Solomon Blesses the LORD

¹Then Solomon declared:“The LORD has said that He would dwellin the thick cloud.

²But I have built You an exalted house,a place for You to dwell forever.”

³And as the whole assembly of Israel stood there, the king turned around and blessed them all

⁴and said:“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,

⁵‘Since the day I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be ruler over My people Israel.

⁶But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

⁷Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁸But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart.

⁹Nevertheless, you are not the one to build it; but your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name.’

¹⁰Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹¹And there I have placed the ark, which contains the covenant of the LORD that He made with the children of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

¹²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

¹³Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits highand had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,

¹⁴and said:“O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth, keeping Your covenant of loving devotion with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.

¹⁵You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day.

¹⁶Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: ‘You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’

¹⁷And now, O LORD, God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant David.

¹⁸But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

¹⁹Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You.

²⁰May Your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your Name, so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place.

²¹Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.

²²When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple,

²³then may You hear from heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing down on his own head what he has done, and justifying the righteous man by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

²⁴When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading before You in this temple,

²⁵then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to them and their fathers.

²⁶When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,

²⁷then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

²⁸When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

²⁹then may whatever prayer or plea Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—

³⁰be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of men—

³¹so that they may fear You and walk in Your ways all the days they live in the land that You gave to our fathers.

³²And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,

³³then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.

³⁴When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You in the direction of this city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,

³⁵then may You hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and may You uphold their cause.

³⁶When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to a land far or near,

³⁷and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’

³⁸and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,

³⁹then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and pleas, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who sinned against You.

⁴⁰Now, my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

⁴¹Now therefore, arise, O LORD God, and enter Your resting place,You and the ark of Your might.May Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation,and may Your godly ones rejoice in goodness.

⁴²O LORD God, do not reject Your anointed one.Remember Your loving devotion to Your servant David.”

Fire from Heaven

¹When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

²The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it.

³When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD:“For He is good;His loving devotion endures forever.”

Sacrifices of Dedication

⁴Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD.

⁵And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

⁶The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD and with which David had offered praise, saying, “For His loving devotion endures forever.” Across from the Levites, the priests sounded trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.

⁷Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar he had made could not hold all these offerings.

⁸So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feastfor seven days.

⁹On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.

¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the good things that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

The LORD’s Response to Solomon

¹¹When Solomon had finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace, successfully carrying out all that was in his heart to do for the house of the LORD and for his own palace,

¹²the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him:“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

¹³If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,

¹⁴and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

¹⁵Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

¹⁶For I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.

¹⁷And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,

¹⁸then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’

¹⁹But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,

²⁰then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

²¹And when this temple has become a heap of rubble,all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

²²And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

The LORD’s Response to Solomon

¹Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do,

²the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³And the LORD said to him:“I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.

⁴And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,

⁵then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

⁶But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,

⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

⁸And when this temple has become a heap of rubble,all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

⁹And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

Solomon’s Additional Achievements

¹⁰Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the LORD and the royal palace,

¹¹King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypresslogs and gold for his every desire.

¹²So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

¹³“What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul,as they are called to this day.

¹⁴And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces,and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, and Tamarin the Wilderness of Judah,

¹⁹as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.

²⁰As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—

²¹their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.

²²But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry.

²³They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.

²⁴As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.

²⁶King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Elothin Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

²⁷And Hiram sent his servants, sailors who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.

²⁸They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents—and delivered it to Solomon.

The LORD Has Chosen Zion

¹O LORD, remember on behalf of Davidall the hardships he endured,

²how he swore an oath to the LORD,and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

³“I will not enter my houseor get into my bed,

⁴I will not give sleep to my eyesor slumber to my eyelids,

⁵until I find a place for the LORD,a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

⁶We heard that the ark was in Ephrathah;we found it in the fields of Jaar.

⁷Let us go to His dwelling place;let us worship at His footstool.

⁸Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,You and the ark of Your strength.

⁹May Your priests be clothed with righteousness,and Your saints shout for joy.

¹⁰For the sake of Your servant David,do not reject Your anointed one.

¹¹The LORD swore an oath to David,a promise He will not revoke:“One of your descendantsI will place on your throne.

¹²If your sons keep My covenantand the testimony I will teach them,then their sons will also sit on your throneforever and ever.”

¹³For the LORD has chosen Zion;He has desired it for His home:

¹⁴“This is My resting place forever and ever;here I will dwell, for I have desired this home.

¹⁵I will bless her with abundant provisions;I will satisfy her poor with bread.

¹⁶I will clothe her priests with salvation,and her saints will sing out in joy.

¹⁷There I will make a horn grow for David;I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.

¹⁸I will clothe his enemies with shame,but the crown upon him will gleam.”