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1 Kings 8:22-61
New English Translation

Solomon Prays for Israel

22 Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward the sky.[a] 23 He prayed:[b] “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You maintain covenantal loyalty[c] to your servants who obey you with sincerity.[d] 24 You have kept your word to your servant, my father David;[e] this very day you have fulfilled what you promised.[f] 25 Now, O Lord, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, ‘You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel,[g] provided that your descendants watch their step[h] and serve me as you have done.’[i] 26 Now, O God of Israel, may the promise you made[j] to your servant, my father David, be realized.[k]

27 “God does not really live on the earth![l] Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built! 28 But respond favorably to[m] your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer[n] the desperate prayer[o] your servant is presenting to you[p] today. 29 Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live.[q] May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place.[r] 30 Respond to the request of your servant and your people Israel for this place.[s] Hear from inside your heavenly dwelling place[t] and respond favorably.[u]

31 “When someone is accused of sinning against his neighbor and the latter pronounces a curse on the alleged offender before your altar in this temple, be willing to forgive the accused if the accusation is false.[v] 32 Listen from heaven and make a just decision about your servants’ claims. Condemn the guilty party, declare the other innocent, and give both of them what they deserve.[w]

33 “The time will come when[x] your people Israel are defeated by an enemy[y] because they sinned against you. If they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you,[z] and pray for your help[aa] in this temple, 34 then listen from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.

35 “The time will come when[ab] the skies are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people[ac] sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you,[ad] and turn away from their sin because you punish[ae] them, 36 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly[af] you will then teach them the right way to live[ag] and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess.[ah]

37 “The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight and disease, or a locust[ai] invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land,[aj] or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs. 38 When all your people Israel pray and ask for help,[ak] as they acknowledge their pain[al] and spread out their hands toward this temple, 39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin,[am] and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of his motives.[an] (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.)[ao] 40 Then they will obey[ap] you throughout their lifetimes as[aq] they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.

41 “Foreigners, who do not belong to your people Israel, will come from a distant land because of your reputation.[ar] 42 When they hear about your great reputation[as] and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds,[at] they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple. 43 Then listen from your heavenly dwelling place and answer all the prayers of the foreigners.[au] Then all the nations of the earth will acknowledge your reputation,[av] obey[aw] you as your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I built belongs to you.[ax]

44 “When you direct your people to march out and fight their enemies,[ay] and they direct their prayers to the Lord[az] toward his chosen city and this temple I built for your honor,[ba] 45 then listen from heaven to their prayers for help[bb] and vindicate them.[bc]

46 “The time will come when your people[bd] will sin against you (for there is no one who is sinless!) and you will be angry with them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their own land,[be] whether far away or close by. 47 When your people[bf] come to their senses[bg] in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray;[bh] we have done evil.’ 48 When they return to you with all their heart and being[bi] in the land[bj] where they are held prisoner, and direct their prayers to you toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor,[bk] 49 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help[bl] and vindicate them.[bm] 50 Forgive all the rebellious acts of your sinful people and cause their captors to have mercy on them.[bn] 51 After all,[bo] they are your people and your special possession[bp] whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace.[bq]

52 “May you be attentive[br] to your servant’s and your people Israel’s requests for help and may you respond to all their prayers to you.[bs] 53 After all,[bt] you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession,[bu] just as you, O Sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

54 When Solomon finished presenting all these prayers and requests to the Lord, he got up from before the altar of the Lord where he had kneeled and spread out his hands toward the sky.[bv] 55 When he stood up, he pronounced a blessing over the entire assembly of Israel, saying in a loud voice: 56 “The Lord is worthy of praise because he has made Israel his people secure[bw] just as he promised! Not one of all the faithful promises he made through his servant Moses is left unfulfilled![bx] 57 May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us. 58 May he make us submissive,[by] so we can follow all his instructions[bz] and obey[ca] the commandments, rules, and regulations he commanded our ancestors. 59 May the Lord our God be constantly aware of these requests of mine I have presented to him,[cb] so that he might vindicate[cc] his servant and his people Israel as the need arises. 60 Then[cd] all the nations of the earth will recognize that the Lord is the only genuine God.[ce] 61 May you demonstrate wholehearted devotion to the Lord our God[cf] by following[cg] his rules and obeying[ch] his commandments, as you are now doing.”[ci]

