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12 He stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 13 Solomon had made a bronze platform and had placed it in the middle of the enclosure. It was 7½[a] long, 7½[b] wide, and 4½ feet[c] high. He stood on it and then got down on his knees in front of the entire assembly of Israel. He spread out his hands toward the sky, 14 and prayed:[d] “O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth! You maintain covenantal loyalty[e] to your servants who obey you with sincerity.[f] 15 You have kept your word to your servant, my father David;[g] this very day you have fulfilled what you promised.[h] 16 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,[i] provided that your descendants watch their step and obey my law as you have done.’[j] 17 Now, O Lord God of Israel, may the promise you made to your servant David be realized.[k]

18 “God does not really live with humankind on the earth![l] Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built! 19 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] 20 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] 21 Respond to the requests of your servant and your people Israel for this place.[s] Hear from your heavenly dwelling place and respond favorably and forgive.[t]

22 “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,[u] 23 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.[v]

24 “If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy[w] because they sinned against you, then if they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you,[x] and pray for your help[y] before you in this temple, 25 then listen from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.[z]

26 “The time will come when[aa] the skies[ab] 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, 27 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]

28 “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. 29 When all your people Israel pray and ask for help,[ak] as they acknowledge their intense pain[al] and spread out their hands toward this temple, 30 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin,[am] and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of their motives.[an] (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.)[ao] 31 Then they will honor[ap] you by obeying you[aq] throughout their lifetimes as[ar] they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.

32 “Foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will come from a distant land because of your great reputation[as] and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds;[at] they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple. 33 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]

34 “When you direct your people to march out and fight their enemies,[ay] and they direct their prayers to you toward this chosen city and this temple I built for your honor,[az] 35 then listen from heaven to their prayers for help[ba] and vindicate them.[bb]

36 “The time will come when your people[bc] will sin against you (for there is no one who is sinless!) and you will be angry at them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their land, whether far away or close by. 37 When your people[bd] come to their senses[be] 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,[bf] we have done evil!’ 38 When they return to you with all their heart and being[bg] in the land where they are held prisoner and direct their prayers toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor,[bh] 39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help,[bi] vindicate them,[bj] and forgive your sinful people.

