﻿1 Kings.
Chapter 8.
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the ancestral families of the Israelites before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the City of David, which is Zion. 
All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month. 
All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 
They brought up the ark of the LORD, the tent of meeting, and all the sacred utensils in the tent. The priests and Levites brought them up. 
King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel assembled with him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be counted or numbered. 
The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. 
The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, sheltering the ark and its poles from above. 
The poles extended so far that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. They remain there to this day. 
There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. 
When the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD. 
The priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD. 
Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 
I have indeed built you a lofty house, a settled place for you to dwell forever.” 
The king turned and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood. 
He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to my father David and has fulfilled with his hand what he said: 
‘From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city from all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house for my name to be there. But I chose David to rule my people Israel.’ 
My father David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 
But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Since you had it in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well to have this in your heart. 
Yet you will not build the house. Your son, who will come from your own body, will build the house for my name.’ 
The LORD has fulfilled the word he spoke. I have succeeded my father David and taken my seat on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 
I have made a place there for the ark, which holds the covenant of the LORD that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.” 
Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. 
He said, “LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep covenant and faithful love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart. 
You have kept what you promised your servant David, my father. You spoke with your mouth and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today. 
Now, LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, what you promised him: ‘You will never lack a man before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons watch their conduct and walk before me as you have walked before me.’ 
Now, God of Israel, let the word you spoke to your servant David, my father, be confirmed. 
But will God really dwell on earth? Heaven, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you—how much less this house I have built! 
Yet attend to your servant’s prayer and plea, LORD my God. Listen to the cry and the prayer your servant offers before you today. 
May your eyes be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said, ‘My name will be there.’ Listen to the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 
Listen to the plea of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven, your dwelling place; hear and forgive. 
When someone sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and the oath is brought before your altar in this house, 
then hear in heaven, act, and judge your servants. Condemn the wicked, bringing his conduct back on his own head, and vindicate the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness. 
When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they return to you, acknowledge your name, and pray and plead with you in this house, 
then hear in heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors. 
When the heavens are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place, acknowledge your name, and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, 
then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel. Teach them the good way in which they should walk, and send rain on your land, which you gave your people as an inheritance. 
When there is famine in the land, or plague, blight, mildew, locusts, or devouring insects; when an enemy besieges them in the cities of their land; whatever plague or sickness there may be, 
whatever prayer or plea is made by any person or by all your people Israel, as each knows the affliction of his own heart and spreads out his hands toward this house, 
then hear in heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, act, and give to each according to all his ways, for you know his heart. You alone know the hearts of all humanity. 
Then they may fear you all the days they live in the land you gave our ancestors. 
As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but comes from a distant land because of your name— 
for they will hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this house, 
hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do all that the foreigner calls on you to do. Then all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as your people Israel do, and know that this house I have built bears your name. 
When your people go out to war against their enemy, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name, 
then hear their prayer and plea in heaven, and uphold their cause. 
When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, and their captors carry them away to the enemy’s land, far or near, 
if they come to their senses in the land where they have been taken captive, repent, and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned, acted perversely, and done wickedly,’ 
and return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave their ancestors, the city you have chosen, and the house I have built for your name, 
then hear their prayer and plea in heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause. 
Forgive your people who have sinned against you and all the transgressions by which they have rebelled against you. Grant them compassion in the sight of their captors, so that their captors may have compassion on them. 
For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace. 
May your eyes be open to your servant’s plea and to the plea of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to you. 
For you set them apart as your inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you spoke through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord GOD.” 
When Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread toward heaven. 
He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice: 
“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel according to all he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise spoken through his servant Moses. 
May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us or forsake us. 
May he incline our hearts to himself, so that we walk in all his ways and keep the commandments, statutes, and judgments he gave our ancestors. 
May these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near the LORD our God day and night, so that he may uphold the cause of his servant and his people Israel, as each day requires. 
Then all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. 
Let your hearts be wholly devoted to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as you do today.” 
The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD. 
Solomon offered peace offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the LORD. 
That day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD. There he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings. 
At that time Solomon celebrated the festival, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, for seven days and another seven days, fourteen days in all. 
On the eighth day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and went to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for all the good the LORD had done for his servant David and his people Israel. 
