3rd Kings 8

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1 Then Solomon called the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the heads of families of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, that is, Zion.
2 And they gathered together to King Solomon at the feast of all the Israelites in the month Afanime, which is the seventh month.
3 And all the elders of Israel; and the priests took up the ark;
4 And they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle; and those did the priests and the Levites.
5 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him, were before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be counted for multitude of them.
6 And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the temple, the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim.
7 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles.
8 And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the oracle, but were not seen outside; they are there to this day.
9 There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.
10 When the priests came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD;
eleven and the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord.

12 Then said Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in thick darkness;
13 I have built thee an house, a place to stay you forever.
14 And the king turned his face, and blessed all the congregation of Israel; all the congregation of Israel stood -
15 and he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled! He said:
16 `From the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel to build an house in which my name might be; and I chose David to be over my people Israel. '
17 David my father had heart to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel;
18 but the Lord said unto David my father, `you have heart to build an house for my name; well, that is in thine heart;
19 Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build an house for my name. '
20 And the Lord fulfilled his word that he hath spoken. I entered the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord said, and built a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel;
21 and I set there a place for the ark, in which the Lord's covenant with our fathers, when he brought them out of Egypt.

22 And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,
23 and he said: O Lord God of Israel! there is no God like thee in heaven above and on the earth beneath; Who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart.
24 You kept with thy servant David my father had said to him; that thou hast spoken with your mouth, as it is this day made thy hand.
25 And now, O Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father what thou hast spoken to him, saying, `There shall not fail thee before me sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons will be their way, to walk before me as thou hast walked before me. '
26 And now, O God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David my father!
27 Indeed, if God dwell on the earth? The heaven and heaven of heavens can not contain thee; how much less this house which I have built.
28 but look upon the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God; Hear the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee this day.
29 Yes, your eyes be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place of which thou hast said, `My name shall be there; hear the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place.
thirty Hear the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place; Hear your dwelling place in heaven, hear and have mercy.
31 If any man trespass against his neighbor, and will demand from him an oath to him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this temple,
32 then hear from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head, and justifying the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness.
33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them into the land which You gave to their fathers.
35 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee, if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them,
36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance.
37 Will the land famine, if there be pestilence whether blasting, mildew, locust, or to be the enemy besiege them in the land, [whether] this evil which disease -
38 at every prayer and every supplication, which will be of any man in all thy people Israel, when they feel the distress in his heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house,
39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and have mercy; hast done, and give to every man according to his ways, as thou perceives his heart: for thou only knowest the hearts of all the sons of men:
40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou hast given to our fathers.
41 If a foreigner who is not of thy people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your name -
42 For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out, --and he come and pray in this house;
43 hear from heaven, from thy dwelling place, and do all that is stranger calleth to thee, that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel, that they may know that Thy name is called this house which I built.
44 If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name;
45 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and make that the need for them.
46 When they sin against thee, --ibo there is no man who does not sin, --and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, and their captors shall bring them to the land of the enemy, far or near;
47 and when they are in the land, which will be in captivity, and will include a turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captors, saying, `We have sinned, and have done iniquity, we have done wickedly ';
48 And so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built thy name
49 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and supplication, and make that the need for them;
50 and forgive thy people who have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions, that he did before thee, and arouse compassion for them in their captors, so that they may have compassion on them:
51 for they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt, from the iron furnace.
52 Yes, your eyes be open to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy people Israel, to hear them whenever they call you,
53 For thou didst separate them an inheritance of all the nations of the earth, as thou hast spoken by Moses thy servant, when he brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord!

54 When Solomon praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from his knees on the altar of the LORD, [the hands of] its spread up to heaven.
55 And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying:
56 Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel, as he said! there hath not one word of all his good words which he spoke by Moses his servant;
57 be with us the Lord our God, as He was with our fathers, so do not leave us, nor forsake us,
58 incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers;
59 and these words which I have prayed before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of His servant, and the cause of his people Israel, day by day,
60 that all people may know that the Lord is God and there is none besides Him;
61 Let your heart be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day.

62 And the king and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord.
63 And Solomon offered peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord, twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So we dedicated the house of the Lord and the king and all the sons of Israel.
64 On the same day the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the temple of the LORD: for there the burnt offering and the meat offering, and [fuss] the fat of the peace offerings, because the brazen altar which was before the LORD was too little to receive the burnt offerings, and meat offerings and the fat of the peace offerings .
65 And Solomon made at this time of celebration, and all Israel with him, --More meeting [descended] from the entrance of Hamath to the river of Egypt unto the LORD our God; --sem days and seven days, fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day he sent the people. And they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord has done for David his servant and for Israel his people.

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