2 Chronicles 6
1 Then Solomon said, “Yahweh, you said that you would live in a dark cloud.
Then said Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in thick darkness.
2 But now I have built a glorious temple for you to live in forever!”
But I have built a house to your name, holy to you, and prepared [for you] to dwell in for ever.
3 Then while all the people stood there, Solomon turned toward the people and he [asked God to] bless them.
And the king turned his face, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood by.
4 He said to them, “Praise Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong, who has caused to happen what he promised to my father David. What he said to David was this:
And he said, Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel: he has even fulfilled with his hands as he spoke with his mouth to my father David, saying,
5 ‘From the time that I brought my people out of Egypt, I have never chosen a city in Israel in which a temple should be built for people to [worship] me there. Nor did I choose anyone to be the leader of my Israeli people.
From the day when I brought up my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city of all the tribes of Israel, to build a house that my name should be there; neither did I choose a man to be a leader over my people Israel.
6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem to be the place for people to worship me, and I have chosen you to rule my Israeli people.’”
But I chose Jerusalem that my name should be there; and I chose David to be over my people Israel.
7 [Then Solomon said], “My father David wanted to build a temple for Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong.
And it came into the heart of David my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel.
8 But Yahweh said to him, ‘You have wanted to build a temple for me, and what you wanted to do was good.
But the Lord said to my father David, Whereas it came into your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it came into your heart.
9 However, you are not the one who I want to build the temple; it is one of your own sons who [I want to] build a temple for me.’
Nevertheless you shall not build the house; for your son who shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the house for my name.
10 “And Yahweh has done what he promised to do. I have become the king of Israel to succeed my father, and I am ruling the people, like Yahweh promised, and I have arranged for this temple to be built for us to worship Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelis belong.
And the Lord has confirmed this word, which he spoke; and I am raised up in the room of my father David, and I sit upon the throne of Israel as the Lord said, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord God of Israel:
11 I have put the Sacred Chest in the temple, in which are the stone tablets [on which are engraved the Ten Commandments of] the agreement that Yahweh made with us Israeli people.”
and I have set there the ark in which [is] the covenant of the Lord, which he made with Israel.
12 Then Solomon stood in front of the altar which was in front of the people of Israel who had gathered there.
And he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands.
13 His workers had built a bronze platform there [for him to stand on], which was 7-1/2 feet long and 7-1/2 feet wide and 4-1/2 feet high. They put it in the outer courtyard. Solomon stood on that platform and then knelt down in front of all the people of Israel who had gathered there, and he spread out his arms toward heaven,
For Solomon [had] made a brazen scaffold, and set it in the midst of the court of the sanctuary; the length of it [was] five cubits, and the breadth of it five cubits, and the height of it three cubits: and he stood upon it, and fell upon his knees before the whole congregation of Israel, and spread abroad his hands to heaven,
14 and he prayed, “Yahweh, the God to whom we Israeli people belong, there is no God like you in heaven or on the earth. You solemnly promised that you would faithfully love us, and that is what you have done for us who earnestly do what you want us to do.
and said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven, or on the earth; keeping covenant and mercy with your servants that walk before you with [their] whole heart.
15 “You have done the things that you promised my father David, who served you [very well], that you would do. Truly, you promised to do those things for him, and today we see that by your power you have caused it all to happen.
Even as you have kept [them] with your servant David my father, as you have spoken to him in words: —you have both spoken with your mouth, and have fulfilled [it] with your hands, as it is this day.
16 “So now, Yahweh, the God we Israelis belong to, please do the things that you promised to my father David that you would do. You said that there would always be some of his descendants to rule Israel, if they faithfully conduct their lives as he did.
and now, Lord God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father the things which you spoke to him, saying, There shall not fail you a man before me sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons will take heed to their way to walk in my law, as you did walk before me.
17 So now, God of us Israeli people, cause what you promised David, who served you [well], to happen.
And now, Lord God of Israel, let, I pray you, your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David.
18 “But, my God, will you really live on earth among people? There is surely not enough space for you in the sky, or even in the heaven! So there is surely not enough space for you to live in this temple that my workers have built.
For will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? if the heaven and the heaven of heavens will not suffice you, what then is this house which I have built?
19 But Yahweh, my God, please listen to my prayer, while I am pleading with you this day and do what I am requesting.
Yet you shall have respect to the prayer of your servant, and to my petition, O Lord God, so as to listen to the petition and the prayer which your servant prays before you this day:
20 Please protect this temple day and night. This is the place about which you have said, ‘I will always be there.’ Please listen to my prayer about this place.
so that your eyes should be open over this house by day and by night, towards this place, whereon you said your name should be called, so as to hear the prayer which your servant prays towards this house.
21 Listen to me when I pray, and listen to your Israeli people when they pray. Listen from heaven, where you live; and when you hear us pray, forgive us.
And you shall hear the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, whatever prayers they shall make towards this place: and you shall listen in your dwelling-place out of heaven, yes you shall hear, and be merciful.
22 “If someone is accused of doing something wrong to another person, and they bring him to testify in front of your altar outside this holy temple, and if he says, ‘I did not do that; may God punish me if I am not telling the truth,’
If a man sin against his neighbour, and he bring an oath upon him so as to make him swear, and he come and swear before the altar in this house;
23 then you listen from heaven, and you decide who is telling the truth. Then punish the person who is guilty as he deserves to be punished, and declare that the other person is innocent.
then shall you listen out of heaven, and do, and judge your servants, to recompense the transgressor, and to return his ways upon his head: and to justify the righteous, to recompense him according to his righteousness.
