1 Kings 8

1Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel—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.

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

3When all the elders of Israel had come, the priests lifted the ark.

4They brought up the ark of the LORD, 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 the whole assembly of Israel gathered with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle too numerous to be counted or numbered.

6Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD into its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, the most holy place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

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

8The poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; and they are there to this day.

9There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the people 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 the LORD.

11The 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 said that he would dwell in deep darkness.

13I have indeed built you an exalted house,
a settled place for you to dwell forever.”

14Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood.

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

16‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city from among all the tribes of Israel in which 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.

18But 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.

19Yet you will not build the house; rather, your son, who comes from your own body, will build the house for my name.’

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

21There I have made a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out from the land of Egypt.”

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

23He said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below, keeping covenant and steadfast love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart;

24you 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.

25Now therefore, LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised him, saying, ‘You will not lack a man before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children guard their way, walking before me as you have walked before me.’

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

27“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Look: heaven, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you—how much less this house that I have built!

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

29that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said, ‘My name will be there,’ listening to the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.

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

31“If someone sins against a neighbor and is required to take an oath, and comes to take the oath before your altar in this house,

32then hear from heaven, act, and judge your servants: condemning the guilty by bringing their way upon their own head, and vindicating the righteous by giving to them according to their righteousness.

33“When your people Israel are struck down before an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn back to you, confess your name, pray, and plead with you in this house,

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

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

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

37“If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if an enemy besieges them in any of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there may be—

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

39then hear from heaven, your dwelling place; forgive, act, and give to each according to all their ways, for you alone know every human heart.

40Do this so that they may fear you all the days they live on the land that you gave to our ancestors.

41“Also, concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel but comes from a distant land because of your name—

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

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

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

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

46“When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them over to an enemy, so that their captors carry them away captive to the enemy’s land, whether far away or near,

47and they come to their senses in the land where they have been taken captive, and turn and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned; we have acted perversely; we have done wickedly’;

48if they turn back to you with all their heart and with all their life in the land of their enemies who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name,

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

50Forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions by which they have rebelled 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.

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

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

54When Solomon had finished offering all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

55He stood and blessed the whole 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 spoke. Not one word has failed of all his good word that he spoke through Moses his servant.

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

58inclining our hearts toward him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our ancestors.

59May these words of mine, by 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 whole with the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as on this day.”

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

63Solomon offered as a sacrifice of well-being to the LORD twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

64On that day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, because there he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat portions of the sacrifices of well-being; for the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat portions of the sacrifices of well-being.

65So Solomon held the festival 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 more days, fourteen days in all.

66On 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 good that the LORD had done for David his servant and for Israel his people.