1 Kings

Dedication of the Temple

Then Solomon assembled before him in Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, as well as the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the city of David, which is Zion.

All the Israelites assembled near King Solomon in the seventh month of Ethanim.

When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests carried the Ark of the Lord

and brought it up with the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels in the tent. After the priests and Levites had brought them up,

King Solomon assembled the entire congregation of Israel before him. He was with him before the Ark, and he sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could neither be counted nor numbered.

Then the priests laid the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord in its place in the inner Sanctuary of the house—the Most Holy Place—underneath the cherubim’s wings.

The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, providing a covering above the Ark and its poles.

The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner Sanctuary, but not from the outside, and they remain there to this day.

There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets of stone, which Moses placed there at Horeb, where the Lord made a Covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, such a cloud filled the Lord’s house

that the priests could not continue to minister. Indeed, the glory of the Lord filled his house.

Then Solomon said: “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.

So the house I have built will be your house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

The king turned and blessed the entire assembly of Israel, as they stood,

saying: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled by his hand what he promised personally to David my father when he said,

‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a resting place for my Name, but now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, as I chose David to be the king of my people Israel.’

Now David my father wanted to build a house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel;

but the Lord told David, my father, ‘You meant well to build a house for my Name.

Nevertheless, not you but your son who shall be born to you shall build this house for my Name.’

The Lord has fulfilled his promise, for I have succeeded David, my father, and am sitting on the throne of Israel; and, as the Lord promised, I have built this house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

There I had provided a place for the Ark with the Covenant which the Lord made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel. He raised his hands towards heaven

and said: “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you either in heaven or on earth! You keep your Covenant and show loving-kindness to your servants who walk before you wholeheartedly.

You have foretold this day to your servant David, my father, and this day you have fulfilled your promise.

Now, O Lord, God of Israel, keep this other promise you made to David when you said, ‘You shall always have someone from your family on the throne of Israel, provided that your sons are careful to serve me as you have done.’

Therefore, O God of Israel, confirm your promise to David, my father.

But will God live among people on earth? If neither heaven nor the highest heaven can contain you, how much less can this house, which I have built!

Yet, listen to the prayer and supplication of your servant, O Lord my God; listen to the cries and pleas that your servant directs to you this day.

Watch over this house of which you have said, ‘My Name shall rest there.’ Hear the prayer of your servant in this place.

Listen to the supplication of your servant and your people Israel when they pray in this direction; listen from your dwelling place in heaven and, on hearing, forgive.

When people are charged with a crime against their neighbor, come and take their oath before your altar in this temple,

then hear from heaven and do justice. Condemn the guilty and let his evildoing fall upon him, but vindicate the righteous and reward him according to his righteousness.

When the enemy defeats your people Israel for having sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and acknowledge their sins, praying and making supplications to you in this house;

then listen from heaven and forgive your people Israel. Bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers.

When the heavens are shut, no rain falls because they have sinned against you. They pray in this place, acknowledging and repenting of their sin because you have afflicted them,

then listen from heaven and forgive your servants, your people Israel, and teach them the way to live; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

If there is famine in the land, or pestilence such as blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy attacks them in any of their cities; if they suffer from any plague or sickness;

whatever be the prayer or supplication of anyone showing repentance and raising his hands in the direction of this house,

then listen from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive. Do to each, whose heart you know, according to his conduct (for you alone know the hearts of all)

so that they may fear you as long as they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

Likewise, when a foreigner who is not from your people, Israel, comes from a far country because of your Name

(for they shall hear of your great Name, your mighty hand and outstretched arm), and prays in this house,

listen from the heavens, your dwelling place, and do for the foreigner whatever he asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your Name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and may know that your name rests on this house which I have built.

If your people go to war wherever you 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,

then from heaven listen to their prayers and supplications and defend their cause.

If they sin against you (and no one does not sin), and, in your anger, you deliver them to an enemy who takes them captive into enemy territory, whether near or far off;

and if, in the land where they have been carried captive, they sincerely repent and plead with you and say, ‘We have sinned and have acted wrongly and wickedly’;

if they do repent with sincerity while in the land of their captors and pray to you, turning towards the land which you gave to their ancestors, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your Name;

then listen from heaven, your dwelling place, to their prayer and supplication and defend their cause.

Forgive your people who have sinned against you; forgive all their offenses, and make their captors have compassion on them.

(For they are your people—your heritage which you brought out of Egypt from the heart of the iron furnace).

Open your eyes to the pleadings of your servant and those of your people, Israel, and listen to them whenever they call on you.

For you took them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord God.”

When Solomon finished offering all these prayers and requests to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord where he had knelt with his hands raised toward heaven, and

standing, he blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice,

saying, “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel as he promised; for not one of his promises—given to Moses, his servant—has been broken.

May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors. May he not leave us or forsake us;

may he turn our hearts toward him and make us walk in all his ways, keeping his commands, statutes, and laws that he commanded our ancestors.

Let my prayer to the Lord be with our God day and night. May he defend my cause and the cause of his people, Israel, in their daily lives;

in this way, all the nations of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and there is no other.

As for you, let your hearts be completely loyal to the Lord our God, following his laws and keeping his commands at this time.”

Then the king and all the Israelites with him offered sacrifices before the Lord.

Solomon offered the Lord twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep as peace offerings. So, the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Lord’s house.

That same day, the king consecrated the middle of the court in front of the Lord’s house, for it was there that he offered the burnt offerings, the cereal offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings since the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offering, the cereal offering and the fat of the peace offerings.

So at this time, Solomon, together with a large assembly of Israelites that gathered from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, celebrated the festival before the Lord for seven days.

On the eighth day, Solomon dismissed the people.After bidding farewell to the king, they went home rejoicing and happy because of all the Lord’s kindness to his servant, David, and his people, Israel.