2 Chronicles 6

¹ Then Solomon said, “The LORD has declared that he would dwell in thick darkness.

² I have built you a lofty house, a place for you to dwell forever.”

³ The king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood.

⁴ He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father and fulfilled with his hands what he had said:

⁵ ‘From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house for my name. Nor did I choose any man to be leader over my people Israel.

⁶ But I chose Jerusalem for my name to be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel.’

⁷ David my father had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁸ But the LORD said to David my father, ‘You had it in your heart to build a house for my name, and you did well to have this in your heart.

⁹ Yet you are not the one who will build the house. Your son, who comes from you, will build the house for my name.’

¹⁰ The LORD has fulfilled what he said. I have taken my place in the place of David my father and sat on the throne of Israel, as the LORD said; and I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹¹ There I placed the ark, which holds the covenant of the LORD that he made with the Israelites.”

¹² He stood before the altar of the LORD, facing the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands.

¹³ Solomon had made a bronze platform and set it in the middle of the courtyard: five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. He stood on it, knelt before the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.

¹⁴ He said, “LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. You keep the covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

¹⁵ You kept for your servant David my father what you promised him. You spoke with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand, as we see today.

¹⁶ Now, LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised him: ‘You will never lack a man before me to sit on the throne of Israel, provided your sons keep to their way and walk in my law as you have walked before me.’

¹⁷ Now, LORD, God of Israel, let the word you spoke to your servant David prove true.

¹⁸ But would God really dwell with human beings on earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less can this house that I have built!

¹⁹ Turn, then, to the prayer and plea of your servant, LORD my God, and hear the cry and prayer your servant offers before you.

²⁰ May your eyes be open toward this house day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name. Hear the prayer your servant offers toward this place.

²¹ Hear the pleas of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from your dwelling place in heaven; hear and forgive.”

²² “If someone sins against a neighbor and is made to swear an oath, and he comes to swear the oath before your altar in this house,

²³ then hear from heaven, act, and judge your servants. Repay the wicked by bringing his conduct down on his own head, and declare the innocent righteous, giving him what his righteousness deserves.

²⁴ If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn back to you, confess your name, and pray and plead before you in this house,

²⁵ then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave them and their ancestors.

²⁶ If the heavens are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,

²⁷ then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you teach them the good way they should walk. Send rain on your land, which you gave your people as an inheritance.

²⁸ If there is famine in the land, or pestilence, blight, mildew, locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemies besiege them in any of their cities—whatever plague or sickness there may be—

²⁹ when anyone, or all your people Israel, offers any prayer or plea, each recognizing their own plague and pain and spreading out their hands toward this house,

³⁰ then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and give to each person according to all their ways, since you know their heart—for you alone know the hearts of human beings.

³¹ Then they will fear you and walk in your ways all the days they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

³² Also, if a foreigner who is not among your people Israel comes from a distant land because of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm, and prays toward this house,”

³³ “then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do everything the foreigner asks of you. Then all the peoples of the earth will know your name and fear you, as your people Israel do, and they will know that this house I have built bears your name.

³⁴ If your people go out to war against their enemies by the way you send them, and they pray to you toward this city you have chosen and toward the house I have built for your name,

³⁵ then hear their prayer and plea from heaven, and uphold their cause.

³⁶ If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, and their captors take them away to a distant or nearby land,

³⁷ then, if they come to their senses in the land where they were taken captive, turn back, and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,’

³⁸ and if they turn back to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they were taken, and pray toward their land, which you gave their ancestors, toward the city you chose, and toward the house I have built for your name,

³⁹ then hear their prayer and pleas from heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people, who have sinned against you.

⁴⁰ Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer made in this place.

⁴¹ Now arise, LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and may your faithful rejoice in your goodness.

⁴² LORD God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember your steadfast love for David your servant.”

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