Solomon's Prayer of Dedication and God's Assurance
2 Chronicles 6:12-42
12He stood before the altar of the LORD before all the assembly of Israel and spread out his palms.13Solomon had made a bronze basin and had placed it in the midst of the enclosure; its length was five cubits, its width five cubits, and its height three cubits. He stood upon it, knelt upon his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his palms toward heaven.14He said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, keeping the covenant and the kindness for your servants who walk before you with all their heart."15You have kept for your servant David my father what you spoke to him; you spoke with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand this day.16Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you spoke to him, saying, 'No man of yours shall be cut off from before me so as to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons keep their way by walking in my instruction as you have walked before me.'17Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, let the word that you spoke to your servant David be faithful.18But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot sustain you; how much less this house that I have built!19Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant offers before you.20Let your eyes be open toward this house day and night, toward the place of which you have said that you would set your name there, to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.21Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; and hear from the place of your dwelling from heaven; hear and forgive.22If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath comes before your altar in this house,23then hear from heaven, act, and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.24When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn back, confess your name, pray, and plead before you in this house,25then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.26When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them,27Then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, and show them the good way in which they should walk, and give rain upon your land that you gave to your people for an inheritance.28If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight and mildew, locust and caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their gates; whatever plague and whatever sickness there may be;29Whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing his own plague and his own pain and spreading out his palms toward this house,30Then hear from heaven, the foundation of your dwelling, and forgive, and give to the man according to all his ways, whose heart you alone know, for you alone know the heart of the sons of man.31so that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live on the land that you gave to our ancestors.32And also to the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a distant land because of your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm, and comes and prays toward this house,33Then hear from heaven, the foundation of your dwelling, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the land may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel do, and to know that your name is called upon this house that I have built.34If your people go out to battle against their enemies by whatever 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,35then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause.36If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them over to an enemy, so that their captors carry them away to a land far or near,37Yet if they return to their heart in the land where they are taken captive, and turn back and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and have perverted and have acted wickedly,'38If they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity to which they were taken captive, and pray toward their land that you gave to their fathers, and toward the city that you have chosen, and toward the house that I have built for your name,39Then hear from heaven, the foundation of your dwelling, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.40Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.41Now arise, O LORD God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your pious ones rejoice in the good.42O LORD God, do not reject your anointed; remember your steadfast love for David your servant.