Beginning

6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that He would dwell in the dark cloud. ² But I have built for You an exalted house, even a habitation where You can continually dwell.”

Solomon’s Speech

³ Then the king turned his face around, and he blessed the entire assembly of Israel while all the assembly of Israel was standing before him. ⁴ And he said:

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who spoke with David my father and fulfilled His promise saying, ⁵ ‘Since the day that I brought out My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose any city from among the tribes of Israel to build a house for My name to dwell there, nor did I select a man to be the leader over My people Israel; ⁶ but I have chosen Jerusalem for My name to dwell there, and I have selected David to be over My people Israel.’

⁷ “And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. ⁸ But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well because of what was in your heart; ⁹ only you will not be the one to build the house. For your son, who will be born to you, he will build a house for My name.’

¹⁰ “The Lord has fulfilled the word that He spoke. For I have risen up in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke, and I will build the house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. ¹¹ And there I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that He made with the children of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication^(A)

¹² Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord before all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. ¹³ For Solomon made a bronze platform and set it in the midst of the enclosure. It was five cubits in length, five cubits in width, and three cubits in height.^[a] And he stood on it and knelt down before all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands to heaven. ¹⁴ And he said:

“O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like You in the heavens or on the earth, who keeps covenants and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart. ¹⁵ You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father. You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.

¹⁶ “And now, O Lord God of Israel, keep what You promised Your servant David my father saying, ‘You will not lack a man sitting on the throne of Israel before Me, if only your sons take heed to their way to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’ ¹⁷ And now, O Lord God of Israel, may Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.

¹⁸ “For will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, are not able to contain You, much less this house that I have built. ¹⁹ But respond to the prayer of Your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and prayer of Your servant who prays before You, ²⁰ that Your eyes might be open toward this house both day and night, to the place that You have said that You will set Your name, in order to hear the prayer of Your servant for this place. ²¹ And listen to the pleas of Your servant and Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. And may You respond from heaven, the place of Your dwelling, so that You hear and forgive.

²² “If a man sins against his companion, and the companion swears and puts him under a curse, and the wronged man comes with an oath before Your altar at this temple, ²³ then You will hear from heaven, and You will act and judge Your servants, to repay the guilty one by bringing his way on his own head; and to vindicate the innocent one by rendering to him according to his righteous behavior.

²⁴ “If Your people Israel are struck before enemies because they have sinned against You, and they return and confess Your name and pray and seek Your favor in this house, ²⁵ then You will hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and You will bring them back to the land that You gave them and their fathers.

²⁶ “When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them, ²⁷ then You will hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel because You will teach them the good path in which they will walk, and You will send rain on the land that You have given to Your people as a possession.

²⁸ “When there is famine in the land or when there is pestilence, blight, mildew, winged locust, or grasshopper, or when enemies besiege them in the land up to their city gates, in whatever plague or sickness, ²⁹ whatever prayer or plea that is made by any man or by all your people Israel, when each man knows his own affliction and his own sorrow, and stretches out his hands toward this house, ³⁰ then You will hear from heaven, the place of the habitation of Your dwelling, and forgive, and You will render to each according to his conduct, for You know their hearts (for You alone know the heart of people), ³¹ so that they may fear You and walk in Your ways all the days that they live on the land that You have given to our fathers.

³² “When foreigners are not from Your people Israel and come from a distant land, because of Your great name, mighty hand, and outstretched arm, and they come and pray toward this house, ³³ then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and act on everything for which the foreigner calls on You, 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 “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, in the way that You send them, and when 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 plea and act for their cause.

³⁶ “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin) and You are angry against them and give them to their enemies, and they are taken captive to a land, whether distant or near, ³⁷ and they turn their hearts in the land that they have been taken captive, and they repent and seek Your favor in the land of captivity saying, ‘We have sinned, done wrong, and acted wickedly,’ ³⁸ and if they turn in repentance to You with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their captivity that they were taken to, and pray toward the land that You have given to their fathers, and toward the city that You have chosen, and toward the house that I have built for Your name, ³⁹ then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive the people who have sinned against You.

