1 Kings 8:23-65

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.

²⁸But Yahweh, my God, please listen to me while I am praying to you this day,

²⁹Please keep protecting this temple night and day. This is the place about which you have said, ‘I will always be there.’ I request that you listen to me whenever I turn toward this temple and pray.

³⁰I request that when I pray to you and your people pray to you while they turn toward this place, that in your home in heaven you will hear us and forgive us for the sins that we have committed.

³¹If someone is accused of doing something wrong to another person, and they bring him to your altar outside this holy temple, and if he says, ‘I did not do that; may God punish me if I am not telling the truth,’

³²then you listen from heaven, and decide who is telling the truth. Then punish the person who is guilty as he deserves to be punished, and declare that the other person is innocent.

³³And when your Israeli people are defeated by their enemies in a battle because they have sinned against you, and if they are forced to go to some distant country, if they turn away from their sinful behavior and turn toward this temple and admit that you have justly punished them, and if they plead that you will forgive them,

³⁴listen to them from heaven, and forgive your Israeli people for the sins that they have committed, and bring them back to this land that you gave to our ancestors.

³⁵And when you do not allow any rain to fall on the land because your people have sinned against you, if they turn toward this temple and admit that you have justly punished them, if they turn away from their sinful behavior and humbly pray to you,

³⁶listen to them from heaven, and forgive your Israeli people for the sins that they have committed. Teach them the right way to conduct their lives. Then send rain on this land that you have given to your people to belong to them permanently.

³⁷And when the people of this land experience famines, or if there is a plague/illness that causes many people to become sick, or if their crops are destroyed by very hot winds or by mildew or by locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies surround any of their cities in order to attack them, if any of those bad things happen to them,

³⁸when your Israeli people earnestly plead with you knowing that they are suffering because they have sinned, and if they stretch out their arms toward this temple and pray,

³⁹listen to them from your home in heaven, and forgive them, and help them. You are the only one who knows what people are thinking, so act toward everyonee as they deserve,

⁴⁰in order that your people may then have an awesome respect for you, all the years that they live in this land that you gave to our ancestors.

⁴¹There will be some foreigners who do not belong to your Israeli people who have come here from countries far away because they have heard that you are very great and that you perform great miracles. If they come here to this temple to worship you and pray,

⁴³in your home in heaven, listen to their prayers, and do for them what they request you to do. Do that so that all the people-groups in the world will know about you and revere you, like we your Israeli people do. And then they will know that this temple that I have caused to be built to honor you, is where you should be worshiped.

⁴⁴And if you send your people to go to fight against their enemies, if they pray to you, wherever they are, if they turn toward this city that you have chosen and toward this temple that I have caused to be built for you,

⁴⁵listen in heaven to their prayers; listen to what they plead for you to do, and assist them.

⁴⁶It is true that everyone sins. So, if your people sin against you, and you become angry with them, you may allow their enemies to defeat them and capture them and take them away to their enemies' country, even to countries that are far away.

⁴⁷If that happens, while they are in those countries to which they were forced to go, if they sincerely repent and plead with you there saying ‘We have sinned and have done things that are very wicked,’

⁴⁸if they very sincerely repent, and turn toward this land that you gave to our ancestors, and toward this city that you have chosen to be the place where we should worship you, and toward this temple that I have caused to be built for you, and if they pray,

⁴⁹then from your home in heaven listen to them while they plead for your help, and assist them.

⁵⁰Forgive them for all the sins that they have committed against you, and cause their enemies to be kind to them.

⁵¹Do not forget that the Israelis are your people; they are your special possession; you brought our ancestors out of Egypt where they were greatly suffering as though they were in a blazing furnace.

⁵²I request that you always listen to your Israeli people and to me, their king, and heed their prayers whenever they call out to you to help them.

⁵³You chose them from all the other people-groups in the world to belong to you, which is what you told Moses to tell them when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

⁵⁴After Solomon had finished praying and pleading to Yahweh for his help, he stood up in front of the altar where he had been kneeling. He lifted up his arms.

⁵⁵Then he asked God to bless all the Israeli people. He prayed loudly, saying,

⁵⁶“Praise Yahweh, who has given us his people peace, like he promised that he would do. He has done every one of the good things that he promised to Moses, the man who served him very well.

⁵⁷I pray that our God will be with us like he was with our ancestors, and that he will never abandon us.

⁵⁸I pray that he will cause us to loyally serve him, to conduct our lives as he wants us to, and to obey all his commandments and statutes and laws that he gave to our ancestors.

⁵⁹I pray that Yahweh our God will never forget these words that I have prayed, pleading for his help; I pray that he will think about them by day and by night. I pray that he will always help us Israeli people and me, giving us the things that we need day by day.

⁶⁰If he does that, all the people-groups in the world will know that he is the only one who is God, and that there is no other one who is God.

⁶¹I pray that you, his people, will always be fully committed to Yahweh, and that you will obey all his statutes and commands, like you are doing now.”

⁶²Then the king and all the Israeli people who were there offered sacrifices to Yahweh.

⁶³They sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep to maintain fellowship with Yahweh. Then the king and all the people dedicated the temple.

⁶⁴On that day, the king also dedicated/set apart the middle part of the courtyard that was in front of the temple. Then he offered sacrifices that would be completely burned in the courtyard, the offerings of grain and the fat of the animals that were sacrificed to maintain fellowship with Yahweh. They sacrificed them there because the bronze altar was not big enough for all those sacrifices to be burned on it that day.

⁶⁵Then Solomon and all the Israeli people celebrated the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters for seven days. There was a huge crowd of people there, some of whom had come from distant places like Hamath in the far north and the border of Egypt in the far south.