1 Kings 8
1 Solomon then summoned to Jerusalem all the elders of Israel, all the leaders of the tribes, and the leaders of the clans. He wanted them to join in bringing Yahweh’s Sacred Chest from Zion [Hill to the temple], where it was in the part of the city called ‘The City of David’.
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah out of the city of David, which is Zion.
2 So all the Israeli leaders came to King Solomon during the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters, in October.
And all the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, that is, the seventh month.
3 When they had all arrived, the priests lifted up the Sacred Chest
And all the elders of Israel came; and the priests took up the ark.
4 and brought it to the temple. The descendants of Levi [who assisted the priests] helped them to carry to the temple the Sacred Tent and all the sacred things that had been in the tent.
And they brought up the ark of Jehovah, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent: the priests and the Levites brought them up.
5 Then King Solomon and many of the Israeli people who had gathered in front of Yahweh’s Sacred Chest sacrificed a huge amount of sheep and oxen. No one was able to count the sacrifices [because there were so many].
And king Solomon, and all the assembly of Israel that were assembled to him, [who were] with him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be counted nor numbered for multitude.
6 The the priests then brought the Sacred Chest into the Very Holy Place in the temple, and they placed it under the wings of the [statues of the] winged creatures.
And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah to its place, into the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim;
7 The wings of those statues spread out over the Sacred Chest and over the poles by which it was carried.
for the cherubim stretched forth [their] wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its staves above.
8 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen [by people who were standing] at the entrance to the Most Holy Place, but they could not be seen [by people standing] outside the temple. Those poles are still there.
And the staves were long, so that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the oracle, but they were not seen without. And there they are to this day.
9 The only things that were in the Sacred Chest were the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Sinai [Mountain], where Yahweh made an agreement with the people after they left Egypt.
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses placed there at Horeb, when Jehovah made [a covenant] with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 When the priests came out of the temple, [suddenly] it was filled with a cloud.
And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Jehovah,
11 It was the glory/radiance of Yahweh that filled the temple, with the result that the priests were not able to continue their work.
and the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah.
12 Then Solomon prayed this: “Yahweh, you have placed the sun in the sky, but you have decided that you would live in very dark [clouds].
Then said Solomon: Jehovah said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
13 I have built for you a magnificent temple, a place for you to live in forever.”
I have indeed built a house of habitation for thee, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.
14 Then, while all the people stood there, the king turned around and faced them, and he [asked God to] bless them.
And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel; and the whole congregation of Israel stood.
15 He said, “Praise Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis belong! By his own power he has done what he promised to give to my father David. What he promised was this:
And he said: Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying,
16 ‘From the time that I brought my people out of Egypt, I have never chosen any city in Israel in which a temple should be built for my people to worship me there. But I chose you, David, to rule my people.”
Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; but I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
17 [Then Solomon said], “My father David wanted to build a temple in order that we Israeli people could worship Yahweh our God there.
And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house unto the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
18 But Yahweh said to him, ‘You have wanted to build a temple for me, and what you wanted to do was good.
But Jehovah said to David my father, Whereas it was in thy heart to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thy heart;
19 However, you are not the one [who I want] to build it. It is one of your sons, who [I want to] build a temple for me.’
nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name.
20 And now Yahweh has done what he promised to do. I have become the king of Israel to succeed my father, and I am ruling my people, like Yahweh promised. I have [arranged for] this temple [to be] built for us Israelis to worship Yahweh, the God, to whom we Israelis belong.
And Jehovah has performed his word which he spoke; and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah promised, and I have built the house unto the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
21 I have also provided a place [in the temple] for the Sacred Chest in which are the two stone tablets [on which are engraved the Ten Commandments of] the agreement that Yahweh made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”
And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
22 Then Solomon stood in front of the altar which was facing the Israeli people who had gathered there. He spread out his arms toward heaven,
And Solomon stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward the heavens.
23 and he prayed, “Yahweh, the God whom we Israeli people [belong to/worship], there is no god like you up in heaven or down here 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 he said, Jehovah, God of Israel! there is no God like thee, in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart;
24 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 these things for him, and today we see that by your power you have done them.
who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him; thou spokest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled [it] with thy hand, as at this day.
25 So now, Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [belong to/worship], please do the things that you promised my father that you would do. You told him that there would always be some of his descendants who would rule Israel, if they would conduct their lives as he did.
And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only thy sons take heed to their way, to walk before me as thou hast walked before me.
26 So now, God of us Israeli people, cause what you promised to do for my father David, who served you [well], to happen.
And now, O God of Israel, let thy words, I pray thee, be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David my father.
27 But God, you cannot really live on the earth. 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.
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
28 But Yahweh, my God, please listen to me while I am praying to you this day,
Yet have respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, Jehovah, my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee this day;
29 Please keep protecting this temple night and day. This is the place about which you have said, ‘I will always be there.’ I request that you listen to me whenever I turn toward this temple and pray.
that thine eyes may be open upon this house night and day, upon the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place.
30 I request that when I pray to you and your people pray to you while they turn toward this place, that in your home in heaven you will hear us and forgive us [for the sins that we have committed].
And hearken unto the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou in thy dwelling-place, in the heavens, and when thou hearest, forgive.
