2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10

American Standard Version

¹² And he stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands ¹³ (for Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, 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 kneeled down upon his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven); ¹⁴ and he said, O Jehovah, the God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven, or on earth; who keepest covenant and lovingkindness ^[a]with thy servants, that walk before thee with all their heart; ¹⁵ who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him: yea, thou spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thy hand, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Now therefore, O Jehovah, the God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, ^[b]There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only thy children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as thou hast walked before me. ¹⁷ Now therefore, O Jehovah, the God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David.

¹⁸ But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have builded! ¹⁹ Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Jehovah my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee; ²⁰ that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. ²¹ And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yea, hear thou from thy dwelling-place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive.

^22 [c]If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and he come and swear before thine altar in this house; ²³ then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

²⁴ And if thy people Israel be smitten down 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; ²⁵ then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.

²⁶ 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, ^[d]when thou ^[e]dost afflict them: ²⁷ then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, ^[f]when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

²⁸ If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their ^[g]cities; whatsoever plague or whatsoever sickness there be; ²⁹ what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, who shall know every man his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house: ³⁰ then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men); ³¹ that they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

³² Moreover concerning the foreigner, that is not of thy people Israel, when he shall come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thine outstretched arm; when they shall come and pray toward this house: ³³ then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreigner calleth to thee for; that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and that they may know that ^[h]this house which I have built is called by thy name.

³⁴ If thy people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatsoever way thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name; ³⁵ then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their ^[i]cause.

³⁶ If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that ^[j]they carry them away captive unto a land far off or near; ³⁷ yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly; ³⁸ 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 captive, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: ³⁹ then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling-place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their ^[k]cause, and forgive thy people who have sinned against thee.

⁴⁰ Now, O my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. ⁴¹ Now therefore arise, O Jehovah God, into thy resting-place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Jehovah God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in ^[l]goodness. ⁴² O Jehovah God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember thy ^[m]lovingkindnesses to David thy servant.

7 Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah filled the house. ² And the priests could not enter into the house of Jehovah, because the glory of Jehovah filled Jehovah’s house. ³ And all the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the glory of Jehovah was upon the house; and they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and gave thanks unto Jehovah, saying, For he is good; for his lovingkindness endureth for ever.

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before Jehovah. ⁵ And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶ And the priests stood, according to their offices; the Levites also with instruments ^[n]of music of Jehovah, which David the king had made to give thanks unto Jehovah (for his lovingkindness endureth for ever), when David praised by their ministry: and the priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood. ⁷ Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of Jehovah; for there he offered the burnt-offerings, and the fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt-offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat.

⁸ So Solomon held the feast at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt. ⁹ And on the eighth day they held a ^[o]solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. ¹⁰ And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away unto their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that Jehovah had showed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the house of Jehovah, and the king’s house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of Jehovah, and in his own house, he prosperously effected. ¹² And Jehovah appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. ¹³ If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; ¹⁴ if my people, ^[p]who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. ¹⁶ For now have I chosen and hallowed this house, that my name may be there for ever; and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. ¹⁷ And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and mine ordinances; ¹⁸ then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.

¹⁹ But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; ²⁰ then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ²¹ And this house, which is so high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall say, Why hath Jehovah done thus unto this land, and to this house? ²² And they shall answer, Because they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

8 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of Jehovah, and his own house, ² that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

³ And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it. ⁴ And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store-cities, which he built in Hamath. ⁵ Also he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars; ⁶ and Baalath, and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

⁷ As for all the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, that were not of Israel; ⁸ of their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel consumed not, of them did Solomon raise a ^[q]levy of bondservants unto this day. ⁹ But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. ¹⁰ And these were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two hundred and fifty, that bare rule over the people.