When the skies are shut and there is no rain,
because they have sinned against you,
and they pray toward this place
and praise your name,
and they turn from their sins
because you are afflicting them,
may you hear in heaven
and forgive the sin of your servants
and your people Israel,
so that you may teach them to walk on the good way.
May you send rain on your land
that you gave your people for an inheritance.
When there is famine in the land,
when there is pestilence,
when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper,
when their enemy besieges them
in the land and its cities,
when there is any plague or illness,
every prayer or petition
that any person or that all your people Israel may have —
they each know their own affliction , —
as they spread out their hands toward this temple,
may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place,
and may you forgive, act, and give to everyone
according to all their ways, since you know each heart,
for you alone know every human heart,
so that they may fear you
all the days they live on the land
you gave our ancestors.
Even for the foreigner who is not of your people Israel
but has come from a distant land
because of your name —
for they will hear of your great name,
strong hand, and outstretched arm,
and will come and pray toward this temple —
may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place,
and do according to all the foreigner asks.
Then all peoples of earth will know your name,
to fear you as your people Israel do
and to know that this temple I have built
bears your name.
When your people go out to fight against their enemies,
wherever you send them,
and they pray to the LORD
in the direction of the city you have chosen
and the temple I have built for your name,
may you hear their prayer and petition in heaven
and uphold their cause.
When they sin against you —
for there is no one who does not sin —
and you are angry with them
and hand them over to the enemy,
and their captors deport them to the enemy’s country —
whether distant or nearby —
and when they come to their senses
in the land where they were deported
and repent and petition you in their captors’ land:
“We have sinned and done wrong;
we have been wicked,”
and when they return to you with all their heart and all their soul
in the land of their enemies who took them captive,
and when they pray to you in the direction of their land
that you gave their ancestors,
the city you have chosen,
and the temple I have built for your name,
may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place,
their prayer and petition and uphold their cause.
May you forgive your people
who sinned against you
and all their rebellions against you,
and may you grant them compassion
before their captors,
so that they may treat them compassionately.
For they are your people and your inheritance;
you brought them out of Egypt,
out of the middle of an iron furnace.
May your eyes be open to your servant’s petition
and to the petition of your people Israel,
listening to them whenever they call to you.
For you, Lord GOD, have set them apart as your inheritance
from all peoples of the earth,
as you spoke through your servant Moses
when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.
When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD, he got up from kneeling before the altar of the LORD, with his hands spread out toward heaven, and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice: “Blessed be the LORD! He has given rest to his people Israel according to all he has said. Not one of all the good promises he made through his servant Moses has failed. May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us so that he causes us to be devoted to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors. May my words with which I have made my petition before the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night. May he uphold his servant’s cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires. May all the peoples of the earth know that the LORD is God. There is no other! Be wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD our God to walk in his statutes and to keep his commands, as it is today.”
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