31 If someone is accused of doing something wrong to another person, and they bring him to 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 have sinned against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to adjure him, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;
32 then you listen from heaven, and 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 hear thou in the heavens, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head; and justifying the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness.
33 And when your Israeli people are defeated by their enemies [in a battle] because they have sinned against you, [and if they are 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 if they plead [that you will forgive them],
When thy people Israel are put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house;
34 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 hear thou in the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land that thou gavest unto their fathers.
35 And when you do not allow any rain to fall on the land because your people have sinned against you, if they turn toward this temple and admit that you [have justly punished them], if they turn away from their sinful behavior and [humbly] pray to you,
When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, because thou hast afflicted them;
36 listen to them from heaven, and forgive your Israeli people for the sins [that they have committed]. Teach them the right way to conduct their lives. Then send rain on this land that you have given to your people to belong to them [permanently].
then hear thou in the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
37 And when the people of this land experience famines, or if there is a plague/illness that causes many people to become sick, or if [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 be famine in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blight, mildew, locust, caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their gates; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be:
38 when your Israeli people earnestly plead with you knowing that they are suffering because they [have sinned], and if they stretch out their arms toward this temple and pray,
what prayer, what supplication soever be made by any man, of all thy people Israel, when they shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house;
39 listen to them from your home in heaven, and forgive them, and help them. You are the only one who knows what people are thinking, so act toward everyone as they deserve,
then hear thou in the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and do, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men),
40 in order that your people may then have an awesome respect for you, all the years that they live in this land that you gave to our ancestors.
that they may fear thee all the days that they live upon the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
41 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 come here to this temple to worship you and pray,
And as to the stranger also, who is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake
(for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy mighty hand, and of thy stretched-out arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house,
43 in your home in heaven, listen to their prayers, and do for them what they request you to do. Do that so that all the people-groups in the world will know about you and revere you, like we your Israeli people do. And then they will know that this temple that I have [caused to be] built to honor you, is where you [should be worshiped].
hear thou in the heavens thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; in order that all peoples of the earth may know thy name, [and] that they may fear thee as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.
44 And if you send your people to go to fight against 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 for you,
If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray to Jehovah toward the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;
45 listen in heaven to their prayers; listen to what they plead for you to do, and assist them.
then hear thou in the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right.
46 [It 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.
If they have sinned against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not, ) and thou be angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, and they have carried them away captives unto the enemy's land, far or near;
47 If 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,’
and if they shall take it to heart in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done iniquity, we have dealt perversely;
48 if 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,
and if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;
49 then from your home in heaven listen to them while they plead [for your help], and assist them.
then hear thou in the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right;
50 Forgive them for all the sins that they [have committed] against you, and cause their enemies to be kind to them.
and forgive thy people their sin against thee, and all their transgressions whereby they have transgressed against thee, and give them to find compassion with those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them
51 Do 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.
(for they are thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron) —
52 I 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].
thine eyes being open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.
53 You 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.”
For thou hast separated them from among all peoples of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spokest through Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord Jehovah.
54 After 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.
And it was so, that when Solomon had ended praying all this prayer and supplication to Jehovah, he arose from before the altar of Jehovah, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth to the heavens,
55 Then he [asked God to] bless all the Israeli people. [He prayed] loudly, saying,
and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice, 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].
Blessed be Jehovah, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there has not failed one word of all his good promises which he spoke through Moses his servant!
57 I pray that our God will be with us like he was with our ancestors, and that he will never abandon us.
Jehovah our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; let him not forsake us nor cast us off:
58 I 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.
that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.
59 I 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.
And let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Jehovah, be nigh to Jehovah our God day and night, that he maintain the right of his servant, and the right of his people Israel, as the matter of each day shall require;
60 If 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.
that all peoples of the earth may know that Jehovah is God, that there is none else;
61 I 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.”
and that your heart may be perfect with Jehovah our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
62 Then the king and all the Israeli people who were there offered sacrifices to Yahweh.
And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifices before Jehovah.
63 They sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep to maintain fellowship with Yahweh. Then the king and all the people dedicated the temple.
And Solomon sacrificed a sacrifice of peace-offerings, which he sacrificed to Jehovah, twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Jehovah.
64 On that day, the king also dedicated/set apart the middle part of the courtyard that was in front of the temple. Then he offered sacrifices that would be completely burned [in the courtyard], the offerings of grain and the fat of the animals that were sacrificed to maintain fellowship with Yahweh. They sacrificed them there because the bronze altar was not big enough for all those sacrifices to be burned on it [that day].
The same day the king hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of Jehovah; for there he offered the burnt-offerings, and the oblations, and the fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar that was before Jehovah was too small to receive the burnt-offerings, and the oblations, and the fat of the peace-offerings.
65 Then Solomon and all the Israeli people celebrated the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters for seven days. There was a huge crowd of people there, some of whom had come from [distant places like] Hamath [in the far north] and the border of Egypt [in the far south].
And at that time Solomon held the feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath unto the torrent of Egypt, before Jehovah our God, seven days and seven days, fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day, Solomon sent the people to their homes. They all praised him and went home happy because of all the things that Yahweh had done to bless [King] David and his Israeli people.
On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that Jehovah had done to David his servant, and to Israel his people.
