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then summoned the elders of Israel—all the heads of the tribes and the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites—to come before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Zion, the City of David. 2 All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the feast, in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.
3 When all the elders of Israel came, the priests lifted the ark, 4 and they brought up the ark of the Lord. And the priests and the Levites carried up the Tent of Meeting, and all the sacred utensils that were in the Tent. 5 King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who had gathered around him before the ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered, because there were so many.
6 The priests then brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, the Most Holy Place, and placed it under the wings of the cherubim. 7 For the cherubim had their wings spread over the place of the ark, so that the cherublim shielded the ark from above. 8 The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; and they are still there to this day. 9 There was nothing inside the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses had placed inside it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 When the priests had come out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the House of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not continue to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord.
12 Then Solomon said:
“The Lord said that He would dwell in thick darkness, 13 but I have indeed built You an exalted temple, a place for You to dwell forever.”
14 Then the king turned around and blessed all of the congregation of Israel, while the congregation of Israel stood, 15 and he said:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His hand what He, with His own mouth, promised my father David. For He said, 16 ‘Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not choosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a House built, so My Name would be there, but I have chosen David to rule My people Israel’.
17 “My father David had it in his heart to build a House for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 18 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was in your heart to build a House for My Name, you did well that it was in your heart. 19 However, you will not build the House, but your son, who will come from your own loins, he will build the House for My Name’.
20 “The Lord has fulfilled the promise He made. I have taken the place of my father David and now I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built a House for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 21 I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, 23 and he said:
“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on the earth below, keeping the covenant and faithful love with Your servants who walk before You with their whole heart. 24 You have kept what You promised to Your servant, David my father. With Your mouth You have promised, and with Your hand You have fulfilled it, as it is this day. 25 Now, O Lord God of Israel, keep the promise You made to your servant David my father when You said: ‘You will never fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful to look at their ways and walk before Me, as you have walked before Me’. 26 Now, O God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed, that You promised to Your servant David my father.
27 “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You. How much less this temple that I have built? 28 Yet have regard to Your servant’s prayer and his supplication, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant prays before You today. 29 May Your eyes may be opened night and day toward this House, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My Name will be there’, that You may take heed of the prayer Your servant prays toward this place. 30 Hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.
31 “When a man sins against his neighbour and is required to take an oath, and he comes and swears the oath before Your altar in this House, 32 then hear in heaven, and act. Judge between Your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct done down on his own head, and justifying the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
33 “When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, and they turn to You again and confess Your Name, praying and making suplication to You in this temple, 34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. Bring them back again to the land You gave to their fathers.
35 “When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and then they pray toward this place and confess Your Name, and turn from their sin because You have afflicted them, 36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel. Teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on the land that You have given to Your people for an inheritance.
37 “When famine comes to the land, when is pestilence, blight, mildew, locusts or caterpillars, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever plague or disease may come, 38 whatever prayer or supplication is made by Your people Israel—each man knowing the afflictions of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this house; 39 then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive and take action. Deal with every man according to all his ways, since You know his heart, and You alone know the hearts of all men, 40 so that they will fear You all the days they live in the land You gave our fathers.
41 “Or if the foreigner who does not belong to Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your Name— 42 for they will hear of Your great Name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43 then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all the foreigner asks You for. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as does Your people Israel, and they will recognize that this temple I have built is called by Your Name.
44 “When Your people go out to fight against their enemies, wherever You send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city You have chosen and the temple I have built for Your Name, 45 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and uphold their cause.
46 “If they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and their captors carry them away into exile in their own land, far away and near; 47 and they come to their senses in the land of their exile, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captives and say, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly’; 48 and if they turn back to You with and of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and they pray to You toward the land that You gave their fathers, of the city that You have chosen, and the temple I have built for Your Name; 49 then hear their prayer and their supplication from heaven, Your dwelling place, and uphold their cause. 50 Forgive your people who have sinned against You; forgive all their transgressions they have committed against You, and make their captors have compassion on them, 51 for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out of Egypt, out of the midst of the iron furnace.
52 “May Your eyes be open to the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call upon you. 53 For You, O Lord God, have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke through Your servant Moses when You brought our fathers out of Egypt.”
54 When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and supplication to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. 55 Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:
56 “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, just as He promised. Not a single word has failed of all the gracious promises that He gave through His servant Moses. 57 May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He never leave us or forsake us. 58 May He incline our hearts tord Him to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, which He commanded our fathers. 59 May these words of mine, which I have offered in supplication before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, so that He may uphold the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day requires, 60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is no other. 61 Let your hearts be completely devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as it is this day.”
62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. 63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty-two thousand sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the House of the Lord.
64 On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the House of the Lord, and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings.
65 So Solomon held a festival at that time, and all Israel with him—a great assembly, people who had come from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. They celebrated the festival before the Lord our God for seven days and seven more days—fourteen days in all. 66 On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and went to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David His servant, and for Israel His people.