there. He spread out his hands as he began to pray.

Now His workers had built a bronze platform there for him to stand on, which was two and one-third meters square and one and one-half meters high. They had put it in the outer courtyard. Solomon mounted that platform and then knelt down in front of all the people of Israel who had gathered there, and he spread out his arms toward heaven.

Then he prayed, “Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelite people belong, there is no God like you in heaven or on the earth. You solemnly promised in your covenant that you would faithfully love us, and that is what you have done for us who earnestly do what you want us to do.

You have done the things that you promised my father David, who served you very well, that you would do. Truly, you promised to do those things for him, and today we see that by your power you have caused it all to happen.

So now, Yahweh, the God we Israelites worship, as you promised your servant David, my father, please make sure that he will always have a descendant who will be king of Israel. For you promised you would do this if his descendants were faithful to you.

So now, God of us Israelite people, cause what you promised David, who served you well, to become true.

But, my God, will you really live on earth among us? This temple I have built cannot contain you; not even the universe and heaven itself can contain you.

But Yahweh, my God, please listen to my prayer, while I am pleading with you this day and do what I am requesting.

Always protect this temple, this place where you said you would be present, in order that you might always hear me when I pray, for I am your servant.

Listen to me when I pray, and listen to your Israelite people when they pray, whether we are here, or even if we just face in this direction. Listen from heaven, where you live; and when you hear us pray, forgive us.

If people accuse someone of doing something wrong to another person, and if they bring him in front of your altar outside this holy temple, and if he says, ‘I did not do that; may God punish me if I am not telling the truth,’

then please listen from heaven and decide who is telling the truth. Then punish the person who is guilty as he deserves to be punished, and do good to the other person as a reward for his innocence.

And suppose that your Israelite people are defeated by their enemies because they sinned against you, and forced to go to some distant country. Suppose further that they turn away from their sinful behavior and face in the direction of this temple and acknowledge that you have justly punished them; and suppose that they beg you to forgive them.

Then please listen to them from heaven and forgive them for the sins that they have committed, and bring them back to this land that you gave to our ancestors.

When you do not allow any rain to fall because the people have sinned against you, then, if they stop acting sinfully and humbly pray to you, you who are present in this place,

then listen from heaven and forgive the sins of your people. Teach them the right way to conduct their lives. Then send rain on the land that you gave to your people forever.

And when the people of this land experience famines, or if there is a plague or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies surround any of their cities in order to attack them, if any of these disasters happen to them,

and then if your Israelite people earnestly plead, or if even just one person does so, if they stretch out their hands toward this temple and pray to you because they know the weakness and sorrow in their own hearts,

then listen from your home in heaven and forgive them. You alone know what each person is thinking, so reward each person according to everything that he does.

Do this in order that they might honor you and conduct their lives as you want them to, all the time that they live in this land that you gave to our ancestors.

There will be some foreigners who do not belong to your Israelite people who have come here from countries far away because they have heard that you are very great and powerful. If they turn toward this temple and pray,

then from your home in heaven please listen to their prayer and do for them what they request you to do. Do that in order that all the people groups in the world will honor and obey you, as your people of Israel do. And do this so that they will know that you are present in this temple that I have built.

When you send your people to go and attack their enemies, if they pray to you, no matter where they are, and if they turn toward this city that you have chosen and toward this temple that I have caused to be built to honor you,

then will you please listen from heaven to their prayers. Listen to what they plead for you to do, and give them help.

It is true that everyone sins. So when your people sin against you, and you become angry with them, you might allow their enemies to capture them and take them to their countries, even to countries that are far away.

When that happens, while they are in those distant countries, if they say ‘We have sinned; we have done things that are wrong and have done things that are very wicked,’

suppose that they repent very sincerely and pray facing this land that you gave their ancestors, and facing this city that you chose, and facing this temple that I have built for you to be present in.

Then from your home in heaven listen to their prayer, and listen to them while they plead for your help, and do what they ask you to do, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

Now, my God, look at us as we pray to you in this place, and please listen to us.

Yahweh our God, come and stay in this place with the sacred chest, the chest that shows that you are powerful. Yahweh God, cause your priests to know clearly that you have rescued them. Cause us your people to rejoice because of all the good things that you do for us.

Yahweh God, do not reject me, the king whom you have appointed to be the king of Israel; do not forget how faithful you were to David, your servant, because of your covenant with him.”

(1 Kings 8:12–21)

Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

But I have built you a house and home, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

The king turned his face, and blessed all the assembly of Israel; and all the assembly of Israel stood.

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

‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there, and I chose no man to be prince over my people Israel;

but now I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’

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

But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart;

nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.’

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

There I have set the ark, in which is the LORD’s covenant, which he made with the children of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

(1 Kings 8:22–53)

He stood before the LORD’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands

(for Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits

(a)

long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the middle of the court; and he stood on it, and knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven).

Then he said, “LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart;

who have kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.

“Now therefore, LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’

Now therefore, LORD, the God of Israel, let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David.

“But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house which I have built!

Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you;

that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place where you have said that you would put your name, to listen to the prayer which your servant will pray toward this place.

Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, hear from your dwelling place, even from heaven; and when you hear, forgive.

“If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,

then hear from heaven, act, and judge your servants, bringing retribution to the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

“If your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house,

then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.

“When the sky is 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 when you afflict them,

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 send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is—

whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread out his hands toward this house,

then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men),

that they may fear you, to walk in your ways as long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

“Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for your great name’s sake and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,

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

“If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name;

then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

“If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near;

yet if they come to their senses in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;’

if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

“Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

“Now therefore arise, LORD God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness.

“LORD God, don’t turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant.”

Footnotes

(a)6:13 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.