Kings III 8
Brenton 1851 translation with original translator material, eBible HTML edition
1 And it came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and his own house after twenty years, then king Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel in Sion, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, this is Sion,
2 in the month of Athanin.
3 And the priests took up the ark,
4 and the tabernacle of testimony, and the holy furniture that was in the tabernacle of testimony.
5 And the king and all Israel were occupied before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, without number.
6 And the priests bring in the ark into its place, into the oracle of the house, even into the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubs.
7 For the cherubs *spread out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubs covered the ark and its holy things above.
8 And the †holy staves projected, and the ends of the holy staves appeared out of the holy places in front of the oracle, and were not seen without.
9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which Moses put there in Choreb, which tables the Lord made as a covenant with the children of Israel in their going forth from the land of Egypt.
10 And it came to pass when the priests departed out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house.
11 And the priests could not stand to minister ‡because of the cloud, because the glory of the Lord filled the house.
14 And the king §turned his face, and the king blessed all Israel, (and the whole assembly of Israel stood:)
15 and he said, Blessed be the Lord God **of Israel to-day, who spoke by his mouth concerning David my father, and has fulfilled it with his hands, saying,
16 From the day that I brought out my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any one ††tribe of Israel to build a house, so that my name should be there: but I chose Jerusalem that my name should be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel.
17 And it was ‡‡in the heart of my father to build a house to the name of the Lord God of Israel.
18 And the Lord said to David my father, Forasmuch as it came into thine heart to build a house to my name, thou didst well that it came upon thine heart.
19 Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house, but thy son that has proceeded out of thy §§bowels, he shall build the house to my name.
20 And the Lord has confirmed the word that he spoke, and I am risen up in the place of my father David, and I have sat down on the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke, and I have built the house to the name of the Lord God of Israel.
21 And I have set there a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord, which the Lord made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
22 And Solomon stood up in front of the altar before all the congregation of Israel; and he spread out his hands toward heaven:
23 and he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven above and on the earth beneath, keeping covenant and mercy with thy servant who walks before thee with all his heart;
24 which thou hast kept toward thy servant David my father: for thou hast spoken by thy mouth and thou hast fulfilled it with thine hands, as at this day.
25 And now, O Lord God of Israel, keep for thy servant David my father, the promises which thou hast spoken to him, saying, There shall not be taken from thee a man sitting before me on the throne of Israel, provided only thy children shall take heed to their ways, to walk before me as thou hast walked before me.
26 And now, O Lord God of Israel, let, I pray thee, thy word to David my father be confirmed.
28 Yet, O Lord God of Israel, thou shalt look upon my petition, to hear the prayer which thy servant prays to thee in thy presence this day,
29 that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place of which thou saidst, My name shall be there, to hear the prayer which thy servant prays ‡‡‡at this place day and night.
30 And thou shalt hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall pray toward this place; and thou shalt hear in thy dwelling-place in heaven, and thou shalt do and be gracious.
31 Whatsoever trespasses §§§any one shall commit against his neighbour,—and if he shall take upon him an oath so that he should swear, and he shall come and make confession before thine altar in this house,
32 then shalt thou hear from heaven, and do, and thou shalt judge thy people Israel, that the wicked should be *condemned, to recompense his way upon his head; and to justify the righteous, to give to him according to his righteousness.
33 When thy people Israel falls before enemies, because they shall sin against thee, and they shall return and confess to thy name, and they shall pray and supplicate in this house,
34 then shalt thou hear from heaven, and be gracious to the sins of thy people Israel, and thou shalt restore them to the land which thou gavest to their fathers.
35 When the heaven is restrained, and there is no rain, because they shall sin against thee, and they shall pray toward this place, and shall make confession to thy name, and shall turn from their sins when thou shalt have humbled them,
36 then thou shalt hear from heaven, and be merciful to the sins of thy servant and of thy people Israel; for thou shalt shew them the good way to walk in it, and thou shalt give rain upon the earth which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
38 every prayer, every supplication whatever shall be made by any man, as they shall know each the plague of his heart, and shall spread abroad his hands to this house,
39 then shalt thou hearken from heaven, out of thine established dwelling-place, and shalt be merciful, and shalt do, and recompense to every man according to his ways, as thou shalt know his heart, for thou alone knowest the heart of all the children of men:
40 that they may fear thee all the days that they live upon the land, which thou hast given to our fathers.
41 And for the stranger who is not of thy people,