1Kgs 8
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 pass. part. spread out with their wings spread out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubs
covered the ark
and its holy things above.
8
And the Heb. staffs holy staffs projected, and the ends of the holy staffs 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 Or, before the cloud because of the cloud, because the glory of the Lord filled
the house.
12
13
14
And the king Gr. «turned away,’ but probably not from the people 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 Gr. in Israel; Hebraism 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 Gr. staff 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 Gr. upon 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, Seeing that as it came into your heart to build
a house to my name, you did well that it came upon your heart.
19
Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son that has proceeded out of
your Gr. sides 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 you in heaven above and on the
earth beneath, keeping covenant and mercy with your servant who walks before you with
all his heart;
24
which you have kept toward your servant David my father: for you have spoken by your
mouth and you have fulfilled it with your hands, as at this day.
25
And now, O Lord God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father, the promises
which you have spoken to him, saying, There shall not be taken from you a man sitting
before me on the throne of Israel, provided only your children shall take heed to
their ways, to walk before me as you have walked before me.
26
And now, O Lord God of Israel, let, I pray you, your word to David my father be confirmed.
27
Gr. «that,’ elliptical expression But will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? if the heaven and heaven of Gr. heaven
heavens will not suffice you, how much less even this house which I have built to
your name?
28
Yet, O Lord God of Israel, you shall look upon my petition, to hear the prayer which
your servant prays to you in your presence this day,
29
that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place
which you said, My name shall be there, to hear the prayer which your servant prays
Or, toward at this place day and night.
30
And you shall hearken to the prayer of your servant, and of your people Israel, which
they shall pray toward this place; and you shall hear in your dwelling-place in heaven,
and you shall do and be gracious.
31
Whatever trespasses Gr. each any one shall commit against his neighbor, —and if he shall take upon him an oath
so that he should swear, and he shall come and make confession before your altar in
this house,
32
then shall you hear from heaven, and do, and you shall judge your people Israel, that
the wicked should be Or, considered wicked or lawless condemned, to recompense his way upon his head; and to justify the righteous,
to
give to him according to his righteousness.
33
When your people Israel falls before enemies, because they shall sin against you,
and they shall return and confess to your name, and they shall pray and supplicate
in this house,
34
then shall you hear from heaven, and be gracious to the sins of your people Israel,
and you shall restore them to the land which you gave to their fathers.
35
When the heaven is restrained, and there is no rain, because they shall sin against
you, and the shall pray toward this place, and they shall make confession to your
name, and shall turn from their sins when you shall have humbled them,
36
then you shall hear from heaven, and be merciful to the sins of your servant and of
your people Israel; for you shall shew them the good way to walk in it, and you shall
give rain upon the earth which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
37
If there should be famine, if there should be death, because there should be blasting,
locust, or if there be mildew, and if Gr. his their enemy oppress them in any one of their cities, with regard to every Gr.
incident or occurrence calamity, every trouble,
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 shall you hearken from heaven, out of your established dwelling-place, and shall
be merciful, and shall do, and recompense to every man according to his ways, as you
shall know his heart, for you alone know the heart of all the children of men:
40
that they may fear you all the days that they live upon the land, which you have given
to our fathers.
41
And for the stranger who is not of your people,
42
when they shall come and pray toward this place,
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then shall you hear them from heaven, out of your established dwelling-place, and
you shall do according to all that the stranger shall call upon you for, that all
the nations may know your name, and fear you, as do your people Israel, and may know
that your name has been called on this house which I have built.
44
If it be that your people shall go forth to war against their enemies in the way by
which you shall turn them, and pray in the name of the Lord Gr. by way of toward the city which you have chosen, and the house
which I have built to your name,
45
then shall you hear from heaven their supplication and their prayer, and shall execute
judgement for them.
46
If it be that they shall sin against you, (for there is not a man who will not sin,)
and you shall 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 where they have been carried captives,
and turn in the land of their sojourning, and supplicate you, saying, We have sinned,
we have done unjustly, we have transgressed,
48
and they shall turn to you with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land
of their enemies where you have carried them captives, and shall pray to you toward
their land which you have given to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen,
and the house which I have built to your name:
49
then shall you hear from heaven your established dwelling-place,
50
and you shall be merciful to their unrighteousness wherein they have trespassed against
you, and according to all their transgressions wherewith they have transgressed against
you, and you shall Gr. give them to compassions cause them to be pitied before them that carried them captives, and they shall
have
compassion on them:
51
for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of the land of
Egypt, out of the midst of the furnace of iron.
52
And let your eyes and your ears be opened to the supplication of your servant, and
to the supplication of your people Israel, to hearken to them in all things for which
they shall call upon you.
53
Because you have set them apart for an inheritance to yourself out of all the nations
of the earth, as you spokest by the hand of your servant Moses, when you brought our
fathers out of the land of Egypt, Gr. Lord, Lord, i. e. according to the Heb. Lord YHWH O Lord God.—(8:53AA) 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 you my house,
a beautiful house for yourself 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,
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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, Gr. as which I have prayed before the Lord our God, be Gr. approaching near to the Lord our God day and
night, to maintain the cause of your servant, and
the cause of your people Israel Gr. a thing, or word of a day in a day of a year; But Alex. reads hmera autou, which
agrees with the Heb. 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, Gr. as this day is 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, and 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 Gr. fats 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 Gr. tabernacles 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.