Study Desk

So Yahweh has fulfilled what He promised. I have taken the place of my father David and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised. I have built the temple for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

For Solomon had made a bronze platform 7½ feet long, 7½ feet wide, and 4½ feet high and put it in the court. He stood on it, knelt down in front of the entire congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.

may You hear in heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing what he has done on his own head and providing justice for the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and praise Your name, and they pray and plead for mercy before You in this temple,

may You hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way they should walk in. May You send rain on Your land that You gave Your people for an inheritance.

may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and may You forgive and repay the man according to all his ways, since You know his heart, for You alone know the human heart,

Even for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm: when he comes and prays toward this temple,

When Your people go out to fight against their enemies, wherever You send them, and they pray to You in the direction of this city You have chosen and the temple that I have built for Your name,

When they sin against You— for there is no one who does not sin— and You are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, and their captors deport them to a distant or nearby country,

and when they return to You with their whole mind and heart in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive, and when they pray in the direction of their land that You gave their ancestors, and the city You have chosen, and toward the temple I have built for Your name,

All the Israelites were watching when the fire descended and the glory of the Lord came on the temple. They bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and praised the Lord : For He is good, for His faithful love endures forever.

The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the Lord , which King David had made to praise the Lord —"for His faithful love endures forever"—when he offered praise with them. Across from the Levites, the priests were blowing trumpets, and all the people were standing.

So Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly, from the entrance to Hamath to the Brook of Egypt—observed the festival at that time for seven days.

On the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for the dedication of the altar lasted seven days and the festival seven days.

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

So Solomon finished the Lord 's temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon's heart to do for the Lord 's temple and for his own palace succeeded.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple of sacrifice.

As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,

then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for My name I will banish from My presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

As for this temple, which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will say: Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?