1 Kings 8:38-57

³⁸then whatever kind of prayer or whatever kind of appeal is made by anyone or all your people Israel, in fact anyone who, knowing their problems and pains, prays toward this Temple,

³⁹then hear from heaven, the place where you live, and forgive. Give according to the way they live their lives, for you know what people are really like inside, and you alone know the true character of people.

⁴⁰Then they will respect you and follow your ways all the time they live in the land you gave to our forefathers.

⁴¹As for the foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel but who come from a distant land,

⁴²having heard of your great nature and power and ability to help, when they come and pray toward this Temple,

⁴³then hear from heaven, the place where you live, and give them what they're asking. That way, everyone on earth will come to know and respect you, just as your own people Israel do. They will also know that this Temple I have built is dedicated to you.

⁴⁴When your people go to fight against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to you towards the city you have chosen and the house I have built to honor you,

⁴⁵then hear from heaven what they are praying and asking for, and support their cause.

⁴⁶If they sin against you—and there is nobody who does not sin—you may become angry with them and hand them over to an enemy who takes them away as prisoners to a foreign land, near or far away.

⁴⁷But if they think again in their land of captivity and repent and plead for mercy from you, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,’

⁴⁸and they come back to you with complete sincerity in their thoughts and attitudes there in their land of captivity; and they pray towards the land you gave their forefathers, the city you chose, and the Temple I have built to honor you,

⁴⁹then hear from heaven, the place where you live, respond and support their cause.

⁵⁰Forgive your people who have sinned against you, all the rebellious acts they have committed against you. Please make those who have captured them show mercy to them.

⁵¹For they are your people—they belong to you! You led them out of Egypt, out of the middle of furnace used for smelting iron.

⁵²May you pay attention to the requests of your servant, and to the requests of your people Israel, and may you respond whenever they call out to you.

⁵³For you set them apart from all the nations of the world as a people who belonged to you, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you led our fathers out of Egypt.”

⁵⁴After Solomon finished praying all these prayers and requests to the Lord, he stood up before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands held out toward heaven.

⁵⁵Solomon stood, and in a loud voice he blessed the whole assembly of Israel, saying,

⁵⁶“Praise the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel in accordance with everything he promised. Not a single word has failed among all the good promises he made through his servant Moses.

⁵⁷May the Lord our God be with us in the same way he was with our forefathers. May he never leave us or abandon us.