1 Kings 8:41–66

⁴¹Also for the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, and he comes from a distant land because of your name, ⁴²(for they shall hear of your great name and your powerful hand and your outstretched arm), and he shall come and pray toward this house, ⁴³you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel, and to know that your name has been invoked over this house that I have built. ⁴⁴If your people go out to battle against his enemy in the way that you shall send them and they pray to Yahweh, toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name, ⁴⁵then you shall hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and you shall vindicate^t them.

⁴⁶“If they sin against you (for there is not a person who does not sin) and you are angry with them and you give them to an enemy and they take them captive to the land of the enemy far or near, ⁴⁷and then they return their heart in the land where they have been taken captive and they return and plead to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and we did wrong. We acted wickedly,’ ⁴⁸if they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive and they pray to you toward their land which you gave to their ancestors,^u the city that you have chosen and the house that you^v built for your name, ⁴⁹then you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, their prayer and their plea, and you shall vindicate them.^{w 50}You shall forgive your people who sinned against you, even for all their transgressions which they committed against you. You shall give them compassion before their captors so that they may have compassion on them, ⁵¹for they are your people and your inheritance whom you brought from Egypt from the middle of the smelter of iron. ⁵²O, that your eyes may be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, to listen to them in all things when they call to you. ⁵³For you have separated them for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you promised through the hand of Moses your servant when you brought out our ancestors^x from Egypt, my Lord Yahweh!”

Solomon Charges the People Israel

⁵⁴It happened that when Solomon finished praying to Yahweh all of the prayer and this plea, he got up from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling down on his knees with his palms outstretched to heaven. ⁵⁵He stood and blessed all of the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, ⁵⁶“Blessed be Yahweh who gave a resting place to his people Israel. According to all that he promised, not one word has fallen from all of his promises concerning the good which he spoke through the hand of Moses his servant. ⁵⁷May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our ancestors,^y and may he not leave us or abandon us, ⁵⁸to incline our hearts toward him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments which he commanded our ancestors.^{z 59}Let these my words which I pleaded before Yahweh be near to Yahweh our God, by day and by night, to maintain the justice of his servant and the justice of his people Israel as each day requires^{a 60}so that all of the people of the earth may know that Yahweh, he is God; there is none other. ⁶¹Let your heart be completely with Yahweh our God by walking in his statutes, by keeping his commands as this day.”

The Great Confirming Sacrifice

⁶²Then the king and all of Israel with him offered a sacrifice in the presence of Yahweh. ⁶³Solomon sacrificed the fellowship offerings which he offered to Yahweh: twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and the king and all of the Israelites^b dedicated the house of Yahweh. ⁶⁴On that day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard before the house of Yahweh because he offered there the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings because the bronze altar that was in the presence of Yahweh was too small to hold the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings. ⁶⁵Solomon held the festival at that time and all of Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo Hamath up to the wadi^c of Egypt before Yahweh our God, for seven days and seven days, a total of fourteen days. ⁶⁶On the eighth day, he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents rejoicing and in good spirits^d because of all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people.