2 Chroniques 6

Solomon speaks to the people

¹Then Solomon said, \q “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. ²I myself have built a lofty house for you, \q a place for you to dwell forever.” ³Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood there. ⁴He 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 hands has now fulfilled it. For he said, ⁵‘Ever since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city in any tribe of Israel in which to build a house where my name would be, and I have chosen no man to be ruler over my people Israel. ⁶But I have chosen Jerusalem as the place where my name will be, and I have chosen David to rule over my people Israel.’ ⁷My father David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. ⁸But 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. ⁹Yet 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.’ ¹⁰Now 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. ¹¹There I have placed the ark, which holds the covenant of the LORD that he made with the Israelites.” ¹²Then Solomon took his place before the altar of the LORD, in front of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands. ¹³Solomon had made a bronze platform, about 7 1/2 feet long, about 7 1/2 feet wide and about 4 1/2 feet high, and had set it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, then knelt down in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. ¹⁴He said, “The LORD, God of Israel, no God in heaven or on earth is like you. You keep your covenant and show faithful love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, ¹⁵you 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. ¹⁶Now, 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 in my law as you have walked before me.’ ¹⁷So now, the LORD, God of Israel, let the promise you made to your servant David be confirmed. ¹⁸But will God really live on earth with human beings? Heaven itself, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built! ¹⁹Yet listen to the prayer of your servant and to his plea for mercy, the LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you, ²⁰so that day and night your eyes may be open toward this house, the place where you said you would put your name. Listen to the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. ²¹Listen to the pleading of your servant and your people Israel as they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive. ²²When someone sins against a neighbor and is required to take an oath, and comes and swears the oath before your altar in this house, ²³then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants: repay 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.

²⁴If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn back, acknowledge your name, and pray and plead before you in this house, ²⁵then hear from heaven and forgive your people Israel for their sin, and bring them back to the land you gave to them and to their ancestors.

²⁶When 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,^{a 27}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.

²⁸If there is famine in the land, or disease, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or if their enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever plague or sickness there is, ²⁹whatever prayer or plea for mercy is made by anyone, or by all your people Israel, each one aware of their own affliction and pain and spreading out their hands toward this house, ³⁰then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive. Give to each one according to all their ways, for you know each heart. You alone know the human heart, ³¹so that they will fear you and walk in your ways for as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.

³²As for the foreigner who is not one of your people Israel but comes from a distant land because of your great name, your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray facing this house, ³³then hear from 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. ³⁴When your people go out to fight against their enemies, wherever you send them, and they pray to you facing this city you chose and the house I built for your name, ³⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. ³⁶When 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 a land far away or near, ³⁷and 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 where they are held captive, saying, ‘We have sinned; we have done wrong and acted wickedly,’ ³⁸if they return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they were carried off, and pray facing their land, which you gave to their ancestors, and the city you chose, and the house I built for your name, ³⁹then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their pleas, uphold their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you. ⁴⁰Now, my God, please let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer that is prayed in this place.

The prayer closes

⁴¹And now rise up, LORD God! Come to the place where you will rest, \q you and the ark of your might. \q Let your priests, LORD God, be dressed in salvation, \q and let those loyal to you rejoice in good things. ⁴²LORD God, do not refuse the kings you have anointed. \q Remember the faithful love shown to David your servant.”^bc