2 Chronicles / Solomon's Prayer of Dedication and God's Assurance

Solomon's Prayer of Dedication and God's Assurance

2 Chronicles 6:12-42

Chapter 6

¹² And he stood before the altar of the LORD in front of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. ¹³ For Solomon had made a bronze laver, and he placed it in the midst of the court—five cubits its length, five cubits its width, and three cubits its height. And he stood on it and knelt before all the assembly of Israel and spread his hands to the heavens. ¹⁴ He said, “LORD, God of Israel, there is none like you, O Lord, in the heavens or on the earth, who keeps the covenant and the steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart.” ¹⁵ which you kept for your servant David my father, what you spoke to him; you spoke with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled it as on this day. ¹⁶ Now, LORD God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised him, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man from before me to sit on the throne of Israel, only if your sons keep their way to walk in my Torah as you have walked before me.' ¹⁷ And now, LORD God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you spoke to your servant David. ¹⁸ For indeed, will God dwell with humanity on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heavens of heavens cannot contain you, even this house which I have built. ¹⁹ Turn to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hear the ringing cry and the prayer that your servant is praying before you. ²⁰ for your eyes being open toward this house day and night, toward the place which you said to put your name there, to hear the prayer which your servant will pray toward this place. ²¹ Hear the supplications of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from the place of your dwelling in the heavens, hear, and forgive. ²² If a man sins against his neighbor and one lifts an oath against him, and the oath comes before your altar in this house. ²³ And you will hear from the heavens and do and judge your servants, to return to the wicked, to give his way on his head, and to justify the righteous, to give to him according to his righteousness. ²⁴ And if your people Israel is struck down before an enemy because they sin against you, and they return and give thanks to your name and pray and make supplication before you in this house. ²⁵ Then you, hear from the heavens and forgive the sin of your people Israel and restore them to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers. ²⁶ When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place and give thanks to your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them. ²⁷ And you, hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you teach them the good way in which they will walk, and you grant rain on your land which you gave to your people as inheritance. ²⁸ Famine, if it is in the land; pestilence, if it is; blight and mildew, locust and grasshopper, if they are; if their enemies press them in the land, at their gates; every plague and every disease. ²⁹ Every prayer, every supplication that will be made by all humanity and by all your people Israel, which they will know—each man the plague and pain in his own heart—and he spreads his hands toward this house. ³⁰ And you will hear from heaven, the established place of your dwelling, and you will forgive and grant to man according to all his ways, whose heart you know, for you alone know the heart of the sons of man. ³¹ that they may fear you, to walk in your ways all the days that they live on the face of the ground which you have given to our fathers. ³² And also to the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, when he comes from a distant land for the sake of your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm, and he comes and prays to this house. ³³ Hear from heaven, from the place of your dwelling, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as your people Israel do, and know that your name has been called upon this house that I have built. ³⁴ When your people go out to war against their enemies by the way you send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name. ³⁵ and you will hear from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and you will do their justice. ³⁶ for they sin against you—for there is no human who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them before enemy and their captors return them to land far or near. ³⁷ and they come to their senses in the land where they were taken captive, and they return and supplicate to you in the land of their captivity, saying, "We have sinned, we have acted perversely, and we have done wickedly." ³⁸ and if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and if they pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you chose and the house which I built for your name. ³⁹ And you will hear from the heavens, from the divine dwelling place where you sit, their prayer and their pleadings, and you will do their justice, and you will forgive your people who sinned against you. ⁴⁰ Now, my God, let your eyes be open, please, and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place. ⁴¹ And now arise, LORD God, to your rest—you and the ark of your strength. Your priests, LORD God, will clothe themselves with salvation, and your faithful will rejoice in good. ⁴² LORD God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one; remember the steadfast loves of David your servant.