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 8:22 tn Or “heaven.”
  2. 1 Kings 8:23 tn Heb “said.”
  3. 1 Kings 8:23 tn Heb “one who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.
  4. 1 Kings 8:23 tn Heb “who walk before you with all their heart.”
  5. 1 Kings 8:24 tn Heb “[you] who kept to your servant David my father that which you spoke to him.”
  6. 1 Kings 8:24 tn Heb “you spoke by your mouth and by your hand you fulfilled, as this day.”
  7. 1 Kings 8:25 tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from before me sitting on the throne of Israel.”
  8. 1 Kings 8:25 tn Heb “watch their way.” The Hebrew and English colloquialisms are similar. The related ideas “way” and “steps” represent behavior in a broad sense in each language.
  9. 1 Kings 8:25 tn Heb “guard their way by walking before me as you have walked before me.”
  10. 1 Kings 8:26 tn Heb “the words that you spoke.”
  11. 1 Kings 8:26 tn Or “prove to be reliable.”
  12. 1 Kings 8:27 tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which the translation above seeks to reflect.
  13. 1 Kings 8:28 tn Heb “turn to.”
  14. 1 Kings 8:28 tn Heb “by listening to.”
  15. 1 Kings 8:28 tn Heb “the loud cry and the prayer.”
  16. 1 Kings 8:28 tn Heb “praying before you.”
  17. 1 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “so your eyes might be open toward this house night and day, toward the place about which you said, ‘My name will be there.’”
  18. 1 Kings 8:29 tn Heb “by listening to the prayer which your servant is praying concerning this place.”
  19. 1 Kings 8:30 tn Heb “listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”
  20. 1 Kings 8:30 tn Heb “and you, hear inside your dwelling place, inside heaven.” The precise nuance of the preposition אֶל (ʾel), used here with the verb “hear,” is unclear. One expects the preposition “from,” which appears in the parallel text in 2 Chr 6:21. The nuance “inside; among” is attested for אֶל (see Gen 23:19; 1 Sam 10:22; Jer 4:3), but in each case a verb of motion is employed with the preposition, unlike 1 Kgs 8:30. The translation above (“from inside”) is based on the demands of the immediate context rather than attested usage elsewhere.
  21. 1 Kings 8:30 tn Heb “hear and forgive.”
  22. 1 Kings 8:31 tn Heb “and forgive the man who sins against his neighbor when one takes up against him a curse to curse him and the curse comes before your altar in this house.” In the Hebrew text the words “and forgive” conclude v. 30, but the accusative sign at the beginning of v. 31 suggests the verb actually goes with what follows in v. 31. The parallel text in 2 Chr 6:22 begins with “and if,” rather than the accusative sign. In this case “forgive” must be taken with what precedes, and v. 31 must be taken as the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, with v. 32 being the apodosis (“then” clause) that completes the sentence.sn Be willing to forgive the accused if the accusation is false. At first it appears that Solomon is asking God to forgive the guilty party. But in v. 32 Solomon asks the Lord to discern who is guilty and innocent, so v. 31 must refer to a situation where an accusation has been made, but not yet proven. The very periphrastic translation reflects this interpretation.
  23. 1 Kings 8:32 tn Heb “and you, hear [from] heaven and act and judge your servants by declaring the guilty to be guilty, to give his way on his head, and to declare the innocent to be innocent, to give to him according to his innocence.”
  24. 1 Kings 8:33 tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 33-34 actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
  25. 1 Kings 8:33 tn Or “are struck down before an enemy.”
  26. 1 Kings 8:33 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
  27. 1 Kings 8:33 tn Heb “and they pray and ask for help.”
  28. 1 Kings 8:35 tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 35-36a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
  29. 1 Kings 8:35 tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  30. 1 Kings 8:35 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
  31. 1 Kings 8:35 tn The Hebrew text has “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (ʿanah, “to answer”). However, this reference to a divine answer is premature, since the next verse asks for God to intervene in mercy. It is better to revocalize the consonantal text as תְעַנֵּם (teʿannem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (ʿanah, “to afflict”).
  32. 1 Kings 8:36 tn The translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense.
  33. 1 Kings 8:36 tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”
  34. 1 Kings 8:36 tn Or “for an inheritance.”
  35. 1 Kings 8:37 tn Actually two Hebrew terms appear here, both of which are usually taken as referring to locusts. Perhaps different stages of growth or different varieties are in view.
  36. 1 Kings 8:37 tn Heb “in the land, his gates.”
