1 Kings 8
8
Solomon Brings the Sacred Chest to the Temple
(2 Chronicles 5.2—6.2)
1-2 #
2 S 6.11-16; 1 Ch 15.25-29;
Lv 23.34. The sacred chest had been kept on Mount Zion, also known as the city of David. But Solomon decided to have the chest moved to the temple while everyone was in Jerusalem, celebrating the Festival of Shelters during Ethanim,#8.1,2 Ethanim: The seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-September to mid-October. the seventh month of the year.
Solomon called together the important leaders of Israel. 3-4Then the priests and the Levites carried to the temple the sacred chest, the sacred tent, and the objects used for worship. 5Solomon and a crowd of people stood in front of the chest and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted.
6The priests carried the chest into the most holy place and put it under the winged creatures, 7whose wings covered both the chest and the poles used for carrying it. 8The poles were so long that they could be seen from right outside the most holy place, but not from anywhere else. And they stayed there from then on.
9 #
Dt 10.5. The only things kept in the chest were the two flat stones Moses had put there when the Lord made his agreement with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai,#8.9 Sinai: Hebrew “Horeb.” after bringing them out of Egypt.
10 #
Ex 40.34,35. Suddenly a cloud filled the temple as the priests were leaving the most holy place. 11The Lord's glory was in the cloud, and the light from it was so bright that the priests could not stay inside to do their work. 12#Ps 18.11; 97.2. Then Solomon prayed:
“Our Lord, you said that you
would live in a dark cloud.
13Now I have built a glorious temple
where you can live forever.”
Solomon Speaks to the People
(2 Chronicles 6.3-11)
14Solomon turned toward the people standing there. Then he blessed them 15-16#2 S 7.4-11; 1 Ch 17.3-10. and said:
Praise the Lord God of Israel! Long ago he brought his people out of Egypt. He did not choose a city from any tribe in Israel where his temple would be built, but he kept his promise to make my father David the king of Israel.
17 #
2 S 7.1-3; 1 Ch 17.1,2. So when David wanted to build a temple for the Lord God of Israel, 18the Lord said, “It's good that you want to build a temple where I can be worshiped. 19#2 S 7.12,13; 1 Ch 17.11,12. But you're not the one to do it. Your son will build a temple to honor me.”
20The Lord has done what he promised. I am the king of Israel like my father, and I've built a temple for the Lord our God. 21I've also made a place in the temple for the sacred chest. And in that chest are the two flat stones on which is written the solemn agreement the Lord made with our ancestors when he led them out of Egypt.
Solomon Prays at the Temple
(2 Chronicles 6.12-42)
22Solomon stood facing the altar with everyone standing behind him. Then he lifted his arms toward heaven 23and prayed:
Lord God of Israel, no other god in heaven or on earth is like you!
You never forget the agreement you made with your people, and you are loyal to anyone who faithfully obeys your teachings. 24My father David was your servant, and today you have kept every promise you made to him.
25 #
1 K 2.4. Lord God of Israel, you promised my father that someone from his family would always be king of Israel, if they do their best to obey you, just as he did. 26Please keep this promise you made to your servant David.
27 #
2 Ch 2.6; 3 Macc 2.15. There's not enough room in all of heaven for you, Lord God. How could you possibly live on earth in this temple I have built? 28But I ask you to answer my prayer. 29#Dt 12.5-19. This is the temple where you have chosen to be worshiped. Please watch over it day and night and listen when I turn toward it and pray. 30I am your servant, and the people of Israel belong to you. So whenever any of us look toward this temple and pray, answer from your home in heaven and forgive our sins.
31Suppose someone accuses a person of a crime, and the accused has to stand in front of the altar in your temple and say, “I swear I am innocent!” 32Listen from heaven and decide who is right. Then punish the guilty person and let the innocent one go free.
33 #
3 Macc 2.10. Suppose your people Israel sin against you, and then an enemy defeats them. If they come to this temple and beg for forgiveness, 34listen from your home in heaven. Forgive them and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors.
35Suppose your people sin against you, and you punish them by holding back the rain. If they turn toward this temple and pray in your name and stop sinning, 36listen from your home in heaven and forgive them. The people of Israel are your servants, so teach them to live right. And please send rain on the land you gave them to be theirs forever.
37Sometimes the crops may dry up or rot or be eaten by locusts#8.37 locusts: A type of grasshopper that comes in swarms and causes great damage to plant life. or grasshoppers, and your people will be starving. Sometimes enemies may surround their towns, or your people will become sick with deadly diseases. 38Listen when anyone in Israel truly feels sorry and sincerely prays with arms lifted toward your temple. 39You know what is in everyone's heart. So from your home in heaven answer their prayers, according to the way they live and what is in their hearts. 40Then your people will worship and obey you for as long as they live in the land you gave their ancestors.
