1 Kings 8:38-57

³⁸What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, of all thy people Israel, when they shall be conscious every man of the plague of his own heart, and he then spread forth his hands toward this house:

³⁹Then do thou hear in heaven the place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and act, and give to every man in accordance with all his ways, as thou mayest know his heart; for thou, thyself alone, knowest the heart of all the children of men;

⁴⁰In order that they may fear thee all the days that they live on the face of the land which thou hast given unto our fathers.

⁴¹But also to the stranger, who is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far-off country for the sake of thy name;

⁴²For they will hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy outstretched arm; when he will come and pray at this house:

⁴³Mayest thou listen in heaven the place of thy dwelling, and do according to all that the stranger will call on thee for; in order that all the nations of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may understand that this house, which I have built, is called by thy name.

⁴⁴If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, on the way on which thou mayest send them, and they do pray unto the Lord in the direction of the city which thou hast chosen, and of the house that I have built for thy name:

⁴⁵Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and procure them justice.

⁴⁶If they sin against thee, for there is no man that may not sin, and thou be angry with them, and give them up before the enemy, so that their captors carry them away captive unto the land of the enemy, be it far or near;

⁴⁷And if they then take it to their heart in the land whither they have been carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captors, saying, We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly;

⁴⁸And they return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, who have led them away captive, and they pray unto thee in the direction of their land, which thou hast given unto their fathers, of the city which thou hast chosen, and of the house which I have built for thy name:

⁴⁹Then hear thou in heaven the place of thy dwelling their prayer and their supplication, and procure them justice;

⁵⁰And forgive thy people for what they have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions whereby they have transgressed against thee, and cause them to find mercy before their captors, that they may have mercy on them;

⁵¹For they are thy people, and thy heritage, whom thou hast brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace;

⁵²That thy eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to listen unto them in all for which they call unto thee;

⁵³For thou hast separated them unto thee as a heritage from all the people of the earth, as thou spokest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest forth our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord Eternal.

⁵⁴And it happened, that, when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord from kneeling on his knees, with his hands spread out toward heaven.

⁵⁵And he stood up, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

⁵⁶Blessed be the Lord, who hath given rest unto his people Israel, in accordance with all that he hath spoken: so that there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he spoke by the hand of Moses his servant.

⁵⁷The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; oh may he not leave us, nor forsake us;