1 Kings 8:23-47

²³And said: Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven above, or on earth beneath: who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that have walked before thee with all their heart.

²⁴Who hast kept with thy servant David my father what thou hast promised him: with thy mouth thou didst speak, and with thy hands thou hast performed, as this day proveth.

²⁵Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father what thou hast spoken to him, saying: There shall not be taken away of thee a man in my sight, to sit on the throne of Israel: yet so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked in my sight.

²⁶And now, Lord God of Israel, let thy words be established, which thou hast spoken to thy servant David my father.

²⁷Is it then to be thought that God should indeed dwell upon earth? for if heaven, and the heavens of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built?

²⁸But have regard to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, O Lord my God: hear the hymn and the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee this day:

²⁹That thy eyes may be open upon this house night and day: upon the house of which thou hast said: My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth in this place to thee.

³⁰That thou mayest hearken to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, whatsoever they shall pray for in this place, and hear them in the place of thy dwelling in heaven; and when thou hearest, shew them mercy.

³¹If any man trespass against his neighbour, and have an oath upon him, wherewith he is bound: and come because of the oath before thy altar to thy house,

³²Then hear thou in heaven: and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, and bringing his way upon his own head, and justifying the just, and rewarding him according to his justice.

³³If thy people Israel shall fly before their enemies, (because they will sin against thee,) and doing penance, and confessing to thy name, shall come, and pray, and make supplications to thee in this house:

³⁴Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them back to the land which thou gavest to their fathers.

³⁵If heaven shall be shut up, and there shall be no rain, because of their sins, and they praying in this place, shall do penance to thy name, and shall be converted from their sins, by occasion of their afflictions:

³⁶Then hear thou them in heaven, and forgive the sins of thy servants, and of thy people Israel: and shew them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people in possession.

³⁷If a famine arise in the land, or a pestilence, or corrupt air, or blasting, or locust, or mildew, if their enemy afflict them besieging the gates, whatsoever plague, whatsoever infirmity,

³⁸Whatsoever curse or imprecation shall happen to any man of thy people Israel: when a man shall know the wound of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands in this house,

³⁹Then hear thou in heaven, in the place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and do so as to give to every one according to his ways, as thou shalt see his heart (for thou only knowest the heart of all the children of men)

⁴⁰That they may fear thee all the days that they live upon the face of the land, which thou hast given to our fathers.

⁴¹Moreover also the stranger, who is not of thy people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for thy name’s sake, (for they shall hear everywhere of thy great name and thy mighty hand,

⁴²And thy stretched out arm,) so when he shall come, and shall pray in this place,

⁴³Then hear thou in heaven, in the firmament of thy dwelling place, and do all those things, for which that stranger shall call upon thee: that all the people of the earth may learn to fear thy name, as do thy people Israel, and may prove that thy name is called upon on this house, which I have built.

⁴⁴If thy people go out to war against their enemies, by what way soever thou shalt send them, they shall pray to thee towards the way of the city, which thou hast chosen, and towards the house, which I have built to thy name:

⁴⁵And then hear thou in heaven their prayers, and their supplications, and do judgment for them.

⁴⁶But if they sin against thee (for there is no man who sinneth not) and thou being angry deliver them up to their enemies, so that they be led away captives into the land of their enemies far or near;

⁴⁷Then if they do penance in their heart in the place of captivity, and being converted make supplication to thee in their captivity, saying: We have sinned, we have done unjustly, we have committed wickedness: