[an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Then Solomon prayed, “O LORD, you have said that you would live in a thick cloud of darkness. |
2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Now I have built a glorious Temple for you, a place where you can live forever!” |
3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Then the king turned around to the entire community of Israel standing before him and gave this blessing: |
4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4“Praise the LORD, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. For he told my father, |
5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5‘From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have never chosen a city among any of the tribes of Israel as the place where a Temple should be built to honor my name. Nor have I chosen a king to lead my people Israel. |
6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6But now I have chosen Jerusalem as the place for my name to be honored, and I have chosen David to be king over my people Israel.’” |
7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7Then Solomon said, “My father, David, wanted to build this Temple to honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. |
8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8But the LORD told him, ‘You wanted to build the Temple to honor my name. Your intention is good, |
9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9but you are not the one to do it. One of your own sons will build the Temple to honor me.’ |
10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10“And now the LORD has fulfilled the promise he made, for I have become king in my father’s place, and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised. I have built this Temple to honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. |
11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11There I have placed the Ark, which contains the covenant that the LORD made with the people of Israel.” Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication |
12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire community of Israel, and he lifted his hands in prayer. |
13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13Now Solomon had made a bronze platform 7 1/2 feet long, 7 1/2 feet wide, and 4 1/2 feet high and had placed it at the center of the Temple’s outer courtyard. He stood on the platform, and then he knelt in front of the entire community of Israel and lifted his hands toward heaven. |
14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14He prayed, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. |
15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today. |
16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16“And now, O LORD, God of Israel, carry out the additional promise you made to your servant David, my father. For you said to him, ‘If your descendants guard their behavior and faithfully follow my Law as you have done, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’ |
17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17Now, O LORD, God of Israel, fulfill this promise to your servant David. |
18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18“But will God really live on earth among people? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! |
19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you. |
20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20May you watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have said you would put your name. May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. |
21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive. |
22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22“If someone wrongs another person and is required to take an oath of innocence in front of your altar at this Temple, |
23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23then hear from heaven and judge between your servants—the accuser and the accused. Pay back the guilty as they deserve. Acquit the innocent because of their innocence. |
24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24“If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn back and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, |
25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave to them and to their ancestors. |
26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26“If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and if they pray toward this Temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them, |
27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path, and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession. |
28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28“If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is— |
29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29and if your people Israel pray about their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple, |
30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart. |
31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors. |
32[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 32“In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands when they hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, |
33[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 33then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name. |
34[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 34“If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to you by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name, |
35[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 35then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause. |
36[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 36“If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far away or near. |
37[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 37But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’ |
38[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 38If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their captivity and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name— |
39[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 39then hear their prayers and their petitions from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. |
40[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 40“O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place. |
41[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 41“And now arise, O LORD God, and enter your resting place, along with the Ark, the symbol of your power. May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation; may your loyal servants rejoice in your goodness. |
42[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 42O LORD God, do not reject the king you have anointed. Remember your unfailing love for your servant David.” |
[an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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