1 Kings 8:41–66

^41–42“When a foreigner who lives in a distant land hears of your fame and of the great things you have done for your people, and comes to worship you and to pray at this Temple, ⁴³listen to his prayer. In heaven, where you live, hear him and do what he asks you to do, so that all the peoples of the world may know you and obey you, as your people Israel do. Then they will know that this Temple I have built is the place where you are to be worshipped.

⁴⁴“When you command your people to go into battle against their enemies and they pray to you, wherever they are, facing this city which you have chosen and this Temple which I have built for you, ⁴⁵listen to their prayers. Hear them in heaven, and give them victory.

⁴⁶“When your people sin against you—and there is no one who does not sin—and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away, ⁴⁷listen to your people’s prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O Lord. ⁴⁸If in that land they truly and sincerely repent, and pray to you as they face towards this land which you gave to our ancestors, this city which you have chosen, and this Temple which I have built for you, ⁴⁹then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them. ⁵⁰Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness. ⁵¹They are your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt, that blazing furnace.

⁵²“Sovereign Lord, may you always look with favour on your people Israel and their king, and hear their prayer whenever they call to you for help. ⁵³You chose them from all the peoples to be your own people, as you told them through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

The Final Prayer

⁵⁴After Solomon had finished praying to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar, where he had been kneeling with uplifted hands. ⁵⁵In a loud voice he asked God’s blessings on all the people assembled there. He said, ^56*“Praise the Lord who has given his people peace, as he promised he would. He has kept all the generous promises he made through his servant Moses. ⁵⁷May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us, or abandon us; ⁵⁸may he make us obedient to him, so that we will always live as he wants us to live, and keep all the laws and commands he gave our ancestors. ⁵⁹May the Lord our God remember at all times this prayer and these petitions I have made to him. May he always be merciful to the people of Israel and to their king, according to their daily needs. ⁶⁰And so all the nations of the world will know that the Lord alone is God—there is no other. ⁶¹May you, his people, always be faithful to the Lord our God, obeying all his laws and commands, as you do today.”

The Dedication of the Temple

⁶²Then King Solomon and all the people there offered sacrifices to the Lord. ⁶³He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings. And so the king and all the people dedicated the Temple. ⁶⁴That same day he also consecrated the central part of the courtyard, the area in front of the Temple, and then he offered there the sacrifices burnt whole, the grain offerings, and the fat of the animals for the fellowship offerings. He did this because the bronze altar was too small for all these offerings.

⁶⁵There at the Temple, Solomon and all the people of Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters for seven^z days. There was a huge crowd of people from as far away as Hamath Pass in the north and the Egyptian border in the south. ⁶⁶On the eighth day Solomon sent the people home. They all praised him and went home happy because of all the blessings that the Lord had given his servant David and his people Israel.