2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 6
Solomon Speaks to the Assembly
1 Then Solomon said, “The Lord said that he would make his dwelling in thick darkness. 2 And I have built a house for your name, holy to you and ready for you to dwell in forever.”
3 And the king turned his face and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, and the whole assembly of Israel stood there. 4 And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with his own mouth to David my father and with his own hands has fulfilled it. He said, 5 ‘From the day I brought my people up out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel for the building of a house, for my name to be there, and I chose no man to be leader over my people Israel. 6 But I chose Jerusalem, for my name to be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel.’ 7 And it came into the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 8 But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Since it came into your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it came into your heart. 9 Only, you will not build the house. Your son, who will come out of your loins — he will build the house for my name.’ 10 And the Lord has raised up the word he spoke: I have come in place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord said, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, 11 and I have set the ark there, and in it is the covenant of the Lord which he made with Israel.”
Solomon Kneels Before the Altar
12 And he stood in front of the altar of the Lord, before the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands. 13 For Solomon had made a bronze platform and set it in the middle of the court of the temple. It was seven and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide, and four and a half feet high. He stood on it, and he fell on his knees in front of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, 14 and said, “Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on the earth, keeping the covenant and the mercy with your servants who walk before you with a whole heart. 15 You have kept for your servant David my father what you spoke to him. You spoke it with your mouth, and with your hands you have fulfilled it, as it is this day. 16 And now, Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you spoke to him: ‘A man of yours will never fail from before me, sitting on the throne of Israel — only if your sons watch their way, to walk in my law, as you have walked before me.’ 17 And now, Lord, God of Israel, let your word be made sure, the word you spoke to your servant David.
18 “For will God truly live with men on the earth? If heaven, and the heaven of heaven, are not enough for you, what then is this house that I have built? 19 Yet you will look on the prayer of your servant and on my plea, Lord God, and listen to the plea and the prayer that your servant prays before you today, 20 so that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward this place of which you said that your name would be called there, and so that you may hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 21 And you will hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, whatever they pray toward this place; and you yourself will listen from the place where you live, out of heaven — and you will hear, and be merciful.
When They Pray Toward This House
22 “If a man sins against his neighbor, and a curse is laid on him to make him swear, and he comes and swears it in front of the altar in this house, 23 then you yourself will listen out of heaven, and act, and judge your slaves: repaying the lawless man, bringing his own ways back on his head, and acquitting the righteous man, repaying him according to his righteousness.
24 “And if your people Israel are broken before the enemy because they sin against you, and they turn back and give thanks to your name and pray and plead before you in this house, 25 then you yourself will listen out of heaven and be merciful to the sins of your people Israel, and you will bring them back to the land you gave to them and to their fathers.
26 “When heaven is held shut and there is no rain, because they sin against you, and they pray toward this place and praise your name and turn from their sins, because you bring them low, 27 then you yourself will listen out of heaven and be merciful to the sins of your servants and of your people Israel — for you will show them the good way, the way they are to walk in — and you will give rain on your land, which you gave to your people as an inheritance.
28 “If famine comes on the land, if death comes, if there is blight and jaundice, if locust and young locust come, if the enemy presses them in front of their cities — whatever the blow, whatever the pain — 29 then, for every prayer and every plea made by any man or by all your people Israel, when a man knows his own mark and his own sickness and spreads out his hands toward this house, 30 you yourself will listen out of heaven, from the dwelling place you have made ready, and show mercy, and give to each man according to his ways, as you know his heart — for you alone know the heart of the sons of men — 31 so that they may fear your ways all the days they live on the face of the land you gave to our fathers.
32 “And the stranger too, who is not of your people Israel and who comes from a far land because of your great name and your strong hand and your uplifted arm — when they come and pray toward this place, 33 you will listen out of heaven, from the dwelling place you have made ready, and do everything the stranger calls on you for, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and may fear you as your people Israel do, and may know that your name is called upon this house which I have built.
34 “And if your people go out to war against their enemies by the way you send them, and they pray to you facing this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name, 35 then you will hear their plea and their prayer out of heaven, and you will uphold their right.
36 “For they will sin against you — there is no man who will not sin — and you will strike them and hand them over before their enemies, and those who take them captive will carry them off into a land of enemies, a land far off or near; 37 and they will turn their heart in the land where they were carried, and will indeed turn back and plead with you in their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have broken the law’; 38 and they will turn back to you with their whole heart and their whole soul in the land of those who took them captive, and will pray facing their land which you gave to their fathers, and the city you chose, and the house I have built for your name — 39 then you will hear out of heaven, from the dwelling place you have made ready, their prayer and their plea, and you will carry out judgment, and be merciful to the people who sinned against you.
40 “Now, Lord, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the plea of this place.