41-42Foreigners will hear about you and your mighty power, and some of them will come to live among your people Israel. If any of them pray toward this temple, 43listen from your home in heaven and answer their prayers. Then everyone on earth will worship you, just like your people Israel, and they will know that I have built this temple to honor you.
44Our Lord, sometimes you will order your people to attack their enemies. Then your people will turn toward this temple I have built for you in your chosen city, and they will pray to you. 45Answer their prayers from heaven and give them victory.
46Everyone sins. But when your people sin against you, suppose you get angry enough to let their enemies drag them away to foreign countries. 47-49Later, they may feel sorry for what they did and ask your forgiveness. Answer them when they pray toward this temple I have built for you in your chosen city, here in this land you gave their ancestors. From your home in heaven, listen to their sincere prayers and do what they ask. 50Forgive your people no matter how much they have sinned against you. Make the enemies who defeated them be kind to them. 51Remember, they are the people you chose and rescued from Egypt that was like a blazing fire to them.
52I am your servant, and the people of Israel belong to you. So listen when any of us pray and cry out for your help. 53When you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, you told your servant Moses to say to them, “From all people on earth, the Lord God has chosen you to be his very own.”
Solomon Blesses the People
54When Solomon finished his prayer at the altar, he was kneeling with his arms lifted toward heaven. He stood up, 55turned toward the people, blessed them, and said loudly:
56 #
Dt 12.5-19; Js 21.44,45. Praise the Lord! He has kept his promise and given us peace. Every good thing he promised to his servant Moses has happened.
57The Lord our God was with our ancestors to help them, and I pray that he will be with us and never abandon us. 58May the Lord help us obey him and follow all the laws and teachings he gave our ancestors.
59I pray that the Lord our God will remember my prayer day and night. May he help everyone in Israel each day, in whatever way we need it. 60Then every nation will know that the Lord is the only true God.
61Obey the Lord our God and follow his commands with all your heart, just as you are doing today.
Solomon Dedicates the Temple
(2 Chronicles 7.4-10)
62-63Solomon and the people dedicated the temple to the Lord by offering 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep as sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing.#8.62,63 sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing: See Leviticus 3.1-17. 64On that day, Solomon dedicated the courtyard in front of the temple and made it acceptable for worship. He offered the sacrifices there because the bronze altar in front of the temple was too small.
65Solomon and the huge crowd celebrated the Festival of Shelters at the temple for seven days.#8.65 seven days: One ancient translation; Hebrew “seven days and seven more days, fourteen days in all.” There were people from as far away as the Egyptian Gorge in the south and Lebo-Hamath in the north. 66Then on the eighth day, he sent everyone home. They said goodbye and left, very happy, because of all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.
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1 Kings 8: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
1 Kings 8
8
The Covenant Box is Brought to the Temple
(2 Chr 5.2—6.2)
1 #
2 Sam 6.12–16; 1 Chr 15.25–29 Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem in order to take the LORD's Covenant Box from Zion, David's City, to the Temple. 2#Lev 23.24They all assembled during the Festival of Shelters in the seventh month, in the month of Ethanim. 3When all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the Covenant Box 4and carried it to the Temple. The Levites and the priests also moved the Tent of the LORD's presence and all its equipment to the Temple. 5King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle — too many to count. 6Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures. 7Their outstretched wings covered the box and the poles it was carried by. 8The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.) 9#Deut 10.5There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.
10 #
Ex 40.34–35
As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud 11shining with the dazzling light of the LORD's presence, and they could not go back in to perform their duties. 12#Ps 18.11; 97.2Then Solomon prayed:
“You, LORD, have placed the sun in the sky,#8.12 One ancient translation You… sky; Hebrew does not have these words.
yet you have chosen to live in clouds and darkness.
13Now I have built a majestic temple for you,
a place for you to live in for ever.”
Solomon's Address to the People
(2 Chr 6.3–11)
14As the people stood there, King Solomon turned to face them, and he asked God's blessing on them. 15He said, “Praise the LORD God of Israel! He has kept the promise he made to my father David, when he said, 16#2 Sam 7.4–11; 1 Chr 17.3–10‘From the time I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen any city in all the land of Israel in which a temple should be built where I would be worshipped. But I chose you, David, to rule my people.’ ”
17 #
2 Sam 7.1–3; 1 Chr 17.1–2 And Solomon continued, “My father David planned to build a temple for the worship of the LORD God of Israel, 18but the LORD said to him, ‘You were right in wanting to build a temple for me, 19#2 Sam 7.12–13; 1 Chr 17.11–12but you will never build it. It is your son, your own son, who will build my temple.’
