1 Kings
Chapter 8
1 Solomon brought together Israel’s elders, tribal leaders, and family heads in Jerusalem to move God’s covenant chest from David’s city, Zion, to King Solomon.
2 All the men of Israel gathered around King Solomon for the festival in Ethanim, the seventh month.
3 All the leaders of Israel came, and the priests carried the chest.
4 They brought God’s ark, the meeting tent, and all the sacred items inside the tent; the priests and Levites carried them all.
5 King Solomon and all of Israel’s people gathered with him stood before the covenant box, offering so many sheep and oxen they couldn’t be counted.
6 The priests put God’s covenant chest in its place in the temple’s inner room, right beneath the cherubim angels’ wings.
7 The cherubim stretched out their two wings over where the ark was and covered the ark and its poles from above.
8 They pulled the poles out until the ends were visible in the sanctuary in front of the inner room, but they couldn’t be seen from outside, and they are still there today.
9 Inside the ark were only the two stone tablets that Moses placed there at Horeb, where God made an agreement with the Israelites after they left Egypt.
10 When the priests left the holy place, a cloud filled God’s house.
11 The priests could not stay to serve because of the cloud, for God’s glory had filled God’s house.
12 Then Solomon said, God would live in deep darkness.
13 I have certainly built you a house to live in, a stable home for you to stay in forever.
14 The king turned around and blessed all the people of Israel; and all the people stood up.
15 He said, “Praise God of Israel, who spoke to my father David and has now done what he promised.”
16 Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I did not choose any city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house for my name; but I chose David to rule over my people Israel.
17 David, my father, wanted to build a house for God’s name.
18 God told David, my father, “Since you wanted to build a house for my name, you did well to have that desire.”
19 You will not build the house; but your son, who will be born to you, will build the house for my name.
20 God did what he said, and I have become king after David my father. I sit on Israel’s throne as God promised and have built a house for God’s name.
21 I have prepared a place for the chest that holds God’s agreement, which he made with our ancestors when he led them out of Egypt.
22 Solomon stood in front of God’s altar in front of all the Israelites and reached his hands up to the sky.
23 He said, “God of Israel, no one is like you in heaven or on earth, who keeps promises and shows kindness to your servants who follow you with all their heart.”
24 You kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You said it with your words, and now you have made it happen with your actions, just like today.
25 So now, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant David, my father, when you said, “You will always have a descendant to rule Israel if your children are careful in their actions and follow me just as you have.”
26 And now, God of Israel, please let your promise to my father David, your servant, come true.
27 Can God really live on earth? Even the sky and the highest heavens cannot hold you, so how can this temple I have built?
28 Please listen to your servant’s prayer and plea, God my God, and hear the cries and prayers I offer to you today.
29 Let your eyes be open towards this house day and night, towards the place you said, “My name will be there,” so you can listen to the prayers your servant will make facing this place.
30 Listen to your servant’s prayer and to the prayers of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your home, and when you hear, forgive.
31 If someone wrongs their neighbor and is made to take an oath, and they come to take the oath at your altar in this place:
32 Then listen from heaven, act, and decide what your servants deserve. Punish the guilty so they face the consequences of their actions, and reward the good for doing right.
33 When your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and then they turn back to you, admit your name, pray, and ask for your mercy in this place:
34 Listen from heaven, forgive the sins of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors.
35 When the sky is closed and there is no rain because they have sinned against you; if they pray to this place, admit your name, and stop their sinning when you punish them:
36 Listen from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants and your people Israel. Teach them the right path to follow and send rain to the land you have given them as a heritage.
37 If there is famine or disease, crop failure, mold, locusts, or caterpillars in the land; if an enemy surrounds them in their land or in their cities; any kind of plague or illness that happens;
38 Whatever prayer or plea is made by any person, or by all your people Israel, each knowing the troubles of their own heart, and reaching out their hands toward this temple:
39 Listen from heaven, your home, forgive and act, and reward each person according to their actions because you know their heart; only you know every human heart.
40 So they will respect you every day they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.
41 Also about a foreigner, who is not from your people Israel, but comes from a distant land because of your reputation;
42 They will hear about your great name, your powerful hand, and your extended arm; when he comes to pray toward this place.
43 Listen in heaven, your home, and do what the foreigner asks of you, so that everyone on earth may know your name and respect you, just like your people Israel; and let them know that this temple I have built is named after you.
44 If your people go to fight their enemies wherever you send them, and they pray to God facing the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name:
45 Then listen from heaven to their prayer and plea, and help them.
46 If they do wrong against you, because everyone sins, and you get angry with them, and let their enemies take them as prisoners to a far or nearby land;
47 But if they think about what they did wrong in the country where they are prisoners, and they turn back to you, and ask for your mercy in the country of their captors, saying, ‘We have done wrong, we have acted badly, we have been wicked;’
48 Let them come back to you with all their heart and soul from the land of their enemies who took them as captives, and let them pray to you facing their land, which you gave to their ancestors, the city you chose, and the temple I built for your name.
49 Listen to their prayers and pleas from heaven, your home, and support their case.
50 Forgive your people who have sinned against you, forgive all the wrongs they have done against you, and make their captors show them mercy, so they will also receive mercy.
51 They are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt, from the iron furnace.
52 May your eyes be open to your servant’s request and to the prayers of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they call to you.
53 You chose them from all the people on earth to be your own, as you said through Moses your servant, when you led our ancestors out of Egypt, O God.
54 After Solomon finished praying all this to God, he stood up from the altar of God, where he had been kneeling with his hands raised to heaven.
55 He stood up and with a loud voice blessed all the people of Israel, saying,
56 God is blessed for giving his people Israel rest, just as he promised. Every single one of his good promises that he made through his servant Moses has come true.
57 May God be with us just as he was with our ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us.
58 So he can lead our hearts to him, to follow all his paths, and obey his commands, rules, and decisions, which he gave to our ancestors.
59 Let my words, which I have used to ask for help from God, be close to God day and night, so he can support the needs of his servant and his people Israel whenever necessary.
60 Everyone on earth may know that God is the only God.
61 Keep your heart fully committed to God, follow his rules, and obey his commands, just as you do today.
62 The king and everyone in Israel with him made sacrifices to God.
63 Solomon gave God a peace offering of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. The king and everyone in Israel then made the temple holy.
64 On that day, the king made the center of the courtyard, in front of God’s house, holy because there he gave burnt and grain offerings, and the fat from the peace offerings. This was because the bronze altar in front of God was too small to hold all the burnt and grain offerings, and the fat from the peace offerings.
65 At that time, Solomon had a big party, and everyone in Israel joined him, a large crowd, from Hamath to the river of Egypt, in front of God for seven days, and another seven days, totaling fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day, he let the people go. They blessed the king and went to their tents, happy and thankful for all the good things God had done for David his servant and for Israel his people.