40 “Now, my God, may you be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place.[bk] 41 Now ascend, O Lord God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength! May your priests, O Lord God, experience your deliverance.[bl] May your loyal followers rejoice in the prosperity you give.[bm] 42 O Lord God, do not reject your chosen ones![bn] Remember the faithful promises you made to your servant David!”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 6:13 tn Heb “5 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the length would have been 7.5 feet (2.25 m).
  2. 2 Chronicles 6:13 tn Heb “5 cubits.”
  3. 2 Chronicles 6:13 tn Heb “3 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 4.5 feet (1.35 m).
  4. 2 Chronicles 6:14 tn Heb “said.”
  5. 2 Chronicles 6:14 tn Heb “one who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.”
  6. 2 Chronicles 6:14 tn Heb “who walk before you with all their heart.”
  7. 2 Chronicles 6:15 tn Heb “[you] who kept to your servant David my father that which you spoke to him.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 6:15 tn Heb “you spoke by your mouth and by your hand you fulfilled, as this day.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 6:16 tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from before me sitting on the throne of Israel.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 6:16 tn Heb “guard their way by walking in my law as you have walked before me.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 6:17 tn Or “prove to be reliable.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 6:18 tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live with mankind on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which is reflected in the translation “God does not really live with mankind on the earth.”
  13. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “turn to.”
  14. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “by listening to.”
  15. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “the loud cry and the prayer.”
  16. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “praying before you.”
  17. 2 Chronicles 6:20 tn Heb “so your eyes might be open toward this house night and day, toward the place about which you promised to place your name there.”
  18. 2 Chronicles 6:20 tn Heb “by listening to the prayer which your servant is praying concerning this place.”
  19. 2 Chronicles 6:21 tn Heb “listen to the requests of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 6:21 tn Heb “hear and forgive.”
  21. 2 Chronicles 6:22 tn Heb “and if 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.”
  22. 2 Chronicles 6:23 tn Heb “and you, hear [from] heaven and act and judge your servants by repaying the guilty, to give his way on his head, and to declare the innocent to be innocent, to give to him according to his innocence.”
  23. 2 Chronicles 6:24 tn Or “are struck down before an enemy.”
  24. 2 Chronicles 6:24 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
  25. 2 Chronicles 6:24 tn Heb “and they pray and ask for help.”
  26. 2 Chronicles 6:25 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 38).
  27. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 26-27a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
  28. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Or “heavens” (also in v. 12). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
  29. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Heb “they.”
  30. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
  31. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn The Hebrew text reads “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (ʿanah, “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 (“afflict”).
  32. 2 Chronicles 6:27 tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense (“Certainly”). Other translations have “indeed” (NASB), “when” (NRSV), “so” (NEB), or leave the word untranslated (NIV).
  33. 2 Chronicles 6:27 tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”
  34. 2 Chronicles 6:27 tn Or “for an inheritance.”
  35. 2 Chronicles 6:28 tn Actually two Hebrew words appear here, both of which are usually (but not always) taken as referring to locusts. Perhaps different stages of growth or different varieties are in view, but this is uncertain. NEB has “locusts new-sloughed or fully grown”; NASB has “locust or grasshopper”; NIV has “locusts or grasshoppers”; NRSV has “locust, or caterpillar.”
  36. 2 Chronicles 6:28 tn Heb “in the land, his gates.”
  37. 2 Chronicles 6:29 tn Heb “every prayer, every request for help which will be to all the people, to all your people Israel.”
  38. 2 Chronicles 6:29 tn Heb “which they know, each his pain and his affliction.”
  39. 2 Chronicles 6:30 tn The words “their sin” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarification.
  40. 2 Chronicles 6:30 tn Heb “and give to each one according to all his ways because you know his heart.” In the Hebrew text vv. 28-30a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided up for stylistic reasons.
  41. 2 Chronicles 6:30 tn Heb “Indeed you know, you alone, the heart of the sons of mankind.”
  42. 2 Chronicles 6:31 tn Heb “fear.”
  43. 2 Chronicles 6:31 tn Heb “by walking in your ways.”
  44. 2 Chronicles 6:31 tn Heb “all the days [in] which.”
  45. 2 Chronicles 6:32 tn Heb “your great name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “your great reputation).
  46. 2 Chronicles 6:32 tn Heb “and your strong hand and your outstretched arm.”
  47. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “and do all which the foreigner calls to [i.e., “requests of”] you.”
  48. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “name.” See the note on “reputation” in v. 32.
  49. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “fear.”
  50. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “that your name is called over this house which I built.” The Hebrew idiom “call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28.
  51. 2 Chronicles 6:34 tn Heb “When your people go out for battle against their enemies in the way which you send them.”
  52. 2 Chronicles 6:34 tn Heb “toward this city which you have chosen and the house which I built for your name.”
  53. 2 Chronicles 6:35 tn Heb “their prayer and their request for help.”
  54. 2 Chronicles 6:35 tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”
  55. 2 Chronicles 6:36 tn Heb “they”; the referent (God’s people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  56. 2 Chronicles 6:37 tn Heb “they”; the referent (God’s people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  57. 2 Chronicles 6:37 tn Or “stop and reflect”; Heb “bring back to their heart.”
  58. 2 Chronicles 6:37 tn Or “done wrong.”
  59. 2 Chronicles 6:38 tn Or “soul.”
  60. 2 Chronicles 6:38 tn Heb “your name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “your honor).
  61. 2 Chronicles 6:39 tn Heb “their prayer and their requests for help.”
  62. 2 Chronicles 6:39 tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”
  63. 2 Chronicles 6:40 tn Heb “May your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.”
  64. 2 Chronicles 6:41 tn Heb “be clothed with deliverance.”
  65. 2 Chronicles 6:41 tn Heb “and may your loyal ones rejoice in good.”
  66. 2 Chronicles 6:42 tc Heb “do not turn away the face of your anointed ones.” Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the ancient versions, read the singular, “your anointed,” which would probably refer to Solomon specifically, rather than the people.

12 He stood before Yahweh’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands 13 (for Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits[a] long, and five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the middle of the court; and he stood on it, and knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven) 14 and he said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth; you who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart; 15 who have kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.

16 “Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ 17 Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David.

18 “But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house which I have built! 19 Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you; 20 that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place where you have said that you would put your name; to listen to the prayer which your servant will pray toward this place. 21 Listen to the petitions of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, hear from your dwelling place, even from heaven; and when you hear, forgive.

22 “If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house; 23 then hear from heaven, act, and judge your servants, bringing retribution to the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

24 “If your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and confess your name, 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 to their fathers.

26 “When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them; 27 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

28 “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 29 whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread 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, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men) 31 that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

32 “Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for your great name’s sake, and your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm; when they come and pray toward this house; 33 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

34 “If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name; 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

36 “If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near; 37 yet if they come to their senses in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;’ 38 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name; 39 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

40 “Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.

41 “Now therefore arise, Yahweh God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, Yahweh God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness.

42 “Yahweh God, don’t turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant.”

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Footnotes

  1. 6:13 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.