  37. 1 Kings 8:38 tn Heb “every prayer, every request for help which will be to all the people, to all your people Israel.”
  38. 1 Kings 8:38 tn Heb “which they know, each the pain of his heart.”
  39. 1 Kings 8:39 tn The words “their sin” are added for clarification.
  40. 1 Kings 8:39 tn Heb “and act and give to each one according to all his ways because you know his heart.” In the Hebrew text vv. 37-39a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided up for stylistic reasons.
  41. 1 Kings 8:39 tn Heb “Indeed you know, you alone, the heart of all the sons of mankind.”
  42. 1 Kings 8:40 tn Heb “fear.”
  43. 1 Kings 8:40 tn Heb “all the days [in] which.”
  44. 1 Kings 8:41 tn Heb “your name.” In the OT the word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor. The “name” of the Lord sometimes designates the Lord himself, being indistinguishable from the proper name.
  45. 1 Kings 8:42 tn Heb “your great name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in the previous verse.
  46. 1 Kings 8:42 tn Heb “and your strong hand and your outstretched arm.”
  47. 1 Kings 8:43 tn Heb “and do all which the foreigner calls to [i.e., “requests of”] you.”
  48. 1 Kings 8:43 tn Heb “your name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in v. 41.
  49. 1 Kings 8:43 tn Heb “fear.”
  50. 1 Kings 8:43 tn Heb “that your name is called over this house which I built.” The Hebrew idiom “to call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28.
  51. 1 Kings 8:44 tn Heb “When your people go out for battle against their enemies in the way which you send them.”
  52. 1 Kings 8:44 tn Or perhaps “to you, O Lord.” See 2 Chr 6:34.
  53. 1 Kings 8:44 tn Heb “your name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in v. 41.
  54. 1 Kings 8:45 tn Heb “their prayer and their request for help.”
  55. 1 Kings 8:45 tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”
  56. 1 Kings 8:46 tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  57. 1 Kings 8:46 tn Heb “the land of the enemy.”
  58. 1 Kings 8:47 tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  59. 1 Kings 8:47 tn Or “stop and reflect”; Heb “bring back to their heart.”
  60. 1 Kings 8:47 tn Or “done wrong.”
  61. 1 Kings 8:48 tn Or “soul.”
  62. 1 Kings 8:48 tn Heb “in the land of their enemies.”
  63. 1 Kings 8:48 tn Heb “your name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in v. 41.
  64. 1 Kings 8:49 tn Heb “their prayer and their request for help.”
  65. 1 Kings 8:49 tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”
  66. 1 Kings 8:50 tn Heb “and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their rebellious acts by which they rebelled against you, and grant them mercy before their captors so they will show them mercy.”
  67. 1 Kings 8:51 tn Or “for.”
  68. 1 Kings 8:51 tn Heb “inheritance.”
  69. 1 Kings 8:51 tn The Hebrew term כּוּר (kur, “furnace,” cf. Akkadian kūru) is a metaphor for the intense heat of purification. A כּוּר was not a source of heat but a crucible (“iron-smelting furnace”) in which precious metals were melted down and their impurities burned away (see I. Cornelius, NIDOTTE 2:618-19). Thus Egypt served not as a place of punishment for the Israelites, but as a place of refinement to bring Israel to a place of submission to divine sovereignty.sn From the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. The metaphor of a furnace suggests fire and heat and is an apt image to remind the people of the suffering they endured while slaves in Egypt.
  70. 1 Kings 8:52 tn Heb “May your eyes be open.”
  71. 1 Kings 8:52 tn Heb “to listen to them in all their calling out to you.”
  72. 1 Kings 8:53 tn Or “For.”
  73. 1 Kings 8:53 tn Heb “your inheritance.”
  74. 1 Kings 8:54 tn Or “toward heaven.”
  75. 1 Kings 8:56 tn Heb “he has given a resting place to his people Israel.”
  76. 1 Kings 8:56 tn Heb “not one word from his entire good word he spoke by Moses his servant has fallen.”
  77. 1 Kings 8:58 tn Heb “to bend our hearts toward him.” The infinitive is subordinate to the initial prayer, “may the Lord our God be with us.” The Hebrew term לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) here refers to the people’s volition and will.
  78. 1 Kings 8:58 tn Heb “to walk in all his ways.”
  79. 1 Kings 8:58 tn Heb “keep.”
  80. 1 Kings 8:59 tn Heb “May these words of mine, which I have requested before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night.”
  81. 1 Kings 8:59 tn Heb “accomplish the justice of.”
  82. 1 Kings 8:60 tn Heb “so that.”
  83. 1 Kings 8:60 tn Heb “the Lord, he is the God, there is no other.”
  84. 1 Kings 8:61 tn Heb “may your hearts be complete with the Lord our God.”
  85. 1 Kings 8:61 tn Heb “walking in.”
  86. 1 Kings 8:61 tn Heb “keeping.”
  87. 1 Kings 8:61 tn Heb “as this day.”
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1 Kings 8:22-61
Lexham English Bible

