⁷ “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.^(A)

^2 [a]Never be rash with your mouth nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.^(A)

³ For dreams come with many cares, and a fool’s voice with many words.

⁷ With many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words,^[a] but fear God.^(A)

²⁶ So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made.^{(A) 27} At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” ²⁸ Then they cried aloud, and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them.^{(B) 29} As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.^(C)

⁴⁴ So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.

³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours all of them shouted in unison, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³² For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

⁴² Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”^(A)

¹⁸ Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and the city that bears your name. We do not present our supplication before you on the ground of our righteousness but on the ground of your great mercies.^{(A) 19} O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and act and do not delay! For your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people bear your name!”^(B)

²⁶ Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed that you promised to your servant my father David.^(A)

²⁷ “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!^{(B) 28} Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today, ²⁹ that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.^{(C) 30} Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive.^(D)

³¹ “If someone sins against a neighbor and is required to take an oath and comes and swears before your altar in this house,^{(E) 32} then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing their conduct on their own heads and vindicating the righteous by rewarding them according to their righteousness.^(F)

³³ “When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house,^{(G) 34} then hear in heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to their ancestors.

³⁵ “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you and then they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin because you punish^[a] them,^{(H) 36} then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.^(I)

³⁷ “If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in any^[b] of their cities; whatever suffering, whatever sickness there is;^{(J) 38} whatever prayer, whatever plea there is from any individual or from all your people Israel, all knowing the suffering of their own hearts so that they stretch out their hands toward this house; ³⁹ then hear in heaven your dwelling place, forgive, act, and render to all whose hearts you know—according to all their ways, for only you know the human heart^(K)— ⁴⁰ so that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors.^(L)

⁴¹ “Likewise when foreigners, who are not of your people Israel, come from a distant land because of your name ⁴² —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when foreigners come and pray toward this house,^{(M) 43} then hear in heaven your dwelling place and do whatever the foreigners ask of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.^(N)

⁴⁴ “If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, ⁴⁵ then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea and maintain their cause.