Solomon Praises the Lord

¹² Then Solomon prayed, “O Lord, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness.

Solomon Praises the Lord

6 Then Solomon prayed, “O Lord, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness. ² Now I have built a glorious Temple for you, a place where you can live forever!”

³ Then the king turned around to the entire community of Israel standing before him and gave this blessing: ⁴ “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. For he told my father, ⁵ ‘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. ⁶ 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.’”

⁷ Then Solomon said, “My father, David, wanted to build this Temple to honor the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ⁸ But the Lord told him, ‘You wanted to build the Temple to honor my name. Your intention is good, ⁹ but you are not the one to do it. One of your own sons will build the Temple to honor me.’

¹⁰ “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. ¹¹ There I have placed the Ark, which contains the covenant that the Lord made with the people of Israel.”

² The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.

¹⁸ You have not come to a physical mountain,^[a] to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai.

²² “The Lord spoke these words to all of you assembled there at the foot of the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the heart of the fire, surrounded by clouds and deep darkness. This was all he said at that time, and he wrote his words on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

¹¹ “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while flames from the mountain shot into the sky. The mountain was shrouded in black clouds and deep darkness.

²¹ As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.