1 Kings 8
8
The Dedication of the Temple
1At that time, Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the families#Literally “fathers” of the Israelites#Literally “sons/children of Israel” before King Solomon, in order to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, that is, Zion. 2All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the festival in the month of Ethnaim, that is, the seventh month. 3All the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark. 4So they brought up the ark of Yahweh and the tent of assembly#Or “meeting” and all of the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. 5King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel who were assembling with him in the presence of the ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted nor numbered because of abundance. 6The priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place,#Literally “holy of the holiest” under the wings of the cherubim, 7for the cherubim were spreading their wings over the place of the ark. The cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles from above. 8The poles were long, and the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place in front of#Literally “on the face of” the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from the outside, and they are there until this day. 9There was not anything in the ark except#Hebrew “only” the two tablets of stone which Moses had placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh made#Literally “cut” a covenant with the Israelites#Literally “sons/children of Israel” after they went out from the land of Egypt. 10When the priests went out from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of Yahweh. 11The priests were not able to stand to minister because of the presence of#Literally “from the face of” the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.
Solomon’s Proclamation to the Assembly of Israel
12Then Solomon said, “Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the very thick cloud. 13I have certainly built a lofty house for you, a place for you to live forever.” 14Then the king turned his face around, and he blessed all of the assembly of Israel. (Now all the assembly of Israel was standing). 15Then he said, “Blessed be Yahweh the God of Israel who has promised with his mouth to David my father and fulfilled by his oath,#Literally “by his hand” saying, 16‘From the day that I brought out my people Israel from Egypt I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house where my name might be, but I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’ 17David my father desired#Literally “It had been within the heart of David my father” to build a house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel, 18but Yahweh said to David my father, ‘Because you desired#Literally “it was within your heart” to build a house for my name, you did well in that it was within your heart. 19However, you will not build the house, but your son who has come from your loins, he shall build the house for my name.’ 20Yahweh has carried out his promise which he had made; I have risen in place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel as Yahweh promised, and I have built the house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel. 21I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant which Yahweh made with our ancestors#Or “fathers” when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
Solomon’s Prayer to Yahweh
22Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all of the assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands to the heavens, 23and he said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the loyal love for your servants who are walking before you with all their heart. 24You have kept for your servant David my father what you promised to him, and you have spoken with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled it this very day. 25So then, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised to him, saying, ‘For you, no man will be cut off from before me who will be sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons keep their ways to walk before me just as you have walked before me.’ 26So then, O God of Israel, please let your word be confirmed which you have promised#Or “spoken” to your servant David my father. 27For will God really dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens could not contain you! How could#Literally “Even that” this house that I have built? 28You must regard the prayer of your servant and his plea! O Yahweh my God, listen to the pleading and to the prayer that your servant is praying before you this day, 29so that your eyes will be open to this house night and day, to the place which you said, ‘My name will be there,’ to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. 30You must listen to the plea of your servant and your people Israel which they pray toward this place; and you must hear from the place where you live, from heaven you must hear and you must forgive. 31If a man sins against his neighbor and he pronounces an oath against him to curse him, and the curse comes before your altar in this house, 32then you shall hear in heaven and you shall act and you shall judge your servant, to declare the wicked guilty by bringing his way upon his head and to declare the righteous innocent#Literally “to declare righteous the righteous” by rewarding him according to his righteousness. 33When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because#Literally “who” they sinned against you, and when they turn to you and confess your name and pray and beg for mercy from you in this house, 34then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and you shall bring them back to the ground which you gave to their ancestors.#Or “fathers” 35When you shut up the heavens so there is no rain because they have sinned against you, then they pray to this place and they confess your name and they return from their sin because you punished them, 36then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you will teach them the good way in which they should go, and you will give rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance. 37If there should be in the land famine or disease, if there should be blight or mildew or locust or caterpillars, if it happens that his enemy lays siege against him in the land of his gates, if any plague or any disease, 38any prayer or any plea which is offered by any person for all of your people Israel, who each knows the infestation of his own heart and spreads out his palms to this house, 39then you shall hear in heaven the place of your dwelling, and you shall forgive and act and give to the man whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you alone know the heart of all the sons of man. 40Do these things so that they may fear you all the days that they live on the face of the land that you gave to our ancestors.#Or “fathers” 41Also for the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, and he comes from a distant land because of your name, 42(for they shall hear of your great name and your powerful hand and your outstretched arm), and he shall come and pray toward this house, 43you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel, and to know that your name has been invoked over this house that I have built. 44If your people go out to battle against his enemy in the way that you shall send them and they pray to Yahweh, toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name, 45then you shall hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and you shall vindicate#Literally “their judgment” them.