24 “And when your Israeli people are defeated by their enemies because they sinned against you, [and forced to go to some distant country, ] if they turn away from their sinful behavior and turn toward this temple and admit [that] you [have justly punished them], and plead [that you will forgive them],
And if your people Israel should be put to the worse before the enemy, if they should sin against you, and [then] turn and confess to your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house;
25 listen to them from heaven and forgive your Israeli people for the sins that they [have committed], and bring them back to this land that you gave to our ancestors.
then shall you listen out of heaven and shall be merciful to the sins of your people Israel, and you shall restore them to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.
26 “When you do not allow any rain to fall because your people have sinned against you, if they turn toward this temple and admit [that] you [have justly punished them], and turn away from their sinful behavior and humbly pray to you,
When heaven is restrained, and there is no rain, because they shall have sinned against you, and [when] they shall pray towards this place, and praise your name, and shall turn from their sins, because you shall afflict them;
27 hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your Israeli people. Teach them the right way to conduct their lives. Then cause it to rain here on the land that you gave to your people to belong to them [permanently].
then shall you listen from heaven, and you shall be merciful to the sins of your servants, and of your people Israel; for you shall show them the good way in which they shall walk; and you shall send rain upon your land, which you gave to your people for an inheritance.
28 “And when the people of this land experience famines or if there is a plague, or when their crops are destroyed by very hot winds or by mildew or by locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies surround any of their cities [in order to attack them], if any of those bad things happen to them,
If there should be famine upon the land, if there should be death, a pestilent wind an blight; if there should be locust and caterpiller, and if the enemy should harass them before their cities: in whatever plague and whatever distress [they may be];
29 when your Israeli people earnestly plead with you, knowing in their inner beings that they are suffering [because they have sinned], if they stretch out their hands toward this temple and pray,
Then whatever prayer and whatever supplication shall be made by any man and all your people Israel, if a man should know his own plague and his own sickness, and should spread forth his hands towards this house;
30 hear from your home in heaven, and forgive them. You alone know what each person is thinking, so reward each person according to everything that he does,
then shall you hear from heaven, out of your prepared dwelling-place, and shall be merciful, and shall recompense to the man according to his ways, as you shall know his heart [to be]; for you alone know the heart of the children of men:
31 in order that they will revere you and conduct their lives as you want them to, all the time that they live in this land that you gave to our ancestors.
that they may reverence all your ways all the days which they live upon the face of the land, which you gave to our fathers.
32 “There will be some foreigners who do not belong to your Israeli people who have come here from countries far away because they have heard that you are very great and that you perform great miracles. If they turn toward this temple and pray,
And every stranger who is not himself of your people Israel, and who shall have come from a distant land because of your great name, and your mighty hand, and your high arm; when they shall come and worship towards this place; —
33 from your home in heaven listen to their prayer, and do for them what they request you to do. Do that in order that all the people-groups in the world will know about you and revere you, like we, your own Israeli people do. And then they will know that this is the temple that I have caused to be built for you.
then shall you listen out of heaven, out of your prepared dwelling-place, and shall do according to all that the stranger shall call upon you for; that all the nations of the earth may know your name, and that they may fear you, as your people Israel [do], and that they may know that your name is called upon this house which I have built.
34 “When you send your people to go to places to attack their enemies, if they pray to you, wherever they are, if they turn toward this city that you have chosen and toward this temple that I have caused to be built to honor you,
And if your people shall go forth to war against their enemies by the way by which you shall send them, and shall pray to you towards this city which you have chosen, and [towards] the house which I have built to your name;
35 listen in heaven to their prayers; listen to what they plead for you [to do], and assist them.
then shall you hear out of heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
36 [“It is true that] everyone sins. So, when your people sin against you, and you become angry with them, you may allow their enemies to capture them and take them to their countries, even to countries that are far away.
Whereas if they shall sin against you, (for there is no man who will not sin, ) and you shall strike them, and deliver them up before their enemies, and they that take them captive shall carry them away into a land of enemies, to a land far off or near;
37 When that happens, while they are in the countries to which they were forced to go, if they are sorry for having sinned, if they say, ‘We have sinned; we have done things that are wrong and have done things that are very wicked,’
and [if] they shall repent in their land whither they were carried captive, and shall also turn and make supplication to you in their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have transgressed, we have wrought unrighteously;
38 if they repent very sincerely, and if they 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 pray,
and [if] they shall turn to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of them that carried them captives, whither they carried them captives, and shall pray towards their land which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you did choose, and the house which I built to your name: —
39 then from your home in heaven hear their prayer, and listen to them while they plead [for your help], and do what they ask you to do, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.
then shall you hear out of heaven, out of your prepared dwelling-place, their prayer and their supplication, and you shall execute justice, and shall be merciful to your people that sin against you.
40 “Now, my God, look at us and listen to us as we pray to you in this place.
And now, Lord, let, I pray you, your eyes be opened, and your ears be attentive to the petition [made in] this place.
41 Yahweh our God, come and stay in this place with the Sacred Chest, the chest that shows that you are powerful. Yahweh God, cause your priests to know clearly that you have blessed them. Cause us your people to rejoice because of all the good things [that you do for us].
And now, O Lord God, arise into your resting-place, you, and the ark of your strength: let your priests, O Lord God, clothe themselves with salvation, and your sons rejoice in prosperity.
42 Yahweh God, do not reject me [the king] whom you have appointed [to be the king of Israel]; do not forget that you greatly loved David, who served you [very well].”
O Lord God, turn not away the face of your anointed: remember the mercies of your servant David.
