King James Version

1 Then Solomon gathered the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the families of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD from the City of David, which is Zion. 2 And all the men of Israel gathered to King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month, at the festival. 3 And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests lifted the ark. 4 And they lifted the ark of the LORD and the tent of meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent, and the priests and the Levites lifted them. 5 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were gathered together to him before the ark were sacrificing sheep and cattle which could not be counted or numbered for the multitude. 6 And the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place, to the innermost part of the house, to the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. 7 For the cherubim spread their wings toward the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above. 8 And the rods were lengthened, and the tops of the rods were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and they are there to this day. 9 There is in the ark only the two tablets of stone that Moses placed there at Horeb, which the Lord made with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10 And it came to pass when the priests went out from the sanctuary, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. 11 And the priests could not stand to minister before the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. 12 Then Solomon said, "The Lord has said to dwell in the thick darkness." 13 I have built a house for you, a dwelling place for you to sit forever. 14 And the king turned his face and blessed all the congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel was standing. 15 And he said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel who spoke by my mouth to David my father and by his hand fulfilled to say." 16 From the day that I brought up my people Israel from Egypt, I did not choose a city from all the tribes of Israel to be a place for my name, but I chose David to be over my people Israel. 17 And it was with the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 18 And the Lord said to David, "Because you had in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart." 19 Only you shall not build the house; rather, your son who comes from your loins, he shall build the house for My name. 20 And the Lord will raise up His word that He spoke, saying, "I will rise up after David, my father, and I will 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." 21 And I will set there a place for the ark which is there, the covenant of the LORD which He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 22 And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. 23 And the LORD God of Israel said, “There is none like You, God, in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the mercy for Your servants who walk before You with all their heart.” 24 That which you have kept for your servant David, my father, regarding what you spoke to him, and you have spoken with your mouth and fulfilled with your hand, as it is this day. 25 And now, O LORD God of Israel, keep Your servant David my father that which You have spoken to him, saying, "There shall not be cut off for you a man from before Me sitting on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way to walk before Me as you have walked before Me." 26 And now, God of Israel, let your words which you spoke to your servant David my father be confirmed. 27 For indeed, God does dwell on the earth; behold, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain You, how much less this house that I have built. 28 And you shall turn to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you today. 29 To be your eyes open to this house night and day to the place that you said my name would be there to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. 30 And you will listen to the plea of your servant and your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; and you will hear from your dwelling place in heaven, and you will listen and forgive. 31 Whatever sin a man commits against his neighbor, and he has sworn an oath concerning him, and the oath comes before your altar in this house. 32 And you shall hear, O heavens, and you shall act, and you shall judge your servants to condemn the wicked, to set his way in his head, and to justify the righteous, to give to him according to his righteousness. 33 When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they return to you and confess your name and pray and plead with you in this house. 34 And you will hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and restore them to the land that you gave to their ancestors. 35 When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and when they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin, because You afflict them. 36 And you shall hear from the heavens and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for they will teach the good way in which they should walk, and you shall give rain upon your land which you have given to your people for an inheritance. 37 When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there is blight, when there is locusts, when there is adversity against them in the land of their gates, every plague, every sickness. 38 Every prayer and every supplication that will be made by any man of all your people Israel, who knows the plague of his own heart and spreads his hands toward this house. 39 And you shall hear the heavens, the dwelling of your throne, and you shall forgive and act and give to each man according to all his ways, which you know his heart, for you alone know the heart of all the sons of man. 40 So that they may fear You all the days they live on the land which You have given to our forefathers. 41 And also to the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, and who comes from a distant land for the sake of your name. 42 For they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm, and they will come and pray to this house. 43 You will hear from the heavens, the dwelling of your presence, and you will do according to all that the foreigner will call to you for, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as your people Israel, and to know that your name is called upon this house which I have built. 44 When your people go out to battle against their enemy on the way that you send them, and they shall pray to the Lord toward the city which you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name. 45 And you shall hear, O heavens, the prayer of them and their supplication, and you shall execute judgment. 46 For they will sin against you, for there is no man who does not sin; and you will be angry with them and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they will be taken captive to a land of their enemies, whether far or near. 47 And they will return to their hearts in the land that they were exiled to, and they will return and plead before you in the land of their captors, saying, "We have sinned, and we have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly." 48 And they will return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, where they were taken captive, and they will pray to you in the direction of their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you chose, and the house that I built for your name. 49 And you will hear, O heavens, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and their supplication, and You will execute judgment for them. 50 And you shall forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions which they have committed against you, and you shall give them mercy before their captors, and they shall have compassion on them. 51 For your people and your inheritance are those whom you brought out of Egypt from the midst of the iron furnace. 52 To have your eyes open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, to hear them in all their cries to you. 53 For you have set apart for yourself a heritage from all the peoples of the earth, as you spoke by the hand of Moses your servant in bringing out our forefathers from Egypt, Lord Yahweh. 54 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished praying to the Lord all this prayer and supplication, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out to heaven. 55 And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying. 56 Blessed is the LORD who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He spoke; not a single word has failed of all His good promise which He spoke by the hand of His servant Moses. 57 May the LORD our God be with us as He was with our fathers; may He not abandon us or forsake us. 58 To incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments which He commanded our forefathers. 59 And these are the words that I have pleaded before the Lord, to be near to the Lord our God day and night, to perform the judgment of His servant and the judgment of His people Israel, a matter day by day. 60 So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other. 61 And your heart shall be whole with the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments as on this day. 62 And the king and all Israel with him are sacrificing a sacrifice before the Lord. 63 And Solomon sacrificed a peace offering which he offered to the Lord, twenty thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep, and they dedicated the house of the Lord, the king, and all the children of Israel. 64 On that day the king consecrated the center of the courtyard that was before the house of the Lord, because he made there the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings, for the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings. 65 And Solomon made at that time the feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entering of Hamath to the brook of Egypt before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, fourteen days. 66 On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents joyful and with a good heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David His servant and for Israel His people.