46“If they sin against you (for there is not a person who does not sin) and you are angry with them and you give them to an enemy and they take them captive to the land of the enemy far or near, 47and then they return their heart in the land where they have been taken captive and they return and plead to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and we did wrong. We acted wickedly,’ 48if they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive and they pray to you toward their land which you gave to their ancestors,#Or “fathers” the city that you have chosen and the house that you#The Hebrew Masoretic text (Kethib) reads “you have built”;Qere reads “I have built” built for your name, 49then you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, their prayer and their plea, and you shall vindicate them.#Literally “and you shall do their justice” 50You shall forgive your people who sinned against you, even for all their transgressions which they committed against you. You shall give them compassion before their captors so that they may have compassion on them, 51for they are your people and your inheritance whom you brought from Egypt from the middle of the smelter of iron. 52O, that your eyes may be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, to listen to them in all things when they call to you. 53For you have separated them for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you promised through the hand of Moses your servant when you brought out our ancestors#Or “fathers” from Egypt, my Lord Yahweh!”
Solomon Charges the People Israel
54It happened that when Solomon finished praying to Yahweh all of the prayer and this plea, he got up from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling down on his knees with his palms outstretched to heaven. 55He stood and blessed all of the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, 56“Blessed be Yahweh who gave a resting place to his people Israel. According to all that he promised, not one word has fallen from all of his promises concerning the good which he spoke through the hand of Moses his servant. 57May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our ancestors,#Or “fathers” and may he not leave us or abandon us, 58to incline our hearts toward him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments which he commanded our ancestors.#Or “fathers” 59Let these my words which I pleaded before Yahweh be near to Yahweh our God, by day and by night, to maintain the justice of his servant and the justice of his people Israel as each day requires#Literally “the word of the day on its day” 60so that all of the people of the earth may know that Yahweh, he is God; there is none other. 61Let your heart be completely with Yahweh our God by walking in his statutes, by keeping his commands as this day.”
The Great Confirming Sacrifice
62Then the king and all of Israel with him offered a sacrifice in the presence of Yahweh. 63Solomon sacrificed the fellowship offerings which he offered to Yahweh: twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and the king and all of the Israelites#Literally “sons/children of Israel” dedicated the house of Yahweh. 64On that day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard before the house of Yahweh because he offered there the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings because the bronze altar that was in the presence of Yahweh was too small to hold the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings. 65Solomon held the festival at that time and all of Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo Hamath up to the wadi#A valley that is dry most of the year, but contains a stream during the rainy season of Egypt before Yahweh our God, for seven days and seven days, a total of fourteen days. 66On the eighth day, he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents rejoicing and in good spirits#Literally “and good of heart” because of all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people.
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1 Kings 8: LEB
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3 Kings 8
8
1Then all the ancients of Israel with the princes of the tribes, and the heads of the families of the children of Israel were assembled to king Solomon in Jerusalem: that they might carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, that is, out of Sion.
2And all Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon on the festival day in the month of Ethanim: the same is the seventh month.
3And all the ancients of Israel came: and the priests took up the ark,
4And carried the ark of the Lord, and the tabernacle of the covenant, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, that were in the tabernacle. And the priests and the Levites carried them.
5And king Solomon, and all the multitude of Israel, that were assembled unto him went with him before the ark. And they sacrificed sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered.
6And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the temple into the Holy of Holies under the wings of the cherubims.
7For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and covered the art, and the staves thereof above.
8And whereas the staves stood out, the ends of them were seen without in the sanctuary before the oracle, but were not seen farther out: and there they have been unto this day.
9Now in the ark there was nothing else but the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the sanctuary, that a cloud filled the house of the Lord.
11And the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.
12Then Solomon said: The Lord said that he would dwell in a cloud.
13Building I have built a house for thy dwelling, to be thy most firm throne for ever.
14And the king turned his face, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: for all the assembly of Israel stood.
15And Solomon said: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and with his own hands hath accomplished it, saying:
16Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel, for a house to be built, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.
17And David my father would have built a house to the name of the Lord the God of Israel.
18And the Lord said to David my father: Whereas thou hast thought in thy heart to build a house to my name, thou hast done well in having this same thing in thy mind.
19Nevertheless thou shalt not build me a house: but thy son, that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build a house to my name.
20The Lord hath performed his word which he spoke. And I stand in the room of David my father: and sit upon the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised: and have built a house to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
21And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
22And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the sight of the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards heaven.
23And said: Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven above, or on earth beneath: who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that have walked before thee with all their heart.
24Who hast kept with thy servant David my father what thou hast promised him. With thy mouth thou didst speak, and with thy hands thou hast performed, as this day proveth.
25Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father what thou hast spoken to him, saying: There shall not be taken away of thee a man in my sight, to sit on the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked in my sight.
26And now, Lord God of Israel, let thy words be established, which thou hast spoken to thy servant David my father.
27Is it then to be thought that God should indeed dwell upon earth? For if heaven, and the heavens of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built?
