2 Chronicles 5-8

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

5 Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. He brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated, and the silver, the gold, and all the vessels he put in the treasuries of the house of God.

² Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers’ houses of the Israelites, to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the City of David, which is Zion.

³ All the men of Israel gathered to the king at the feast in the seventh month.

⁴ And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark.

⁵ And the priests and Levites brought up the ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent.

⁶ Also King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel who were gathered to him before the ark sacrificed sheep and oxen so numerous that they could not be counted or reported.

⁷ And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, to the sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim;

⁸ For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, making a covering above the ark and its poles.

⁹ And they drew out the poles of the ark, so that the ends of the poles protruding from the ark were visible from the front of the Holy of Holies, but were not visible from without. It is there to this day.

¹⁰ There was nothing in the ark except the two tables [the Ten Commandments] which Moses put in it at Mount Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

¹¹ And when the priests had come out of the Holy Place—for all the priests present had sanctified themselves, separating themselves from everything that defiles, without regard to their divisions;

¹² And all the Levites who were singers—all of those of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, with their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, having cymbals, harps, and lyres—stood at the east end of the altar, and with them 120 priests blowing trumpets;

¹³ And when the trumpeters and singers were joined in unison, making one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and other instruments for song and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever, then the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud,

¹⁴ So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

6 Then Solomon said, The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick darkness;

² I have built You a house, [in which the dark Holy of Holies seems] a [fitting] abode for You, a place for You to dwell in forever.

³ And the king turned his face and blessed all the assembly of Israel, and they all stood.

⁴ And he said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who has fulfilled with His hands what He promised with His mouth to David my father, saying,

⁵ Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that My Name might be there, ^[a]neither chose I any man to be a ruler over My people Israel;

⁶ But I have chosen Jerusalem, that My Name [and the symbol of My presence] might be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.

⁷ Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the Name and renown of the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁸ But the Lord said to David my father, Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name and renown, you did well that it was in your heart.

⁹ Yet you shall not build the house, but your son, who shall be born to you—he shall build the house for My Name.

¹⁰ The Lord therefore has performed His word that He has spoken, for I have risen up in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹¹ In it have I put the ark [the symbol of His presence], in which is the covenant of the Lord [the Ten Commandments] which He made with the people of Israel.

¹² And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread forth his hands.

¹³ For he had made a bronze scaffold, five cubits square and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; upon it he stood, and he knelt upon his knees before all the assembly of Israel and spread forth his hands toward heaven,

¹⁴ And said, O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in the heavens or in the earth, keeping covenant and showing mercy and loving-kindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts,

¹⁵ You Who have kept Your promises to my father David and fulfilled with Your hand what You spoke with Your mouth, as it is today.

¹⁶ Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You promised him, saying, There shall not fail a man in My sight to sit on the throne of Israel, provided your children are careful to walk in My law as you, David, have walked before Me.

¹⁷ Now then, O Lord, God of Israel, let Your word to Your servant David be verified.

¹⁸ But will God actually dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built!

¹⁹ Yet have respect for the prayer of Your servant and for his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant prays before You,

²⁰ That Your eyes may be open upon this house day and night, toward the place in which You have said You would put Your Name [and the symbol of your presence], to listen to and heed the prayer which Your servant prays facing this place.

²¹ So listen to and heed the requests of Your servant and Your people Israel which they shall make facing this place. Hear from Your dwelling place, heaven; and when You hear, forgive.

²² If a man sins against his neighbor, and he is required to take an oath, and the oath comes before Your altar in this house,

²³ Then hear from heaven and do; and judge Your servants, requiting the wicked by bringing his conduct upon his own head, and justifying the [uncompromisingly] righteous by giving him according to his righteousness (his uprightness and right standing with God).

²⁴ If Your people Israel have been defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against You, and shall return, confess Your name [and You Yourself], and pray and make supplication before You in this house,

²⁵ Then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel and bring them again to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.

²⁶ When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, yet if they pray toward this place, confess your name [and You Yourself], and turn from their sin when You afflict them,

²⁷ Then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, [all of] Your people Israel, when You have taught them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain upon Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.

