Solomon’s Prayer

¹² Then he stood before the altar of Adonai in front of the entire congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands. ¹³ For Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high and placed it in the midst of the court. He stood on it and knelt down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven ¹⁴ and he said,

“Adonai, God of Israel, there is no God like You in the heavens or in the earth, keeping covenant and showing mercy to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart. ¹⁵ You have kept the promise You made to Your servant David, my father. Surely you spoke with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand—as it is today.

¹⁶ “Now therefore, Adonai, God of Israel, keep for Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him saying:

‘For you will never be cut off, you will not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne—if only your sons pay attention to their way, to walk in My Torah as you have walked before Me.’^[a]

¹⁷ “Now therefore, Adonai God of Israel, let Your word, which You spoke to Your servant David, be confirmed.

¹⁸ “But will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold—heaven even the highest heaven—cannot contain You. How much less this House that I have built! ¹⁹ Yet attend to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, Adonai my God, to hear the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You ²⁰ that Your eyes may be open toward this House day and night, toward the place where You have said You would put Your Name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant will pray toward this place. ²¹ Hear the supplications of Your servant and Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven, and when You hear, forgive.

²² “If a man sins against his neighbor and is required to swear an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this House, ²³ then hear from heaven and act. Judge Your servants, repaying the wicked by bringing down on his own head what he has done and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.^[b]

²⁴ “If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, yet when they return and confess Your Name, praying and making supplication before You in this House, ²⁵ then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of Your people Israel and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and to their fathers.

²⁶ “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, if they pray toward this place and confess Your Name, turning from their sin because You afflicted them, ²⁷ then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel. Indeed may You teach them the good way in which they should walk. Send rain upon Your land that You have given to Your people for an inheritance.

²⁸ “When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locust or grasshopper, when their enemies besiege them in the land by their gates, whatever plague or sickness may come, ²⁹ and any prayer or plea is offered by any individual or by all Your people Israel—each acknowledging his own afflictions and pain, even spreading his hands toward this House— ³⁰ then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place and forgive. May You give to every man according to all his ways, as You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of the children of men— ³¹ so that they will fear You and walk in Your ways all the days that they live in the land that You gave to our fathers.

³² “Moreover, concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but comes from a distant land for the sake of Your great Name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this House, ³³ then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place and do whatever the foreigner asks of You. Then all the peoples of the earth will acknowledge Your Name and revere You, as Your people Israel do, and they will know that this House which I have built is called by Your Name.

³⁴ “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and they pray to You toward this city that You have chosen and the House that I have built for Your Name, ³⁵ then hear from heaven their prayer and their petition, and uphold their cause.

³⁶ When they sin against You—for there is no man that does not sin^[c]—and You become angry with them and hand them over to the enemy who takes them captive to a land far off or near, ³⁷ when they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and they repent and seek You in the land of their captivity saying,

‘We have sinned,

we have committed inquity,

we have acted wickedly,’

³⁸ “and they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive, and they 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 may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions and uphold their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

⁴⁰ “Now my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open, and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.

Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret

7 Now when Solomon finished praying the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of Adonai filled the House. ² The kohanim could not even enter into the House of Adonai because the glory of Adonai filled the House of Adonai. ³ When all Bnei-Yisrael saw the fire come down and the glory of Adonai above the House, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, prostrating themselves and praising Adonai,

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before Adonai. ⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the House of God. ⁶ The kohanim stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of Adonai that King David had made for praising Adonai—“for His mercy endures forever”—whenever David offered praise by their hand. Opposite them were the kohanim who sounded trumpets while all Israel was standing.

⁷ Moreover, Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was before the House of Adonai, because there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat. ⁸ At that time, Solomon observed the feast for seven days and all Israel with him—a very great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt.

⁹ On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the feast for seven days. ¹⁰ On the 23 rd day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that Adonai had done for David, Solomon and Israel His people.

Adonai’s Promise to Solomon

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the House of Adonai and the king’s palace. Indeed, all that Solomon had on his heart to accomplish in the House of Adonai and in his own palace, he successfully completed.

¹² Then Adonai appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself for a House of sacrifice. ¹³ If I shut up heaven that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ when My people, over whom My Name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and consecrated this House so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.

¹⁷ “As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all that I have commanded you, keeping My statutes and My ordinances, ¹⁸ then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’ ¹⁹ But if you turn away and forsake My decrees and My mitzvot that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot them from My land which I gave them, and this House which I have consecrated for My Name I will cast out of My sight. I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ²¹ As for this House, which is so exalted, every one passing by it shall be appalled and say, ‘Why has Adonai done this to this land and to this House?’ ²² And they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken Adonai, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and clung to other gods, worshipping and serving them. Therefore He has brought all this misery upon them’”

Solomon’s Exploits Throughout the Land

8 It came to pass at the end of 20 years, during which Solomon built the House of Adonai and his own palace, ² that he built the cities which Huram had given to him and settled Bnei-Yisrael there. ³ Then Solomon marched against Hamath-zobah and overpowered it. ⁴ He built up Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities that he built in Hamath. ⁵ He also built upper Beth-horon and lower Bet-horon as fortified cities with walls, gates and bars, ⁶ as well as Baalath and all his store cities, and cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen—every thing that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land that he ruled.

⁷ All the people that were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, who were not of Israel, ⁸ that is, those of their descendants that were left after them in the land, whom Bnei-Yisrael did not destroy—these Solomon conscripted for forced labor, as it is to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not make slaves of Bnei-Yisrael for his work. Rather, they were his soldiers, his chief officers and commanders of his chariots and horsemen. ¹⁰ These were the chief officers of King Solomon, 250 who ruled over the people.

¹⁴ For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing—for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do. ¹⁶ But if I do what I do not want to do, then I agree with the Torah—that it is good.

¹⁷ So now it is no longer I doing it, but sin dwelling in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh. For to will is present in me, but to do the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice. ²⁰ But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I doing it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹ So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. ²⁴ Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord!^[a] So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

Life in the Spirit

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what was impossible for the Torah—since it was weakened on account of the flesh—God has done. Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, He condemned sin in the flesh— ⁴ so that the requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Ruach.

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Ruach set their minds on the things of the Ruach. ⁶ For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Ruach is life and shalom. ⁷ For the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit itself to the law of God—for it cannot. ⁸ So those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Adonai lives! Blessed Be My Rock

Psalm 18

Sluggards, Scoffers, and Disgraceful Sons