1Then Solomon gathered the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief men of the families of the children of Israel, to king Solomon in Jerusalem. They were to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
2All the men of Israel gathered to king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
3All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
4They brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up.
5King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had gathered to him were with him in front of the ark. They sacrificed sheep and oxen, so many that they could not be counted or numbered.
6The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD into its place, into the inner room of the house, the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim.
7For the cherubim spread out their two wings over the place of the ark. The cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.
8They drew the poles out so far that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner room, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.
9There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel after they came out of the land of Egypt.
10When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
11so that the priests could not stand to do their work because of the cloud. For the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
12Then Solomon said, "The LORD said that he would live in the thick darkness."
13"I have surely built you a house to live in, a settled place for you to stay in for ever."
14The king turned round and blessed all the congregation of Israel. All the congregation of Israel was standing.
15He said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel. With his mouth he spoke to my father David, and with his hand he has fulfilled it. He said,"
16"'Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, so that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.'"
17"My father David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel."
18"But the LORD said to my father David, 'You had it in your heart to build a house for my name. You did well to have that in your heart."
19"'Even so, you shall not build the house. Your son, who shall come from your own body, he shall build the house for my name.'"
20"The LORD has kept the word he spoke. I have risen up in the place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel."
21"There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."
22Solomon stood in front of the altar of the LORD, before all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands towards heaven.
23He said, "LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth below. You keep covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their heart."
24"You have kept what you promised to your servant David my father. You spoke it with your mouth, and you have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today."
25"So now, LORD God of Israel, keep what you promised to your servant David my father, when you said, 'You shall never fail to have a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take care how they live, and walk before me as you have walked before me.'"
26"And now, O God of Israel, let your word come true, I pray, the word you spoke to your servant David my father."
27"But will God really live on the earth? Look, the heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built?"
28"Yet pay attention to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God. Listen to the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you today."
29"May your eyes be open towards this house night and day, towards the place of which you said, 'My name shall be there.' Listen to the prayer that your servant prays towards this place."
30"Listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place. Hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive."
31"If anyone sins against his neighbour, and an oath is laid on him to make him swear, and he comes to swear the oath before your altar in this house,"
32"then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants. Condemn the wicked man, and bring what he has done back on his own head. Declare the righteous man right, and give to him according to his righteousness."
33"When your people Israel are struck down by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and then they turn back to you, and confess your name, and pray and plead with you in this house,"
34"then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers."
35"When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray towards this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them,"
36"then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel. Teach them the good way in which they should walk, and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people as their inheritance."
37"If there is famine in the land, or plague, or blight, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;"
38"whatever prayer or plea is made by any one person, or by all your people Israel, each one knowing the plague of his own heart, and spreading out his hands towards this house,"
39"then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act. Give to every man according to all he does, for you know his heart. You, and you only, know the hearts of all people."
40"Then they will fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers."
41"And as for a stranger, who is not of your people Israel, but comes from a far country for your name's sake -"
42"for they shall hear of your great name, and of your strong hand, and of your outstretched arm - when he comes and prays towards this house,"
43"hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do everything that the stranger asks of you. Then all the peoples of the earth will know your name and fear you, as your people Israel do, and they will know that this house which I have built is called by your name."
44"If your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever you send them, and they pray to the LORD towards the city which you have chosen, and towards the house that I have built for your name,"
45"then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause."
46"If they sin against you - for there is no one who does not sin - and you are angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, so that their captors carry them away to the land of the enemy, far off or near;"
47"yet if they come to their senses in the land where they were carried away captive, and repent, and plead with you in the land of those who took them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done wrong, we have acted wickedly';"
48"and so return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to you towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, and towards the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name,"
49"then hear their prayer and their plea in heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause."
50"Forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all the wrongs they have done against you. Make those who took them captive pity them, so that they show them compassion."
51"For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the middle of the iron furnace."
52"May your eyes be open to the plea of your servant, and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they call to you."
53"For you set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance, as you said through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD."
54When Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he got up from in front of the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread up to heaven.
55He stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice. He said,
56"Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he made through Moses his servant."
57"May the LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us."
58"May he turn our hearts to himself, so that we walk in all his ways, and keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers."
59"And may these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, so that he upholds the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, at all times, as each day needs."
60"Then all the peoples of the earth will know that the LORD is God, and that there is no other."
61"So let your heart be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, as you do today."
62The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifices before the LORD.
63Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
64That same day the king made holy the middle of the court in front of the house of the LORD. There he offered burnt offerings, and food offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings. He did this because the bronze altar that stood before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the food offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.
65At that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, that is, fourteen days.
66On the eighth day he sent the people away. They blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad in heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.