1 Solomon then called together to King Solomon in Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the tribal heads and the leaders of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the city of David, that is, Zion.
2 Every man of Israel gathered to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, the seventh month.
3 When all Israel's elders had come, the priests lifted the ark.
4 They carried up the ark of the LORD together with the tent of meeting and all the sacred vessels in the tent; it was the priests and the Levites who carried them up.
5 King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel that had gathered to him were with him in front of the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen in numbers too great to count or reckon.
6 The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, the Most Holy Place, beneath the cherubim's wings.
7 The cherubim had their wings spread over the place where the ark stood, and so the cherubim formed a covering above the ark and its poles.
8 The poles were long enough that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary, though not from outside; they remain there to this day.
9 Nothing was inside the ark but the two stone tablets Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel as they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 As the priests were coming out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the LORD's house.
11 The priests were unable to stand and minister because of the cloud, since the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house.
12 Then Solomon spoke: "The LORD has said he would dwell in deep darkness.
13 I have surely built an exalted house for you, a place for your dwelling forever."
14 The king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, as the whole assembly of Israel stood there.
15 He said, "Blessed is the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with his own mouth to my father David and has with his own hand carried it out, saying,
16 'From the day I brought my people Israel out from Egypt, I did not choose a city from any of the tribes of Israel to build a house there for my name to be in; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.'
17 It was in my father David's heart to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
18 But the LORD told my father David, 'Since it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well to have it in your heart.
19 Yet you will not be the one to build the house. Your son, who will come forth from your body, will build the house for my name.'
20 The LORD has now carried out the word he spoke. I have taken my father David's place and sit on Israel's throne, just as the LORD said, and I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
21 There I have set a place for the ark, where the covenant of the LORD is, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out from the land of Egypt."
22 Then Solomon stood before the LORD's altar, facing the whole assembly of Israel, and stretched out his hands toward heaven.
23 He said, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens above or on the earth below, who keeps covenant and steadfast love toward your servants who walk before you with their whole heart,
24 you who have kept for your servant my father David what you told him. With your mouth you spoke it, and with your hand you carried it out, as can be seen today.
25 So now, LORD God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David what you told him: 'There will never fail you a man before me sitting on Israel's throne, if only your sons guard their way and walk before me as you have walked before me.'
26 Now, God of Israel, may your word that you spoke to your servant my father David be made sure.
27 "But can God truly dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot hold you, much less this house I have built!
28 Still, LORD my God, give heed to your servant's prayer and his request for favor, and hear the cry and the prayer your servant is praying before you today,
29 so that your eyes may be open night and day upon this house, the place of which you said, 'My name will be there,' to hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.
30 Hear the requests of your servant and of your people Israel as they pray toward this place. Hear from your dwelling place in heaven, and hear and forgive.
31 "When a man wrongs his neighbor and an oath is laid on him to make him swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,
32 then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty, bringing what he did on his own head, and justifying the righteous, giving to him as his righteousness deserves.
33 "When your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they sinned against you, and they turn back to you, confess your name, and pray and make their request to you in this house,
34 then hear from heaven, forgive your people Israel's sin, and bring them back to the land you gave their fathers.
35 "When the sky is closed and no rain falls because they sinned against you, and they pray toward this place, confess your name and turn from their sin because you have humbled them,
36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. when you teach them the good way they ought to walk in, and send rain on your land that you gave to your people for an inheritance.
37 "Should there be famine in the land, or plague, blight, mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; should their enemy lay siege to them in the land of their cities; whatever affliction, whatever disease comes,
38 any prayer, any request made by any person or by your whole people Israel, each one aware of the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house,
39 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive and act. Repay each person according to all his ways, since you know his heart, for you alone know the hearts of all the children of mankind,
40 so that they may fear you every day they live on the land you gave our fathers.
41 "And the foreigner too, who does not belong to your people Israel but comes from a distant land because of your name
42 (for they will hear of your great name, your mighty hand and your outstretched arm), and he comes and prays toward this house,
43 hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do everything the foreigner calls to you for, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as your people Israel do, and may know that this house I have built is called by your name.
44 "When your people go out to fight their enemy, wherever you may send them, and they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name,
45 then hear from heaven their prayer and their request, and uphold their cause.
46 "When they sin against you (for no one exists who does not sin) and you are angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, and their captors take them captive to the enemy's land, whether distant or near,
47 and then they come to their senses in the land where they were taken captive, and they turn and make their request to you in the land of those who took them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,'
48 and they turn back to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and they pray to you toward their land that you gave their fathers, the city you chose and the house I have built for your name,
49 then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their request and uphold their cause.
50 Forgive your people, who have sinned against you, and all the transgressions they have committed against you; grant them compassion before their captors, so that they will have compassion on them.
51 For they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out from Egypt, out of the furnace for iron.
52 Let your eyes be open to your servant's request and to your people Israel's request, to hear them in all they call to you for.
53 For you set them apart for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you said through your servant Moses when you brought our fathers out from Egypt, Lord GOD."
54 When Solomon had finished praying this whole prayer and request to the LORD, he got up from in front of the LORD's altar, where he had been kneeling with his hands stretched out toward heaven.
55 He stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel in a loud voice:
56 "Blessed is the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he said. Of all the good word he spoke through his servant Moses, not a single word has fallen short.
57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he not leave us or abandon us.
58 May he turn our hearts toward himself, to walk in all his ways and keep his commandments, statutes and rules that he commanded our fathers.
59 And may these words of mine that I have prayed before the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night, so that he upholds his servant's cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day's need requires,
60 so that all the peoples of the earth will know that the LORD is God and there is none besides.
61 Let your hearts be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as you are today."
62 The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD.
63 As peace offerings that he sacrificed to the LORD, Solomon offered twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the LORD's house.
64 On that day the king consecrated the center of the court in front of the LORD's house, for there he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat portions 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 portions of the peace offerings.
65 At that time Solomon celebrated the feast, and all Israel with him, a vast assembly from Lebo-hamath down to the Brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and another seven days, fourteen days in all.
66 On the eighth day he dismissed the people. They blessed the king and went home to their tents, rejoicing and glad at heart over all the good the LORD had done for his servant David and for his people Israel.