20“And now the LORD has kept his promise. I have succeeded my father as king of Israel, and I have built the Temple for the worship of the LORD God of Israel. 21I have also provided a place in the Temple for the Covenant Box containing the stone tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”
Solomon's Prayer
(2 Chr 6.12–42)
22Then in the presence of the people Solomon went and stood in front of the altar, where he raised his arms 23and prayed, “LORD God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You keep your covenant with your people and show them your love when they live in wholehearted obedience to you. 24You have kept the promise you made to my father David; today every word has been fulfilled. 25#1 Kgs 2.4And now, LORD God of Israel, I pray that you will also keep the other promise you made to my father when you told him that there would always be one of his descendants ruling as king of Israel, provided they obeyed you as carefully as he did. 26So now, O God of Israel, let everything come true that you promised to my father David, your servant.
27 #
2 Chr 2.6
“But can you, O God, really live on earth? Not even all heaven is large enough to hold you, so how can this Temple that I have built be large enough? 28LORD my God, I am your servant. Listen to my prayer, and grant the requests I make to you today. 29#Deut 12.11Watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have chosen to be worshipped. Hear me when I face this Temple and pray. 30Hear my prayers and the prayers of your people when they face this place and pray. In your home in heaven hear us and forgive us.
31“When a person is accused of wronging another and is brought to your altar in this Temple to take an oath that he is innocent, 32O LORD, listen in heaven and judge your servants. Punish the guilty one as he deserves, and acquit the one who is innocent.
33“When your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and then when they turn to you and come to this Temple, humbly praying to you for forgiveness, 34listen to them in heaven. Forgive the sins of your people, and bring them back to the land which you gave to their ancestors.
35“When you hold back the rain because your people have sinned against you, and then when they repent and face this Temple, humbly praying to you, 36listen to them in heaven. Forgive the sins of the king and of the people of Israel. Teach them to do what is right. Then, O LORD, send rain on this land of yours, which you gave to your people as a permanent possession.
37“When there is famine in the land or an epidemic, or the crops are destroyed by scorching winds or swarms of locusts, or when your people are attacked by their enemies, or when there is disease or sickness among them, 38listen to their prayers. If any of your people Israel, out of heartfelt sorrow, stretch out their hands in prayer towards this Temple, 39hear their prayer. Listen to them in your home in heaven, forgive them, and help them. You alone know the thoughts of the human heart. Deal with each person as he deserves, 40so that your people may obey you all the time they live in the land which you gave to our ancestors.
41-42“When a foreigner who lives in a distant land hears of your fame and of the great things you have done for your people, and comes to worship you and to pray at this Temple, 43listen to his prayer. In heaven, where you live, hear him and do what he asks you to do, so that all the peoples of the world may know you and obey you, as your people Israel do. Then they will know that this Temple I have built is the place where you are to be worshipped.
44“When you command your people to go into battle against their enemies and they pray to you, wherever they are, facing this city which you have chosen and this Temple which I have built for you, 45listen to their prayers. Hear them in heaven, and give them victory.
46“When your people sin against you — and there is no one who does not sin — and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away, 47listen to your people's prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O LORD. 48If in that land they truly and sincerely repent, and pray to you as they face towards this land which you gave to our ancestors, this city which you have chosen, and this Temple which I have built for you, 49then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them. 50Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness. 51They are your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt, that blazing furnace.
52“Sovereign LORD, may you always look with favour on your people Israel and their king, and hear their prayer whenever they call to you for help. 53You chose them from all the peoples to be your own people, as you told them through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”
The Final Prayer
54After Solomon had finished praying to the LORD, he stood up in front of the altar, where he had been kneeling with uplifted hands. 55In a loud voice he asked God's blessings on all the people assembled there. He said, 56#Deut 12.10; Josh 21.44–45“Praise the LORD who has given his people peace, as he promised he would. He has kept all the generous promises he made through his servant Moses. 57May the LORD our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us, or abandon us; 58may he make us obedient to him, so that we will always live as he wants us to live, and keep all the laws and commands he gave our ancestors. 59May the LORD our God remember at all times this prayer and these petitions I have made to him. May he always be merciful to the people of Israel and to their king, according to their daily needs. 60And so all the nations of the world will know that the LORD alone is God — there is no other. 61May you, his people, always be faithful to the LORD our God, obeying all his laws and commands, as you do today.”
The Dedication of the Temple
(2 Chr 7.4–10)
62Then King Solomon and all the people there offered sacrifices to the LORD. 63He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings. And so the king and all the people dedicated the Temple. 64That same day he also consecrated the central part of the courtyard, the area in front of the Temple, and then he offered there the sacrifices burnt whole, the grain offerings, and the fat of the animals for the fellowship offerings. He did this because the bronze altar was too small for all these offerings.
65There at the Temple, Solomon and all the people of Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters for seven#8.65 One ancient translation seven; Hebrew fourteen. days. There was a huge crowd of people from as far away as Hamath Pass in the north and the Egyptian border in the south. 66On the eighth day Solomon sent the people home. They all praised him and went home happy because of all the blessings that the LORD had given his servant David and his people Israel.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.