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Solomon Praises the LORD
Then Solomon prayed, “O LORD, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness.
Then Solomon prayed, “O LORD, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness.
Solomon Blesses the People
Then said Solomon: Jehovah said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
Then said Solomon: Jehovah said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
Now I have built a glorious Temple for you, a place where you can live forever!”
But I have built a house of habitation for thee, even a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.
Then the king turned around to the entire community of Israel standing before him and gave this blessing:
And the king turned his face and blessed the whole congregation of Israel; and the whole congregation of Israel stood.
“Praise the LORD, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. For he told my father,
And he said: Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hands fulfilled it, saying,
‘From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have never chosen a city among any of the tribes of Israel as the place where a Temple should be built to honor my name. Nor have I chosen a king to lead my people Israel.
Since the day that I brought forth 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; neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel:
But now I have chosen Jerusalem as the place for my name to be honored, and I have chosen David to be king over my people Israel.’”
but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
Then Solomon said, “My father, David, wanted to build this Temple to honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house unto the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
But the LORD told him, ‘You wanted to build the Temple to honor my name. Your intention is good,
But Jehovah said to David my father, Whereas it was in thy heart to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thy heart;
but you are not the one to do it. One of your own sons will build the Temple to honor me.’
nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name.
“And now the LORD has fulfilled the promise he made, for I have become king in my father’s place, and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised. I have built this Temple to honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
And Jehovah has performed his word which he spoke; and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah promised, and I have built the house unto the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
There I have placed the Ark, which contains the covenant that the LORD made with the people of Israel.”
And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which he made with the children of Israel.
Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire community of Israel, and he lifted his hands in prayer.
Solomon's Prayer of Dedication
And he stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands.
And he stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands.
For Solomon had made a platform of bronze, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he stood, and he kneeled down on his knees before the whole congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward the heavens,
He prayed,
“O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion.
“O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion.
and said, Jehovah, God of Israel! there is no God like thee, in the heavens or on the earth, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart;
You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today.
who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him; thou spokest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled [it] with thy hand as at this day.
“And now, O LORD, God of Israel, carry out the additional promise you made to your servant David, my father. For you said to him, ‘If your descendants guard their behavior and faithfully follow my Law as you have done, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’
And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only thy sons take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.
Now, O LORD, God of Israel, fulfill this promise to your servant David.
And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, let thy word be verified which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David.
“But will God really live on earth among people? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built!
But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you.
Yet have respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, Jehovah, my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee;
May you watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have said you would put your name. May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place.
that thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place in which thou hast said thou wouldest put thy name: to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place.
May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.
And hearken unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou from thy dwelling-place, from the heavens, and when thou hearest, forgive.
“If someone wrongs another person and is required to take an oath of innocence in front of your altar at this Temple,
If a man have sinned against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to adjure him, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;
then hear from heaven and judge between your servants — the accuser and the accused. Pay back the guilty as they deserve. Acquit the innocent because of their innocence.
then hear thou from the heavens, and do, and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head; and justifying the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness.
“If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn back and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple,
And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication before thee in this house;
then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave to them and to their ancestors.
then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land that thou gavest to them and to their fathers.
“If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and if they pray toward this Temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them,
When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, because thou hast afflicted them;
then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path, and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession.
then hear thou in the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
“If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns — whatever disaster or disease there is —
If there be famine in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their gates; whatever plague or whatever sickness there be:
and if your people Israel pray about their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple,
what prayer, what supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, when they shall know every man his own plague, and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house;
then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart.
then hear thou from the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men),
Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.
that they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, all the days that they live upon the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
“In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands when they hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple,
And as to the stranger also, who is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand and thy stretched-out arm; when they shall come and pray toward this house,
then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name.
then hear thou from the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; in order that all peoples of the earth may know thy name, and may fear thee as do thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.
“If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to you by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name,
If thy people go out to battle against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;
then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause.
then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right.
“If they sin against you — and who has never sinned? — you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far away or near.
If they have sinned against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, and they have carried them away captives unto a land far off or near;
But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’
and if they shall take it to heart in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done iniquity and have dealt perversely;
If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their captivity and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors — toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name —
and if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers, and the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;
then hear their prayers and their petitions from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
then hear thou from the heavens, from the settled place of thy dwelling, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their right, and forgive thy people their sin against thee.
“O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place.
Now, my God, I beseech thee, let thine eyes be open and let thine ears be attentive unto the prayer [that is made] in this place.
“And now arise, O LORD God, and enter your resting place,
along with the Ark, the symbol of your power.
May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation;
may your loyal servants rejoice in your goodness.
along with the Ark, the symbol of your power.
May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation;
may your loyal servants rejoice in your goodness.
And now, arise, Jehovah Elohim, into thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, Jehovah Elohim, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in [thy] goodness.