Solomon’s Prayer to Yahweh

22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all of the assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands to the heavens, 23 and he said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the loyal love for your servants who are walking before you with all their heart. 24 You have kept for your servant David my father what you promised to him, and you have spoken with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled it this very day. 25 So then, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised to him, saying, ‘For you, no man will be cut off from before me who will be sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons keep their ways to walk before me just as you have walked before me.’ 26 So then, O God of Israel, please let your word be confirmed which you have promised[a] to your servant David my father. 27 For will God really dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens could not contain you! How could[b] this house that I have built? 28 You must regard the prayer of your servant and his plea! O Yahweh my God, listen to the pleading and to the prayer that your servant is praying before you this day, 29 so that your eyes will be open to this house night and day, to the place which you said, ‘My name will be there,’ to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. 30 You must listen to the plea of your servant and your people Israel which they pray toward this place; and you must hear from the place where you live, from heaven you must hear and you must forgive. 31 If a man sins against his neighbor and he pronounces an oath against him to curse him, and the curse comes before your altar in this house, 32 then you shall hear in heaven and you shall act and you shall judge your servant, to declare the wicked guilty by bringing his way upon his head and to declare the righteous innocent[c] by rewarding him according to his righteousness. 33 When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because[d] they sinned against you, and when they turn to you and confess your name and pray and beg for mercy from you in this house, 34 then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and you shall bring them back to the ground which you gave to their ancestors.[e] 35 When you shut up the heavens so there is no rain because they have sinned against you, then they pray to this place and they confess your name and they return from their sin because you punished them, 36 then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you will teach them the good way in which they should go, and you will give rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance. 37 If there should be in the land famine or disease, if there should be blight or mildew or locust or caterpillars, if it happens that his enemy lays siege against him in the land of his gates, if any plague or any disease, 38 any prayer or any plea which is offered by any person for all of your people Israel, who each knows the infestation of his own heart and spreads out his palms to this house, 39 then you shall hear in heaven the place of your dwelling, and you shall forgive and act and give to the man whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you alone know the heart of all the sons of man. 40 Do these things so that they may fear you all the days that they live on the face of the land that you gave to our ancestors.[f] 41 Also for the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, and he comes from a distant land because of your name, 42 (for they shall hear of your great name and your powerful hand and your outstretched arm), and he shall come and pray toward this house, 43 you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel, and to know that your name has been invoked over this house that I have built. 44 If your people go out to battle against his enemy in the way that you shall send them and they pray to Yahweh, toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name, 45 then you shall hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and you shall vindicate[g] them.

46 “If they sin against you (for there is not a person who does not sin) and you are angry with them and you give them to an enemy and they take them captive to the land of the enemy far or near, 47 and then they return their heart in the land where they have been taken captive and they return and plead to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and we did wrong. We acted wickedly,’ 48 if they return to you with all 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 their land which you gave to their ancestors,[h] the city that you have chosen and the house that you[i] built for your name, 49 then you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, their prayer and their plea, and you shall vindicate them.[j] 50 You shall forgive your people who sinned against you, even for all their transgressions which they committed against you. You shall give them compassion before their captors so that they may have compassion on them, 51 for they are your people and your inheritance whom you brought from Egypt from the middle of the smelter of iron. 52 O, that your eyes may be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, to listen to them in all things when they call to you. 53 For you have separated them for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you promised through the hand of Moses your servant when you brought out our ancestors[k] from Egypt, my Lord Yahweh!”

Solomon Charges the People Israel

54 It happened that when Solomon finished praying to Yahweh all of the prayer and this plea, he got up from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling down on his knees with his palms outstretched to heaven. 55 He stood and blessed all of the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, 56 “Blessed be Yahweh who gave a resting place to his people Israel. According to all that he promised, not one word has fallen from all of his promises concerning the good which he spoke through the hand of Moses his servant. 57 May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our ancestors,[l] and may he not leave us or abandon us, 58 to incline our hearts toward him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments which he commanded our ancestors.[m] 59 Let these my words which I pleaded before Yahweh be near to Yahweh our God, by day and by night, to maintain the justice of his servant and the justice of his people Israel as each day requires[n] 60 so that all of the people of the earth may know that Yahweh, he is God; there is none other. 61 Let your heart be completely with Yahweh our God by walking in his statutes, by keeping his commands as this day.”

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 8:26 Or “spoken”
  2. 1 Kings 8:27 Literally “Even that”
  3. 1 Kings 8:32 Literally “to declare righteous the righteous”
  4. 1 Kings 8:33 Literally “who”
  5. 1 Kings 8:34 Or “fathers”
  6. 1 Kings 8:40 Or “fathers”
  7. 1 Kings 8:45 Literally “their judgment”
  8. 1 Kings 8:48 Or “fathers”
  9. 1 Kings 8:48 The Hebrew Masoretic text (Kethib) reads “you have built”;Qere reads “I have built”
  10. 1 Kings 8:49 Literally “and you shall do their justice”
  11. 1 Kings 8:53 Or “fathers”
  12. 1 Kings 8:57 Or “fathers”
  13. 1 Kings 8:58 Or “fathers”
  14. 1 Kings 8:59 Literally “the word of the day on its day”
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