1 Kings 8:43-62

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.

⁵⁸May he help us to come to him, to follow all his ways and to keep the commandments, statutes, and regulations he ordered our forefathers to observe.

⁵⁹May these words of mine I have used to make my request in the Lord's presence be before the Lord our God day and night. In that way he may support the cause of his servant and of his people Israel as is needed every day,

⁶⁰in order that everyone on the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is no other!

⁶¹So make sure you are completely committed to the Lord our God just as you are today, and be careful to follow his statutes and to keep his commandments.”

⁶²Then the king and together with all of Israel offered sacrifices before the Lord.