The First Book of the Kings

⭑ Unlocked Literal Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Kapitel 8 -

(2 Chronicles 5:1–14)

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the families of the people of Israel, before himself in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, that is, Zion.

All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the feast, in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.

They brought up the ark of Yahweh, the tent of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought these things up.

King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel came together before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted.

The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the inner room of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim.

For the cherubim spread out their wings to the place of the ark, and they covered the ark and the poles by which it was carried.

The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner room, but they could not be seen from outside. They are there to this day.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses had put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the people of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

It came about that when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of Yahweh.

The priests could not stand to serve because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled his house.

Solomon Blesses the LORD

(2 Chronicles 6:1–11)

Then Solomon said, “Yahweh has said that he would live in thick darkness,

but I have built you a lofty residence, a place for you to live in forever.”

Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.

He said, “May Yahweh, the God of Israel, be praised, who spoke to David my father, and has fulfilled it with his own hands, saying,

‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, in order for my name to be there. However, I chose David to rule over my people Israel.’

Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

But Yahweh said to David my father, ’In that it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well for it to be in your heart.

Nevertheless you will not build the house; instead, your son, one who will be born from your loins, will build the house for my name.’

Yahweh has carried out the word that he had said, for I have arisen in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised. I have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

I have made a place for the ark there, in which is Yahweh’s covenant, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

(2 Chronicles 6:12–42)

Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh, before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward the heavens.

He said, “Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens above or on the earth below, who keeps his covenant faithfulness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart;

you who have kept with your servant David my father, what you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.

Now then, Yahweh, God of Israel, carry out what you have promised to your servant David my father, when you said, ‘You will not fail to have a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful to walk before me, as you have walked before me.’

Now then, God of Israel, I pray that the promise you made to your servant David my father, will come true.

But will God actually live on the earth? Look, the entire universe and heaven itself cannot contain you-how much less can this temple that I have built!

Yet please respect this prayer of your servant and his request, Yahweh my God; listen to the cry and prayer that your servant prays before you today.

May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, to the place about which you have said, ‘My name and my presence will be there’-in order to listen to the prayers that your servant will pray toward this place.

So listen to the request of your servant and of your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, listen from the place where you live, from the heavens; and when you listen, forgive.

If a man sins against his neighbor and is required to swear an oath, and if he comes and swears an oath before your altar in this house,

listen from the heavens and act; judge your servants, condemning the guilty and bring what he has done upon his own head, and to declare the righteous one to be innocent, and to reward him for his righteousness.

When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn back to you, confess your name, pray, and request forgiveness from you in this temple-

then please listen in the heavens and forgive the sin of your people Israel; bring them back to the land that you gave to their ancestors.

When the skies are shut up and there is no rain because the people have sinned against you-if they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin when you have afflicted them-

then listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk. Send rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

Suppose there is famine in the land, or suppose that there is disease, blight or mildew, locusts or caterpillars; or suppose that an enemy attacks the city gates in their land, or that there is any plague or sickness-

and suppose then that prayers and requests are made by a person or by all your people Israel-each knowing the plague in his own heart as he spreads out his hands toward this temple.

Then listen from heaven, the place where you live, forgive and act, and reward every person for all he does; you know his heart, because you and you only know the hearts of all human beings.

Do this so that they may fear you all the days that they live on the land that you gave to our ancestors.

In addition, concerning the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel: When he comes from a distant country because of your name-

for they will hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your raised arm-when he comes and prays toward this temple,

then please listen from heaven, the place where you live, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you. Do this so that all the nations on earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel. Do this so they might know that this house I have built is called by your name.

Suppose that your people go out to battle against an enemy, by whatever way you may send them, and suppose that they pray to you, Yahweh, toward the city that you have chosen, and toward the house that I have built for your name.

Then listen in the heavens to their prayer and their request, and help their cause.

