1 Kings 8:37-58

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.