2 Chronicles 4–6

Furnishings of the Temple

⁴He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.^{* 2}Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would encircle it completely.^{* 3}Under it were figures of bulls all around, each of ten cubits, surrounding the sea; there were two rows of bulls, cast when it was cast.^{* 4}It stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; the sea was set on them. The hindquarters of each were toward the inside. ⁵Its thickness was a handbreadth; its rim was made like the rim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held three thousand baths.^{l* 6}He also made ten basins in which to wash and set five on the right side and five on the left. In these they were to rinse what was used for the burnt offering. The sea was for the priests to wash in.^*

⁷He made ten golden lampstands as prescribed and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.^{* 8}He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred basins of gold.^{* 9}He made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court; he overlaid their doors with bronze.^{* 10}He set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.^*

¹¹And Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. Thus Huram finished the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of God:^{* 12}the two pillars, the bowls, and the two capitals on the top of the pillars; and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;^{* 13}the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.^{* 14}He made the stands, the basins on the stands,^{* 15}the one sea, and the twelve bulls underneath it. ¹⁶The pots, the shovels, the forks, and all the equipment for these Huram-abi made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.^{* 17}In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.^{* 18}Solomon made all these things in great quantities, so that the weight of the bronze was not determined.^*

¹⁹So Solomon made all the things that were in the house of God: the golden altar, the tables for the bread of the Presence,^{* 20}the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn before the inner sanctuary, as prescribed;^{* 21}the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of purest gold; ²²the snuffers, basins, ladles, and firepans, of pure gold. As for the entrance to the temple: the inner doors to the most holy place and the doors of the main hall of the temple were of gold.

⁵Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.^*

The Ark Brought into the Temple

²Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.^{* 3}And all the Israelites assembled before the king at the festival that is in the seventh month. ⁴And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites carried the ark.^{* 5}So they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁶King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be numbered or counted. ⁷Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. ⁹The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place^m in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day.^{* 10}There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenantⁿ with the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.^*

¹¹Now when the priests came out of the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to their divisions),^{* 12}all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kindred, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with one hundred twenty priests who were trumpeters.^{* 13}It was the duty of the trumpeters and singers together to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,

“For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever,”

the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,^{* 14}so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.^*

Dedication of the Temple

⁶Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would reside in thick darkness.^{* 2}I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell forever.”

³Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. ⁴And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying, ⁵‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, so that my name might be there, and I chose no one as ruler over my people Israel, ⁶but I have chosen Jerusalem in order that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’^{* 7}My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.^{* 8}But the Lord said to my father David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name; ⁹nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ ¹⁰Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made, for I have succeeded my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹¹There I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”^*

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

¹²Then Solomon^o stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.^{* 13}Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.^{* 14}He said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and steadfast love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart^*—¹⁵you who have kept for your servant, my father David, what you promised to him. Indeed, you promised with your mouth and this day have fulfilled with your hand.^{* 16}Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children keep to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’^{* 17}Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed that you promised to your servant David.

¹⁸“But will God indeed dwell with mortals on earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!^{* 19}Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you. ²⁰May your eyes be open day and night toward this house, the place where you promised to set your name, and may you heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. ²¹And hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; may you hear from heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive.^*

²²“If someone sins against a neighbor and is required to take an oath and comes and swears before your altar in this house,^{* 23}may you hear from heaven, and act, and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing their conduct on their own heads and vindicating the righteous by rewarding them according to their righteousness.

²⁴“When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house,^{* 25}then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.

²⁶“When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you and then they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin because you punish them,^{* 27}then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

²⁸“If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in any of the settlements of the lands; whatever suffering, whatever sickness there is;^{* 29}whatever prayer, whatever plea there is from any individual or from all your people Israel, all knowing their own suffering and their own sorrows so that they stretch out their hands toward this house; ^30…