Suppose that they sin against you, since there is no one who does not sin, and suppose that you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that the enemy takes them away captive to their land, whether distant or near.

Then suppose that they realize they are in the land where they have been exiled, and suppose that they repent and seek favor from you from the land of their captors. Suppose that they say, ‘We have acted perversely and sinned. We have behaved wickedly.’

Suppose that they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who captured them, and suppose that they pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their ancestors, and toward the city that you chose, and toward the house that I have built for your name.

Then from heaven, the place where you live, listen to their prayer and their request for help, and you will make matters right for them.

Forgive your people, who have sinned against you, and all their sins with which they have transgressed against your commands. Have compassion on them before their enemies who carried them captive, so that their enemies may also have compassion on your people.

They are your people whom you have chosen, whom you rescued out of Egypt as if from the middle of a furnace where iron is forged.

I pray that your eyes may be open to the request of your servant and to the requests of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.

For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to belong to you and receive your promises, just as you explained by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.”

Solomon’s Benediction

So it was that when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and request to Yahweh, he arose from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward the heavens.

He stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying,

“May Yahweh be praised, who has given rest to his people Israel, keeping all his promises. Not one word has failed out of all Yahweh’s good promises that he made with Moses his servant.

May Yahweh our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us or forsake us,

that he may incline our hearts to him, to live in all his ways and keep his commandments and his regulations and his statutes, which he commanded our fathers.

Let these words I have spoken, by which I have made request before Yahweh, be near Yahweh our God day and night, so that he may help the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as every day will require;

that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh, he is God, and there is no other God!

Therefore, let your heart be true to Yahweh our God, to walk in his statutes and keep his commandments, as on this day.”

Sacrifices of Dedication

(2 Chronicles 7:4–10)

So the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to Yahweh.

Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings, which he made to Yahweh: twenty-two thousand oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of Yahweh.

The same day the king set apart the middle of the courtyard in front of the temple of Yahweh, for there he offered the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was too small to receive the burnt offering, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings.

So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from Lebo Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God for seven days and also for another seven days, a total of fourteen days.

On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their homes with joyful and glad hearts for all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David, his servant, and to Israel, his people.

(2 Chronicles 5:1–14)

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel with all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant out of David’s city, which is Zion.

All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark.

They brought up the LORD’s ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. The priests and the Levites brought these up.

King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.

The priests brought in the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, even under the cherubim’s wings.

For the cherubim spread their wings out over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above.

The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside. They are there to this day.

There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets 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.

It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the LORD’s house,

so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the LORD’s glory filled the LORD’s house.

Solomon Blesses the LORD

(2 Chronicles 6:1–11)

Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

The king turned his face around and blessed all the assembly of Israel; and all the assembly of Israel stood.

He said, “Blessed is the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying,

‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.’

“Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

Nevertheless, you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.’

The LORD has established his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the LORD’s covenant, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

(2 Chronicles 6:12–42)

Solomon stood before the LORD’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven;

and he said, “LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart;

who has kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.

Now therefore, may LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’

“Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father.

But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant and for his supplication, LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today;

that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place.

Listen to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

“If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,

then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

“When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn again to you and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house,

then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

“When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them,

then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread out his hands toward this house,

then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men);

that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

“Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake

(for they shall hear of your great name and of your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house,

hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name,

then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly,’

if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name,

then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;

and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

(for they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron furnace);

that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.

For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord GOD.”

Solomon’s Benediction

It was so, that when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, he arose from before the LORD’s altar, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven.

He stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant.

May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us or forsake us,

that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.

Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as every day requires;

that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD himself is God. There is no one else.

“Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as it is today.”

Sacrifices of Dedication

(2 Chronicles 7:4–10)

The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD.

Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the LORD, twenty two thousand head of cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the LORD’s house.

The same day the king made the middle of the court holy that was before the LORD’s house; for there he offered the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too little to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.

So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days.

On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad in their hearts for all the goodness that the LORD had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.