1 Kings 8

8 ¹Then Solomon gathered Israel's elders—all the tribal heads, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the children of Israel—before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of our Father from the city of David, that is Zion. ²So all Israel's men gathered to King Solomon at the festival in Ethanim, the seventh month. ³When all the elders of Israel had come, the priests took up the ark, ⁴they brought up the ark of our Father, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels in the tent; the priests and Levites brought them up. ⁵King Solomon and the whole assembly of Israel gathered with him stood before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle too many to count or record. ⁶Then the priests brought the ark of our Father's covenant to its place, the inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place, under the cherubim's wings. ⁷The cherubim spread their wings over the ark's place, covering the ark and its poles from above. ⁸The poles were so long their ends showed from the Holy Place before the inner room, but not from outside; and they remain there today. ⁹In the ark were only the two stone tablets Moses put there at Horeb, where our Father made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰When the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of our Father, ¹¹so the priests could not stand to serve because of the cloud, for the glory of our Father filled his house.

¹²Then Solomon said: "Our Father has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. ¹³I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever."

¹⁴The king turned and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, as the whole assembly of Israel stood. ¹⁵He said: "Praised be our Father, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth spoke to my father David and with his own hand fulfilled it, saying, ¹⁶since I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city from all Israel's tribes to build a house for my name; but I chose David over my people Israel.

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

¹⁸But our Father said to my father David, 'Since building a house for my name was in your heart, you did well to have it in your heart. ¹⁹But you yourself will not build the house; your son, who comes from your own body, will build the house for my name.'

²⁰And our Father has kept the word he spoke, for I have risen up in place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as he promised, and I have built the house for the name of our Father, the God of Israel. ²¹There I made a place for the ark holding our Father's covenant, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of Egypt."

Solomon's Prayer Before the Father

²²Solomon stood before our Father's altar, in front of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread his hands toward heaven. ²³He said: "Our Father, God of Israel, no God like you in heaven above or on earth below, keeping covenant and loyal love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. ²⁴You kept your promise to your servant, my father David; what your mouth spoke, your hand has fulfilled today.

²⁵So now, our Father, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised him, saying, "You will never lack a man to sit before me on Israel's throne, if only your children watch their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me." ²⁶And now, our Father, God of Israel, confirm the word you spoke to your servant, my father David.

²⁷But will our Father really dwell on the earth? Look—the heavens and highest heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house I built! ²⁸Yet turn to your servant's prayer and plea, my Father, to hear the cry and prayer your servant prays before you today.

²⁹May your eyes stay open toward this house night and day, the place you said "My name will be there," to hear your servant's prayer toward this place. ³⁰Hear your servant's and your people Israel's plea when they pray toward this place; hear from heaven, your home, and when you hear, forgive.

³¹If someone sins against his neighbor and must take an oath, and comes to swear before your altar in this house, ³²then hear from heaven and act. Judge your servants: condemn the guilty, bringing their conduct on their own head, and clear the righteous, rewarding them for their righteousness.

³³When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they sinned against you, then turn back to you, confess your name, and pray and plead with you in this house, ³⁴then hear from heaven, forgive your people Israel's sin, and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors.

³⁵When the sky is shut and no rain falls because they sinned against you, and they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin because you made them suffer, ³⁶then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you gave your people as an inheritance.

³⁷If famine, plague, blight, mildew, locust, or grasshopper strikes the land; if an enemy besieges them at their gates—whatever plague or sickness comes, ³⁸whatever prayer or plea anyone among all your people Israel makes, each knowing the suffering of his own heart, spreading his hands toward this house, ³⁹then hear from heaven, your home, and forgive, and act, and give each person according to all his ways, since you know his heart—you alone know every human heart, ⁴⁰so they may fear you as long as they live on the land you gave our fathers.

⁴¹Also the foreigner, not of your people Israel but from a distant land for your name's sake, ⁴²for they will hear of your great name, your mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this house, ⁴³hear from heaven, where you live, and do all the foreigner asks, so all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as your people Israel do, and know that this house I built bears your name.

⁴⁴When your people go out to battle their enemy, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to our Father toward the city you chose and the house I built for your name, ⁴⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

⁴⁶When they sin against you—for no one is sinless—and you are angry and hand them to an enemy who captures them to the enemy's land, far or near,

⁴⁷yet if they take it to heart in the land where they are held captive, and turn back and beg you in the land of their captors, saying, "We have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly," ⁴⁸and if in the land of their captors they turn back to you with all their heart and all their soul, and pray to you toward their land you gave their fathers, the city you chose, and the house I built for your name, ⁴⁹then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. ⁵⁰Forgive your people who sinned against you, all their wrongs against you, and grant them compassion before their captors, so the captors show them compassion, ⁵¹for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the iron furnace. ⁵²May your eyes be open to your servant's plea and the plea of your people Israel, and hear them whenever they call to you. ⁵³For you set them apart from all earth's peoples as your inheritance, as you said through Moses your servant when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Sovereign Father."

Solomon Blesses the Assembly

⁵⁴When Solomon finished this whole prayer and plea to our Father, he rose from before our Father's altar, where he had knelt with hands spread toward heaven. ⁵⁵He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:

⁵⁶"Blessed be our Father, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word failed of all the good he promised through his servant Moses. ⁵⁷May our Father be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave or abandon us, ⁵⁸turning our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and keep his commandments, statutes, and judgments, which he commanded our fathers. ⁵⁹And may these words of mine, pleaded before our Father, stay near him day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and of his people Israel, as each day requires, ⁶⁰so all earth's peoples may know our Father is God, and there is no other.

⁶¹So let your heart be fully devoted to our Father, to walk in his statutes and keep his commandments, as today."

The House Dedicated to the Father

⁶²Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before our Father. ⁶³Solomon offered to our Father peace offerings of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of our Father. ⁶⁴That same day the king dedicated the middle of the courtyard before the house of our Father, for there he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar before our Father was too small to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵Then Solomon held the festival, all Israel with him—a huge assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—before our Father seven days, then seven more: fourteen days in all. ^a a v65 Lebo-hamath in the far north and the Brook of Egypt in the far south marked the full length of the land, so people came from every corner of Israel. ⁶⁶On the eighth day he sent the people home. They blessed the king and went to their tents, joyful and glad-hearted for all the good our Father had shown his servant David and his people Israel.