1 Reyes 8

The ark is brought into the temple

¹Then Solomon called together the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the leaders of the ancestral families of the Israelites, to come to King Solomon in Jerusalem. They were to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the city of David, that is, Zion.^{a 2}All the men of Israel gathered before King Solomon at the festival in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month. ³When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests picked up the ark. ⁴They brought up the ark of the LORD, the tent of meeting, and all the holy utensils that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites carried them up.^{b 5}King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had gathered with him were in front of the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be counted or numbered. ⁶The priests then carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD into its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim. ⁷The cherubim spread their wings over the place where the ark stood, and so the cherubim formed a covering above the ark and its poles. ⁸The poles were so long that from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary, their ends were visible, though not from outside. They are still there to this day. ⁹The ark held nothing but the two stone tablets Moses had put in it at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰As the priests were coming out of the holy place, the house of the LORD was filled by the cloud. ¹¹The priests were unable to stand and do their service because of the cloud, since the house of the LORD was full of the glory of the LORD.

Solomon speaks to the people

¹²Then Solomon said, \q “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.^{c 13}I have indeed built a lofty house for you, \q a 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 there. ¹⁵He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth made a promise to my father David and with his own hand has now fulfilled it. For he said, ¹⁶‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city in any tribe of Israel in which to build a house where my name would be. But I chose David to rule over my people Israel.’^{d 17}My father David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹⁸But the LORD said to my father David, ‘You wanted to build a house for my name, and you did well to have this in your heart. ¹⁹Yet you are not the one who will build the house. Your son, your own offspring, is the one who will build the house for my name.’ ²⁰Now the LORD has kept the promise he made. I have taken the place of my father David and sit on Israel’s throne, as the LORD promised, and I have built this house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. ²¹There I have prepared a place for the ark, which holds the covenant of the LORD that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

Solomon’s prayer of dedication

²²Then Solomon took his place before the altar of the LORD, in front of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven. ²³He said, “The LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath. You keep your covenant and show faithful love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, ²⁴you who have kept for your servant, my father David, the promise you made to him. With your mouth you promised, and with your hand you have fulfilled it, as it is today. ²⁵Now, the LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant, my father David, the promise you made to him: ‘You will never lack a man of your line sitting before me on the throne of Israel, as long as your descendants watch how they live and walk before me as you have walked before me.’ ²⁶So now, God of Israel, please let the promise you made to your servant, my father David, be confirmed. ²⁷But will God really live on earth? Heaven itself, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built! ²⁸Yet listen to the prayer of your servant and to his plea for mercy, the LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer your servant prays before you this day, ²⁹so that night and day your eyes may be open toward this house, toward the place about which you said, ‘My name will be there.’ Listen to the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. ³⁰Listen to the pleading of your servant and your people Israel as they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive. ³¹When someone sins against a neighbor and is required to take an oath, and comes and swears the oath before your altar in this house, ³²then hear in heaven and act. Judge between your servants: condemn the guilty by bringing on his own head what he has done, and declare the innocent in the right by rewarding him for his righteousness.

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

³⁵When the sky is shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place, acknowledge your name, and turn from their sin because you have humbled them,^{e 36}then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, as you teach them the good way to walk in. And send rain on your land, the land you gave to your people as their inheritance.

³⁷If there is famine in the land, or disease, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or if their enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever plague or sickness there is,^{f 38}whatever prayer or plea for mercy is made by anyone among all your people Israel, each one knowing the affliction of their own heart and spreading out their hands toward this house, ³⁹then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive. Act, and give to each one according to all their ways, for you know each heart. You alone know every human heart, ⁴⁰so that they will fear you all the days they live in the land you gave to our ancestors. ⁴¹As for the foreigner who is not one of your people Israel but comes from a distant land because of your name ⁴²(for they will hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, ⁴³then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do all that the foreigner asks of you. Then all the peoples of the earth will come to know your name and to fear you as your people Israel do, and to know that your name is called over this house I have built. ⁴⁴When your people go out to fight against their enemy, wherever you send them, and they pray to the LORD facing the city you chose and the house I built for your name, ⁴⁵then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. ⁴⁶When they sin against you (and there is no one who never sins), and you are angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, and their captors take them away as prisoners 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 they turn back and plead with you in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned; we have done wrong and acted wickedly,’ ⁴⁸if they return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried them off, and pray to you facing their land, which you gave to their ancestors, the city you chose, and the house I built for your name, ⁴⁹then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause, ⁵⁰and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all the rebellious acts they have committed against you. Grant them compassion in the sight of their captors, so that they will be merciful to them, ⁵¹for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, ⁵²May your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you hear them every time they cry out to you. ⁵³For you set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your own inheritance, as you declared through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord GOD.”

Solomon blesses the people

⁵⁴When Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he got up from where he had been kneeling before the altar of the LORD, his hands spread out toward heaven. ⁵⁵He stood up and called out a blessing on all the assembly of Israel, saying, ⁵⁶“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Of all the good promises he made through his servant Moses, not one word has failed. ⁵⁷May the LORD our God be with us just as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us or abandon us, ⁵⁸so that he may turn our hearts toward him, and we may walk in all his ways and keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rulings, which he commanded our ancestors. ⁵⁹May these words I have prayed before the LORD stay near the LORD our God day and night, so that he upholds the cause of his servant and of his people Israel, day by day as each need arises, ⁶⁰so that every people on earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other. ⁶¹So let your hearts be wholly true to the LORD our God, living by his statutes and keeping his commandments, as you are doing today.” ⁶²Then the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD. ⁶³Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this way the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the LORD. ⁶⁴That same day the king made holy the central part of the courtyard before the house of the LORD. He offered there the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat parts of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that stood before the LORD was too small to hold them: the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings. ⁶⁵So at that time Solomon held the festival, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, before the LORD our God, for seven days and then seven more days, fourteen days in all.^{g 66}On the eighth day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and went home, joyful and glad at heart for all the good the LORD had done for David his servant and for Israel his people.