28But have regard to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, O Lord my God. Hear the hymn and the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee this day:
29That thy eyes may be open upon this house night and day; upon the house of which thou hast said: My name shall be there. That thou mayest hearken to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth in this place to thee.
30That thou mayest hearken to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, whatsoever they shall pray for in this place: and hear them in the place of thy dwelling in heaven: and when thou hearest shew them mercy.
31If any man trespass against his neighbour, and have an oath upon him, wherewith he is bound: and come because of the oath before thy altar to thy house:
32Then hear thou in heaven. And do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, and bringing his way upon his own head; and justifying the just, and rewarding him according to his justice.
33If thy people Israel shall fly before their enemies, (because they will sin against thee,) and doing penance, and confessing to thy name, shall come, and pray, and make supplications to thee in this house:
34Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them back to the land which thou gavest to their fathers.
35If heaven shall be shut up, and there shall be no rain, because of their sins, and they praying in this place, shall do penance to thy name, and shall be converted from their sins, by occasion of their afflictions:
36Then hear thou them in heaven, and forgive the sins of thy servants, and of thy people Israel; and shew them the good way wherein they should walk; and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people in possession.
37If a famine arise in the land, or a pestilence, or corrupt air, or blasting, or locust, or mildew; if their enemy afflict them besieging the gates, whatsoever plague, whatsoever infirmity:
38Whatsoever curse or imprecation shall happen to any man of thy people Israel: when a man shall know the wound of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:
39Then hear thou in heaven, in the place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and do so as to give to every one according to his ways, as thou shalt see his heart (for thou only knowest the heart of all the children of men).
40That they may fear thee all the days that they live upon the face of the land, which thou hast given to our fathers.
41Moreover also the stranger, who is not of thy people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for thy name's sake, (for they shall hear every where of thy great name and thy mighty hand,
42And thy stretched out arm,) so when he shall come, and shall pray in this place:
43Then hear thou in heaven, in the firmament of thy dwelling place, and do all those things, for which that stranger shall call upon thee. That all the people of the earth may learn to fear thy name, as do thy people Israel, and may prove that thy name is called upon on this house, which I have built.
44If thy people go out to war against their enemies, by what way soever thou shalt send them, they shall pray to thee towards the way of the city, which thou hast chosen, and towards the house, which I have built to thy name.
45And then hear thou in heaven their prayers, and their supplications: and do judgment for them.
46But if they sin against thee (for there is no man who sinneth not) and thou being angry deliver them up to their enemies, so that they be led away captives into the land of their enemies far or near:
47Then if they do penance in their heart in the place of captivity, and being converted make supplication to thee in their captivity, saying: We have sinned, we have done unjustly, we have committed wickedness:
48And return to thee with all their heart, and all their soul, in the land of their enemies, to which they had been led captives: and pray to thee towards the way of their land, which thou gavest to their fathers, and of the city which thou hast chosen, and of the temple which I have built to thy name:
49Then hear thou in heaven, in the firmament of thy throne, their prayers, and their supplications, and do judgment for them.
50And forgive thy people, that have sinned against thee, and all their iniquities, by which they have transgressed against thee. And give them mercy before them that have made them captives, that they may have compassion on them.
51For they are thy people, and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:
52That thy eyes may be open to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, to hear them in all things for which they shall call upon thee.
53For thou hast separated them to thyself for an inheritance from among all the people of the earth, as thou hast spoken by Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.
54And it came to pass, when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he rose from before the altar of the Lord: for he had fixed both knees on the ground, and had spread his hands towards heaven.
55And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying:
56Blessed be the Lord, who hath given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There hath not failed so much as one word of all the good things that he promised by his servant Moses.
57The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers, and not leave us, nor cast us off:
58But may he incline our hearts to himself, that we may walk in all his ways, and keep his commandments, and his ceremonies, and all his judgments which he commanded our fathers.
59And let these my words, wherewith I have prayed before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night: that he may do judgment for his servant, and for his people Israel day by day:
60That all the people of the earth may know, that the Lord he is God, and there is no other besides him.
61Let our hearts also be perfect with the Lord our God, that we may walk in his statutes, and keep his commandments, as at this day.
62And the king, and all Israel him, offered victims before the Lord.
63And Solomon slew victims of peace-offerings, which he sacrificed to the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, and hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king, and the children of Israel dedicated the temple of the Lord.
64In that day the king sanctified the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord. For there he offered the holocaust and sacrifice and fat of the peace offerings: because the brazen altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive the holocaust and sacrifice and fat of the peace-offerings.
65And Solomon made at the same time a solemn feast, and all Israel with him: a great multitude from the entrance of Emath to the river of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days and seven days, that is, fourteen days.
66And on the eighth day he sent away the people. And they blessed the king, and went to their dwellings rejoicing and glad in heart for all the good things that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.