in the land which you gave to our fathers.
32 “Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for your great name’s sake and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray towards this house, 33 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; 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 “If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to you towards this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name; 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
36 “If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near; 37 yet if they come to their senses in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;’ 38 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray towards their land which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and towards the house which I have built for your name; 39 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 “Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
41 “Now therefore arise, LORD God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness.
42 “LORD God, don’t turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant.”
7
1 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the LORD’s glory filled the house. 2 The priests could not enter into the LORD’s house, because the LORD’s glory filled the LORD’s house. 3 All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the LORD’s glory was on the house. They bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, worshipped, and gave thanks to the LORD, saying,
“For he is good,
for his loving kindness endures forever!”
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. 5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated God’s house. 6 The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to give thanks to the LORD, when David praised by their ministry, saying “For his loving kindness endures forever.” The priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.
7 Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court that was before the LORD’s house holy; for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat.
8 So Solomon held the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt.
9 On the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly; for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to David, to Solomon, and to Israel his people.
11 Thus Solomon finished the LORD’s house and the king’s house; and he successfully completed all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the LORD’s house and in his own house.
12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice.
13 “If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence amongst my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and made this house holy, that my name may be there forever; and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.
17 “As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances, 18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.’
19 But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword amongst all peoples. 21 This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?’ 22 They shall answer, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took other gods, worshipped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all this evil on them.’ ”
8
1 At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the LORD’s house and his own house, 2 Solomon built the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.
3 Solomon went to Hamath Zobah, and prevailed against it. 4 He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities, which he built in Hamath. 5 Also he built Beth Horon the upper and Beth Horon the lower, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars; 6 and Baalath, and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
7 As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel— 8 of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel didn’t consume—of them Solomon conscripted forced labour to this day. 9 But of the children of Israel, Solomon made no servants for his work, but they were men of war, chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. 10 These were the chief officers of King Solomon, even two-hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people.
11 Solomon brought up Pharaoh’s daughter out of David’s city to 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 where the LORD’s ark has come are holy.”
12 Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the LORD’s altar which he had built before the porch, 13 even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times per year, during the feast of unleavened bread, during the feast of weeks, and during the feast of booths.†
14 He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required, the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate, for David the man of God had so commanded. 15 They didn’t depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasures.
16 Now all the work of Solomon was accomplished from the day of the foundation of the LORD’s house until it was finished. So the LORD’s house was completed.
17 Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom. 18 Huram sent him ships and servants who had knowledge of the sea by