Kings III

42 when they shall come and pray toward this place,

43 then shalt thou hear them from heaven, out of thine established dwelling-place, and thou shalt do according to all that the stranger shall call upon thee for, that all the nations may know thy name, and fear thee, as do thy people Israel, and may know that thy name has been called on this house which I have builded.

44 If it be that thy people shall go forth to war against their enemies in the way by which thou shalt turn them, and pray in the name of the Lord §toward the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built to thy name,

45 then shalt thou hear from heaven their supplication and their prayer, and shalt execute judgment for them.

46 If it be that they shall sin against thee, (for there is not a man who will not sin,) and thou shalt bring them and deliver them up before their enemies, and they that take them captive shall carry them to a land far or near,

47 and they shall turn their hearts in the land whither they have been carried captives, and turn in the land of their sojourning, and supplicate thee, saying, We have sinned, we have done unjustly, we have transgressed,

48 and they shall turn to thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies whither thou hast carried them captives, and shall pray to thee toward their land which thou hast given to their fathers, and the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built to thy name:

49 then shalt thou hear from heaven thine established dwelling-place,

50 and thou shalt be merciful to their unrighteousness wherein they have trespassed against thee, and according to all their transgressions wherewith they have transgressed against thee, and thou shalt **cause them to be pitied before them that carried them captives, and they shall have compassion on them:

51 for they are thy people and thine inheritance, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, out of the midst of the furnace of iron.

52 And let thine eyes and thine ears be opened to the supplication of thy servant, and to the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken to them in all things for which they shall call upon thee.

53 Because thou hast set them apart for an inheritance to thyself out of all the nations of the earth, as thou spokest by the hand of thy servant Moses, when thou broughtest our fathers out of the land of Egypt, ††O Lord God.—

53a Then spoke Solomon concerning the house, when he had finished building it—He manifested the sun in the heaven: the Lord said he would dwell in darkness: build thou my house, a beautiful house for thyself to dwell in anew. Behold, is not this written in the book of the song?

54 And it came to pass when Solomon had finished praying to the Lord all this prayer and supplication, that he rose up from before the altar of the Lord, after having knelt upon his knees, and his hands were spread out towards heaven.

55 And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

56 Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he said: there has not failed one word among all his good words which he spoke by the hand of his servant Moses.

57 May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; let him not desert us nor turn from us,

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

59 And let these words, ‡‡which I have prayed before the Lord our God, be §§near to the Lord our God day and night, to maintain the cause of thy servant, and the cause of thy people Israel ***for ever.

60 That all the nations of the earth may know that the Lord God, he is God, and there is none beside.

61 And let our hearts be perfect toward the Lord our God, to walk also holily in his ordinances, and to keep his commandments, †††as at this day.

62 And the king and all the children of Israel offered sacrifice before the Lord.

63 And king Solomon offered for the sacrifices of peace-offering which he sacrificed to the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: and the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

64 In that day the king consecrated the middle of the court in the front of the house of the Lord; for there he offered the whole-burnt-offering, and the sacrifices, and the ‡‡‡fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar which was before the Lord was too little to bear the whole-burnt-offering and the sacrifices of peace-offerings.

65 And Solomon kept the feast in that day, and all Israel with him, even a great assembly from the entering in of Hemath to the river of Egypt, before the Lord our God in the house which he built, eating and drinking, and rejoicing before the Lord our God seven days.

66 And on the eighth day he sent away the people: and they blessed the king, and each departed to his §§§tabernacle rejoicing, and their heart was glad because of the good things which the Lord had done to his servant David, and to Israel his people.