Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

Then he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

He said, “Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like You in heaven or on earth, keeping Your covenant and Your faithfulness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;

Now then, Lord, God of Israel, keep to Your servant David, my father, that which You promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay attention to their way, to walk in My Law as you have walked before Me.’

Now then, Lord, God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.

Nevertheless, turn Your attention to the prayer of Your servant and to his plea, Lord, my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You;

“Now then arise, Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.

“Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember Your faithfulness to Your servant David.”

The Shekinah Glory

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

And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.

All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord, saying, “Certainly He is good, certainly His faithfulness is everlasting.”

Sacrifices Offered

Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.

The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites also, with the musical instruments for the Lord, which King David had made for giving praise to the Lord—“for His faithfulness is everlasting”—whenever David gave praise through their ministry; the priests on the other side blew trumpets and all Israel was standing.

Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was before the house of the Lord, for he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings there, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat.

Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and happy in heart because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, to Solomon, and to His people Israel.

God’s Promise and Warning

So Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s palace, and successfully completed everything that he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done these things to this land and to this house?’

And they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’”

Solomon’s Activities and Accomplishments

Now it came about at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house,

Then Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built in front of the porch;

So all the work of Solomon was carried out from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, she was breathless.

Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you, setting you on His throne as king for the Lord your God; because your God loved Israel, establishing them forever, He made you king over them, to carry out justice and righteousness.”

From the algum trees the king made steps to the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and nothing like them was seen before in the land of Judah.