2 Chronicles 6 Then Solomon said, The Lord said he would dwell in thick darkness.

Thomson⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Then Solomon said, The Lord said he would dwell in thick darkness. ² Now I have built a house for thy name, dedicated to thee, and furnished for thy everlasting habitation. ³ Then the king turned his face and blessed all the congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel stood. ⁴ Then the king said, Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel! With his hand he hath compleated what with his mouth he spoke to my father David, saying, ⁵ From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I did not make choice of any city among all the tribes of Israel for a house to be built, that my name might be there; nor did I chuse a man to be ruler over my people Israel. ⁶ But now I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there, and I have made choice of David to be over my people Israel. ⁷ Yet when it came into my father David's heart to build a house to the name of the Lord God of Israel, ⁸ the Lord said to my father David, Forasmuch as it came into thy heart to build a house for my name, thou hast done well that it was in thy heart. ⁹ But thou shalt not build the house. For thy son who shall spring from thy loins, even he shall build the house for my name. ¹⁰ Now the Lord hath performed this word which he spoke. I have been raised up in the room of my father David, and am seated on the throne of Israel, as the Lord hath spoken; and I have built the house for the name of the Lord God of Israel, ¹¹ and placed therein the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which he made with Israel. ¹² Then he took his station on one side over against the altar and facing all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands; ¹³ For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold and placed it in the midst of the court of the sanctuary. The length of it was five cubits and its breadth five cubits, and its height three cubits. So he took his station on that, and kneeling down on his knees before all two congregation of Israel, be stretched forth his hands to heaven ¹⁴ and said, Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and shewing mercy to thy servants, who walk before thee with a perfect heart. ¹⁵ Thou hast kept with thy servant David, my father, that which thon didst speak to him. What with thy mouth thou didst speak, thou with thy hand hast performed as at this day. ¹⁶ Now therefore, Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast spoken to him, saying, There shall not fail thee from before me a man sitting on the throne of Israel, provided thy sons take heed to their way to walk in my law as thou hast walked before me. ¹⁷ Now, therefore, Lord God of Israel, let thy word, I beseech thee, which thou hast spoken to thy servant David, be confirmed, that it shall be so. ¹⁸ Will God indeed dwell with man on the earth! If the heaven, and the heaven of heaven, will not contain thee, what then is this house which I have built? ¹⁹ Yet thou wilt look upon the prayer of thy servant, even this supplication of mine that thou, Lord God, mayst hearken to the supplication and the prayer which thy servant maketh before thee this day, ²⁰ that thine eyes may be open on this house day and night; on this place where thou hast ordered thy name to be invoked, that thou mayst hearken to the prayer which thy servant prayeth towards this place. ²¹ Thou indeed wilt hearken to the prayer of thy servant and of thy people Israel. Whatever they pray towards this place, thou indeed wilt listen in the place of thy habitation from heaven, and wilt hear and be merciful. ²² If any man sin against his neighbour, and take upon him a curse to be cursed, and come and swear before this altar in this house, ²³ thou indeed wilt hearken from heaven, and act and judge thy servants by retributing to the wicked and requiting his ways upon his head, by justifying the righteous, and recompensing him according to his righteousness. ²⁴ And if thy people Israel be discomfited before the enemy, though they have sinned against thee, yet when they return and confess to thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house; ²⁵ thou indeed wilt hear from heaven and pardon the sins of thy people Israel, and bring them back to the land which thou hast given to them and their fathers. ²⁶ And when the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee; yet when they pray towards this place and praise thy name, and turn from their sins because thou hast humbled them; ²⁷ thou indeed wilt hear from heaven and pardon the sins of thy servants and of thy people Israel; for thou wilt shew them the good way in which they are to walk, and wilt send rain on this thy land which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. ²⁸ If there be famine in the land, if there be pestilence, blasting or mildew; or if there be locusts of any kind; or if their enemy before their gates afflict them; whatever the stroke, whatever the affliction may be, and in consequence thereof, ²⁹ whatever may be the prayer and whatever the supplication which may be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel; when a man shall know his own sore, or his own affliction, and shall spread forth his hands towards this house; ³⁰ thou indeed wilt hear from heaven, from thy settled abode, and be merciful, and wilt render to every one according to his ways, as thou knowest his heart; [for thou alone knowest the hearts of the children of men] ³¹ that they may revere all thy ways, all the days which they may live in the land which thou hast given our fathers. ³² And with regard to every stranger who is not of thy people Israel, but who may have come from a distant land, on account of thy great name, and thy mighty hand, and thy out stretched arm, when they come and pray towards this place; ³³ thou indeed wilt hear from heaven; from thy settled abode, and wilt do according to all for which the stranger calleth on thee, that all the tribes of the earth may know thy name, and that they, like thy people Israel, may fear thee, and know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. ³⁴ And when thy people shall go forth to war against their enemies in the way which thou shalt send them, and shall pray to thee towards this city which thou hast chosen, and towards this house which I have built to thy name; ³⁵ thou indeed wilt hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. ³⁶ When they shall sin against thee [for there is no man who may not sin] and thou shalt smite them, and deliver them up before the face of their enemies, and they who captivate them shall carry them away captives to an enemy's country, far off or near home; ³⁷ when they change their heart in the land to which they have been removed, and return and supplicate thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have transgressed, we have done wickedly; ³⁸ and turn to thee with their whole heart, and their whole soul, in the land of those who have captivated them, whithersoever they may have carried them captives; when they shall pray towards their land which thou gavest to their fathers, and towards this city which thou hast chosen, and this house which I have built for thy name: ³⁹ thou, from heaven, from thy settled abode, wilt hear their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and be reconciled to thy people who have sinned against thee. ⁴⁰ And now, Lord, let thine eyes, I beseech thee, be open and thine ears attentive to the prayer made in this place. ⁴¹ And, now, arise, Lord God, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and thy children made glad with good things. ⁴² Turn not away, Lord God, the face of thine anointed. Remember the mercies of David thy servant.