Beginning

6 ¶ Then Solomon said, The LORD has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

² I, therefore, have built a house of habitation for thee and a place for thy dwelling for ever.

³ And the king turned his face and blessed the whole congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel was standing.

⁴ And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who has with his hand fulfilled that which he spoke with his mouth to my father David, saying,

⁵ Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; neither did I choose any man to be a prince over my people Israel.

⁶ But I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

⁷ Now it was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house unto the name of the LORD God of Israel.

⁸ But the LORD said to David, my father, Forasmuch as it was in thy heart to build a house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thy heart;

⁹ notwithstanding, thou shalt not build the house, but thy son which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build a house for my name.

¹⁰ The LORD, therefore, has performed his word that he has spoken, for I am risen up in the place of David, my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD had said, and have built the house unto the name of the LORD God of Israel.

¹¹ And in it I have put the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with the sons of Israel.

¹² ¶ Then he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands.

¹³ For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, five cubits long and five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he stood and knelt down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands toward heaven

¹⁴ and said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven nor in the earth who keeps covenant and shows mercy unto thy slaves that walk before thee with all their hearts;

¹⁵ who hast kept unto thy slave David, my father, that which thou hast promised him; thou didst say it with thy mouth and hast fulfilled it with thy hand, as it is this day.

¹⁶ Now, therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with thy slave David, my father, that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel, under the condition that thy sons keep their way, walking in my law, as thou hast walked before me.

¹⁷ Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let thy word stand firm, which thou hast spoken unto thy slave David.

¹⁸ Is it true that God is to dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built!

¹⁹ But thou shalt look upon the prayer of thy slave and upon his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer with which thy slave prays before thee

²⁰ that thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there, to hearken unto the prayer which thy slave prays in this place.

²¹ Hearken, likewise, unto the supplications of thy slave and of thy people Israel when they shall pray in this place; hear thou from the heavens, from thy dwelling place, even hear and forgive.

²² If a man sins against his neighbour and an oath is laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath comes before thy altar in this house,

²³ thou shalt hear from heaven and do right unto thy slaves, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head, and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.

²⁴ And if thy people Israel should fall before their enemies because they have sinned against thee and if they should convert and confess thy name and pray and make supplication before thee in this house,

²⁵ thou shalt hear from the heavens and forgive the sin of thy people Israel and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.

²⁶ If the heavens should become shut up, that there be no rain because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray in this place and confess thy name and become converted from their sins when thou dost afflict them,

²⁷ thou shalt hear them from heaven and forgive the sin of thy slaves and of thy people Israel, and thou shalt teach them the good way, that they may walk therein, and send rain upon thy land which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance.

²⁸ If there should be famine in the land, or if there should be pestilence, if there should be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatever affliction or sickness there may be;

²⁹ every prayer and every supplication made of any man, or of all thy people Israel or of anyone who knows his affliction and his grief in his heart, if they shall extend their hands towards this house,

³⁰ thou shalt hear from the heavens, from the place of thy habitation, and forgive and render unto each one according to his ways, having known his heart (for thou only knowest the hearts of the sons of men),

³¹ that they may fear thee and walk in thy ways all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

³² And also unto the stranger, who is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake and thy mighty hand and thy stretched out arm, if they come and pray in this house,

³³ thou shalt hear from the heavens, from the habitation of thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls unto thee for, that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name and fear thee, as do thy people Israel, and let them know that thy name is invoked upon this house which I have built.

³⁴ If thy people go out to war against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, toward the house which I have built for thy name,

³⁵ thou shalt hear from the heavens their prayer and their supplication and do them judgment.

³⁶ If they sin against thee (for there is no man who does not sin), and thou art angry with them and deliver them over before their enemies so that those that take them carry them away captives unto an enemy land far off or near,

³⁷ and they come into their right mind in the land where they are carried captive, if they convert and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done iniquity and have dealt wickedly,

³⁸ if they convert unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captives and pray toward their land, which thou didst give unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen and toward the house which I have built unto thy name,

³⁹ thou shalt hear from the heavens, from the dwelling place of thy habitation, their prayer and their supplications and do their judgment and forgive thy people who have sinned against thee.

⁴⁰ Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open and let thine ears be attentive unto the prayer that is made in this place.

⁴¹ Now, therefore, arise, O LORD God, to inhabit thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength; let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation and let thy merciful ones rejoice in goodness.

⁴² O LORD God, do not turn away the face of thy anointed one; remember the mercies of David, thy slave.

7 ¶ And when Solomon finished praying, the fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.

² And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house.

³ And when all the sons of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they fell to the ground upon the pavement upon their faces and worshipped and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endures for ever.

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD.

⁵ And King Solomon offered in sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

⁶ And the priests were upon their watches, and the Levites with the instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endures for ever, when David praised by their hand. Likewise, the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel was on their feet.

⁷ Solomon also sanctified the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the brasen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings and the present and the fat.

⁸ Then Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

⁹ And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly, for they had made the dedication of the altar in seven days, and they had celebrated the solemn feast for seven days.

¹⁰ And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had showed unto David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD, and the king’s house; and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the LORD and in his own house was prospered.

¹² ¶ And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice.

¹³ If I shut up the heavens that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people;

¹⁴ if my people, upon whom my name is invoked, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from the heavens and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

¹⁵ Now my eyes shall be open and my ears attentive unto the prayer that is made in this place;

¹⁶ so that now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be in her for ever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

¹⁷ And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee and keep my statutes and my rights,

¹⁸ I will confirm the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David, thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.

¹⁹ But if ye turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰ I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, I will cast out of my presence, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²¹ And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passes by it, so that they shall say, Why has the LORD done thus unto this land and unto this house?

²² And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them; therefore, he has brought all this evil upon them.

8 ¶ And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house,

² that Solomon rebuilt the cities which Hiram had given him and caused the sons of Israel to dwell there.

³ Then Solomon went to Hamathzobah and prevailed against it.

⁴ And he built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities, which he built in the wilderness.

⁵ Likewise, he rebuilt Bethhoron the upper and Bethhoron the lower, fenced cities with walls, gates, and bars;

⁶ and Baalath and all the store cities that Solomon had and all the chariot cities and the cities of the horsemen and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and throughout all the land of his dominion.

⁷ As for all the people that were left of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which were not of Israel,

⁸ but of their sons, who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel, did not consume, Solomon made them pay tribute until this day.

⁹ But of the sons of Israel Solomon did not make slaves for his work, for they were men of war, and his princes and his captains, and princes of his chariots and horsemen.

¹⁰ And King Solomon had two hundred and fifty princes of the governors, who presided over the people.

¹¹ And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her, for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, because the places are holy, unto which the ark of the LORD has come.

¹² ¶ Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the LORD on the altar of the LORD, which he had built before the porch,

¹³ that each thing might be offered in its day, according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths and on the new moons and on the feasts three times in the year, that is in the feast of unleavened bread and in the feast of weeks and in the feast of the tabernacles.

¹⁴ And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the priests, each thing in its day; the porters also by their courses at each gate, for so had David, the man of God, commanded.

¹⁵ And they departed not from the commandment of the king unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasures.

¹⁶ Now all the work of Solomon was prepared from the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD and until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was perfected.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Eziongeber and to Eloth, at the sea side in the land of Edom.

¹⁸ For Hiram had sent him ships by the hands of his slaves and slaves that had knowledge of the sea, and they had gone with the slaves of Solomon to Ophir and had taken from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.