1 Kings 8:46-62

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.