⁴⁰ “Now, O my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer that I offer in this place.

Solomon Dedicates the Temple^(B)

7 And when Solomon finished praying, fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering and sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. ² And the priests were not able to enter into the house of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. ³ And all the sons of Israel saw when the fire came down and the glory of the Lord came on the temple, and they bowed their faces low to the ground on the pavement, and they worshipped confessing,

⁴ Then the king and all the people were making sacrifices before the Lord. ⁵ King Solomon sacrificed twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶ The priests stood at their positions, with the Levites and all their instruments of music for the Lord that King David had made to praise the Lord—for His mercy endures forever—when David gave praise by their ministry, and the priests sounded trumpets opposite the Levites, and all Israel stood.

⁷ And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord because there he made burnt offerings and the fat of peace offerings (because the bronze altar that Solomon made was surely not able to contain the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fat offerings).

⁸ And at the appointed time, Solomon made a feast for seven days, and all Israel—as a very great assembly—was with him, from the entrance of Lebo Hamath in the north to the Brook of Egypt in the south. ⁹ Then on the eighth day they made a solemn assembly because they had made a consecration of the altar for seven days and then the feast for seven days more. ¹⁰ Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon sent the people away to their homes. They were joyful and good of heart because of what the Lord had done for David, Solomon, and His people Israel.

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house. And Solomon successfully accomplished everything that came into his heart to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house.

The Lord Appears to Solomon^(C)

¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night, and He said to Solomon,

“I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen for Myself in this place a house of sacrifice.

¹³ “When I shut up the heaven and there is no rain, or when I command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence on My people, ¹⁴ if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked 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 of this place. ¹⁶ So now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name be there continually. My eyes and heart will be there for all days.

¹⁷ “And you, if you walk before Me as David your father did to do everything that I command you to do, and you keep My statutes and judgments, ¹⁸ then I will set the throne of your kingdom as I made a covenant with David your father saying, ‘You will not lack a man to rule Israel.’

¹⁹ “But if the people turn aside and abandon My statutes and commandments that I have given to you, and you walk after and serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot them from My land that I have given to them; and the house that I have consecrated for My name, I will throw it from before Me and set it as a proverb and taunt among the peoples. ²¹ And even though this house was majestic, it will lie desolate before all who pass by it, and they will say, ‘Why did the Lord do such a thing to this land and this house?’ ²² Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them up from the land of Egypt, and they took hold of other gods and worshipped and served them; therefore He has brought on them all this disaster.”

Solomon’s Other Activities^(D)

8 It came that after twenty years, Solomon built the house of the Lord and his royal house, ² and Solomon even rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given to him, and he settled the sons of Israel in them. ³ Then Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. ⁴ He also built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities that he built in Hamath. ⁵ He also built the Upper and Lower Beth Horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, ⁶ and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, the cities for his cavalry, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

⁷ And all the people who remained from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were not from Israel, ⁸ and from their descendants who remained from these peoples in the land and whom the sons of Israel did not finish destroying, Solomon brought them up to be forced labor, even to this day. ⁹ But from the sons of Israel Solomon did not make servants for his work. These were his soldiers, officers, commanders of his chariots, and horsemen. ¹⁰ And these were the two hundred and fifty chief officers for King Solomon who governed the people.

¹¹ And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh from the City of David to the house that he built for her, for he said, “My wife will not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places where the ark of the Lord have been are holy.”

¹² At that time Solomon offered up burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord that he built before the vestibule, ¹³ according to the daily duty to offer up as the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual festivals: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁴ According to the ruling of David his father, he set the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their function to praise and serve before the priests according to the daily duty, and even the gatekeepers for their divisions at each gate, for this was the commandment of David the man of God. ¹⁵ And they did not turn from the commandment of the king, whether the priests or Levites, concerning any matter and concerning the treasury.

¹⁶ So all the work of Solomon was established from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord and until its completion; and the house of the Lord was complete.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath at the shore of the sea in Edom. ¹⁸ And Hiram sent him ships by the hand of his servants, who knew the sea. And they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and fifty talents^[b] of gold, and brought them to King Solomon.