1 Kings 8:19-27

¹⁹However, you are not the one who I want to build it. It is one of your sons, who I want to build a temple for me.’

²⁰And now Yahweh has done what he promised to do. I have become the king of Israel to succeed my father, and I am ruling my people, like Yahweh promised. I have arranged for this temple to be built for us Israelis to worship Yahweh, the God, to whom we Israelis belong.

²¹I have also provided a place in the temple for the Sacred Chest in which are the two stone tablets on which are engraved the Ten Commandments of the agreement that Yahweh made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”

²²Then Solomon stood in front of the altar which was facing the Israeli people who had gathered there. He spread out his arms toward heaven,

²³and he prayed, “Yahweh, the God whom we Israeli people belong to/worship, there is no god like you up in heaven or down here on the earth. You solemnly promised that you would faithfully love us. And that is what you have done for us who earnestly do what you want us to do.

²⁴You have done the things that you promised my father David, who served you very well, that you would do. Truly, you promised to do these things for him, and today we see that by your power you have done them.

²⁵So now, Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis belong to/worship, please do the things that you promised my father that you would do. You told him that there would always be some of his descendants who would rule Israel, if they would conduct their lives as he did.

²⁶So now, God of us Israeli people, cause what you promised to do for my father David, who served you well, to happen.

²⁷But God, you cannot really live on the earth. There is surely not enough space for you in the sky, or even in the heaven. So there is surely not enough space for you to live in this temple that my workers have built.