²⁸ If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locusts, or caterpillars, if their enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever plague or sickness there may be,

²⁹ Then whatever prayer or supplication any man or all of Your people Israel shall make—each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands toward this house—

³⁰ Then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; for You, You only, know men’s hearts,

³¹ That they may fear You and walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

³² Also concerning the stranger who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a far country for Your great name’s sake and Your mighty power and Your outstretched arm—if he comes and prays toward this house,

³³ Hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do all for which the stranger calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You [reverently and worshipfully], as do Your people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by Your Name.

³⁴ If Your people go out to war against their enemies by the way that You send them, and they pray to You facing this city [Jerusalem] which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your Name,

³⁵ Then hear from heaven their prayer and supplication, and maintain their cause.

³⁶ If they sin against You—for there is no man who does not sin—and You are angry with them and give them to enemies who take them captive to a land far or near;

³⁷ Yet if they repent in the land to which they have been carried captive, and turn and pray there, saying, We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have dealt wickedly;

³⁸ If they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity, and pray facing their land which You gave to their fathers and toward the city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your Name;

³⁹ Then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their cause; and forgive Your people, who have sinned against You.

⁴⁰ Now, O my God, I beseech You, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this temple.

⁴¹ So now arise, O Lord God, and come into Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength and power. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let Your saints (Your zealous ones) rejoice in good and in Your goodness.

⁴² O Lord God, ^[b]turn not away the face of [me] Your anointed one; [earnestly] remember Your good deeds, mercy, and steadfast love for David Your servant.

7 When Solomon had finished praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

² The priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.

³ And when all the people of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed with their faces upon the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord.

⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated God’s house.

⁶ The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites also, with instruments of music to the Lord, which King David had made to praise and give thanks to the Lord—for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever—whenever David praised through their ministry; the priests blew trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.

⁷ Moreover, Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which [he] had made was not sufficient to receive the burnt offerings, the cereal offerings, and the fat.

⁸ At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt.

⁹ The eighth day they made a solemn assembly, for they had kept the dedication of the altar and the feast, each for seven days.

¹⁰ And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, to Solomon, and to Israel His people.

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the Lord’s house and the king’s house; all that [he] had planned to do in the Lord’s house and his own house he accomplished successfully.

¹² And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

¹³ If I shut up heaven so no rain falls, or if I command locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

¹⁴ If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.

¹⁶ For I have chosen and sanctified (set apart for holy use) this house, that My Name may be here forever, and My eyes and My heart will be here perpetually.

¹⁷ As for you [Solomon], if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do all I have commanded you, and observe My statutes and My ordinances,^(A)

¹⁸ Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.

¹⁹ But if you [people] turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰ Then will I pluck [Israel] 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 will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.^(B)

²¹ And this house, which was so high, shall be an astonishment to everyone passing it, and they will say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?

²² Then men will say, Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, Who brought them out of Egypt, and they laid hold of other gods and worshiped and served them; therefore has He brought all this evil upon them.

8 At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house,

² The cities which Huram had given to [him] Solomon rebuilt and fortified, and caused the Israelites to dwell there.

³ And Solomon took Hamath-zobah.

⁴ He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all his store cities in Hamath.

⁵ Also he built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars,

⁶ And Baalath and all the store cities [he] had, and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all his dominion.

⁷ All the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel,

⁸ But descendants of those who were left in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed—of them Solomon made a levy for forced labor to this day.

⁹ But of the Israelites Solomon made no slaves for his work; but they were men of war, chiefs of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horsemen.

¹⁰ These were the chiefs of King Solomon’s officers, 250 in authority over the people.

¹¹ Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh out of the City of David into the house he had built for her, for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy to which the ark of the Lord has come.

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the Lord’s altar which he had built before the [temple] porch or vestibule,

¹³ A certain number every day, offering as Moses commanded for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the solemn feast days three times in the year—the Feasts of Unleavened Bread, of Weeks, and of Tabernacles.

¹⁴ And he appointed, as ordered by David his father, the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites to their offices to praise and to serve before the priests as the duty of every day required, and the gatekeepers also by their divisions at every gate; for so had David the man of God commanded.

¹⁵ And they did not turn from the command of the king to the priests and Levites in any respect or concerning the treasuries.

¹⁶ Thus all the work of Solomon was prepared from the day the foundation of the Lord’s house was laid until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the shore of the [Red] Sea in the land of Edom.

¹⁸ And Huram sent him by his servants ships and servants familiar with the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and took from there 450 talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.