27“But will God really dwelld on earth? Even the heavens to their uttermost reaches cannot contain You, how much less this House that I have built! 28Yet turn, O LORD my God, to the prayer and supplication of Your servant, and hear the cry and prayer which Your servant offers before You this day. 29May Your eyes be open day and night toward this House, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall abide there’; may You heed the prayers which Your servant will offer toward this place. 30And when You hear the supplications which Your servant and Your people Israel offer toward this place, give heed in Your heavenly abode—give heed and pardon.
31“Whenever one man commits an offense against another, and the latter utters an imprecation to bring a curse upon him, and comes with his imprecation before Your altar in this House, 32oh, hear in heaven and take action to judge Your servants, condemning him who is in the wrong and bringing down the punishment of his conduct on his head, vindicating him who is in the right by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
33“Should Your people Israel be routed by an enemy because they have sinned against You, and then turn back to You and acknowledge Your name, and they offer prayer and supplication to You in this House, 34oh, hear in heaven and pardon the sin of Your people Israel, and restore them to the land that You gave to their fathers.
35“Should the heavens be shut up and there be no rain, because they have sinned against You, and then they pray toward this place and acknowledge Your name and repent of their sins, when You answere them, 36oh, hear in heaven and pardon the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, after You have shown them the proper way in which they are to walk; and send down rain upon the land which You gave to Your people as their heritage. 37So, too, if there is a famine in the land, if there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locusts or caterpillars, or if an enemy oppresses them in any of the settlements of the land.
“In any plague and in any disease, 38in any prayer or supplication offered by any person among all Your people Israel—each of whom knows his own affliction—when he spreads his palms toward this House, 39oh, hear in Your heavenly abode, and pardon and take action! Render to each man according to his ways as You know his heart to be—for You alone know the hearts of all men—40so that they may revere You all the days that they live on the land that You gave to our fathers.
41“Or if a foreigner who is not of Your people Israel comes from a distant land for the sake of Your name—42for they shall hear about Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm—when he comes to pray toward this House, 43oh, hear in Your heavenly abode and grant all that the foreigner asks You for. Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built.
44“When Your people take the field against their enemy by whatever way You send them, and they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city which You have chosen, and of the House which I have built to Your name, 45oh, hear in heaven their prayer and supplication and uphold their cause.
46“When they sin against You—for there is no man who does not sin— and You are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and their captors carry them off to an enemy land, near or far; 47and then they take it to heart in the land to which they have been carried off, and they repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captors, saying: ‘We have sinned, we have acted perversely, we have acted wickedly,’ 48and they turn back to You with all their heart and soul, in the land of the enemies who have carried them off, and they pray to You in the direction of their land which You gave to their fathers, of the city which You have chosen, and of the House which I have built to Your name—49oh, give heed in Your heavenly abode to their prayer and supplication, uphold their cause, 50and pardon Your people who have sinned against You for all the transgressions that they have committed against You. Grant them mercy in the sight of their captors that they may be merciful to them. 51For they are Your very own people that You freed from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace. 52May Your eyes be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, and may You heed them whenever they call upon You. 53For You, O LORD GOD, have set them apart for Yourself from all the peoples of the earth as Your very own, as You promised through Moses Your servant when You freed our fathers from Egypt.”
54When Solomon finished offering to the LORD all this prayer and supplication, he rose from where he had been kneeling, in front of the altar of the LORD, his hands spread out toward heaven. 55He stood, and in a loud voice blessed the whole congregation of Israel:
56“Praised be the LORD who has granted a haven to His people Israel, just as He promised; not a single word has failed of all the gracious promises that He made through His servant Moses. 57May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He never abandon or forsake us. 58May He incline our hearts to Him, that we may walk in all His ways and keep the commandments, the laws, and the rules, which He enjoined upon our fathers. 59And may these words of mine, which I have offered in supplication before the LORD, be close to the LORD our God day and night, that He may provide for His servant and for His people Israel, according to each day’s needs—60to the end that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD alone is God, there is no other. 61And may you be wholehearted with the LORD our God, to walk in His ways and keep His commandments, even as now.”
62The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD. 63Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep as sacrifices of wellbeing to the LORD. Thus the king and all the Israelites dedicated the House of the LORD. 64That day the king consecrated the center of the court that was in front of the House of the LORD. For it was there that he presented the burnt offerings, the meal offerings, and the fat parts of the offerings of well-being, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the meal offerings, and the fat parts of the offerings of well-being.
65So Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assemblage, [coming] from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egyptf—observed the Feasta at that time before the LORD our God, seven days and again seven days, fourteen days in all. 66On the eighth dayg he let the people go. They bade the king good-bye and went to their homes, joyful and glad of heart over all the goodness that the LORD had shown to His servant David and His people Israel.
9 When Solomon had finished building the House of the LORD and the royal palace and everything that Solomon had set his heart on constructing, 2the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3The LORD said to him, “I have heard the prayer and the supplication which you have offered to Me. I consecrate this House which you have built and I set My name there forever. My eyes and My heart shall ever be there. 4As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked before Me, wholeheartedly and with uprightness, doing all that I have commanded you [and] keeping My laws and My rules, 5then I will establish your throne of kingship over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘Your line on the throne of Israel shall never end.’ 6[But] if you and your descendants turn away from Me and do not keep the commandments [and] the laws which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7then I will sweepa Israel off the land which I gave them; I will rejectb the House which I have consecrated to My name; and Israel shall become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8And c-as for this House, once so exalted,-c everyone passing by it shall be appalled and shall hiss.d And when they ask, ‘Why did the LORD do thus to the land and to this House?’ 9they shall be told, ‘It
