^15 (A)Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

Prayer for Mercy

¹³ Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, ^(A)when I restore their fortunes:

The Humble and Contrite in Spirit

⁴³ hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order ^(A)that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and ^(B)fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.

²⁷ “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, ^(A)heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

The Certainty of God's Promise

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, ^(A)he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, ^(B)“Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” ¹⁵ And thus Abraham,^{[a] (C)}having patiently waited, obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes ^(D)an oath is final for confirmation. ¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to ^(E)the heirs of the promise ^(F)the unchangeable character of his purpose, ^(G)he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which ^(H)it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope ^(I)set before us.