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¹So all the work Solomon did for the LORD’s temple was completed. Then Solomon brought the consecrated things of his father David — the silver, the gold, and all the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of God’s temple.

²At that time Solomon assembled at Jerusalem the elders of Israel — all the tribal heads, the ancestral chiefs of the Israelites — in order to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the city of David, that is, Zion.

³So all the men of Israel were assembled in the king’s presence at the festival; this was in the seventh month.

⁴All the elders of Israel came, and the Levites picked up the ark.

⁵They brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and the holy utensils that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up.

⁶King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who had gathered around him were in front of the ark sacrificing sheep, goats, and cattle that could not be counted or numbered because there were so many.

⁷The priests brought the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

⁸And the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark so that the cherubim formed a cover above the ark and its poles.

⁹The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside; they are still there today.

¹⁰Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had put in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

¹¹Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. When the priests came out of the holy place,

¹²the Levitical singers dressed in fine linen and carrying cymbals, harps, and lyres were standing east of the altar, and with them were 120 priests blowing trumpets. The Levitical singers were descendants of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun and their sons and relatives.

¹³The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They raised their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD: For he is good; his faithful love endures forever. The temple, the LORD’s temple, was filled with a cloud.

¹⁴And because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the LORD filled God’s temple.

¹Then Solomon said: The LORD said he would dwell in total darkness,

²but I have built an exalted temple for you, a place for your residence forever.

³Then the king turned and blessed the entire congregation of Israel while they were standing.

⁴He said: Blessed be the LORD God of Israel! He spoke directly to my father David, and he has fulfilled the promise by his power. He said,

⁵“Since the day I brought my people Israel out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city to build a temple in among any of the tribes of Israel, so that my name would be there, and I have not chosen a man to be ruler over my people Israel.

⁶But I have chosen Jerusalem so that my name will be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.”

⁷My father David had his heart set on building a temple for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁸However, the LORD said to my father David, “Since it was your desire to build a temple for my name, you have done well to have this desire.

⁹Yet, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own offspring, will build the temple for my name.”

¹⁰So the LORD has fulfilled what he promised. I have taken the place of my father David and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the temple for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹¹I have put the ark there, where the LORD’s covenant is that he made with the Israelites.

¹²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire congregation of Israel and spread out his hands.

¹³For 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.

¹⁴He said: LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, who keeps his gracious covenant with your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

¹⁵You have kept what you promised to your servant, my father David. You spoke directly to him, and you fulfilled your promise by your power, as it is today.

¹⁶Therefore, LORD God of Israel, keep what you promised to your servant, my father David: “You will never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their way to walk in my Law as you have walked before me.”

¹⁷Now, LORD God of Israel, please confirm what you promised to your servant David.

¹⁸But will God indeed live on earth with humans? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.

¹⁹Listen to your servant’s prayer and his petition, LORD my God, so that you may hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you,

²⁰so that your eyes watch over this temple day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name; and so that you may hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

²¹Hear the petitions of your servant and your people Israel, which they pray toward this place. May you hear in your dwelling place in heaven. May you hear and forgive.

²²If a man sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath and he comes to take an oath before your altar in this temple,

²³may 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.

²⁴If 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,

²⁵may you hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. May you restore them to the land you gave them and their ancestors.

²⁶When the skies are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they turn from their sins because you are afflicting them,

²⁷may 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.

²⁸When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, when their enemies besiege them in the land and its cities, when there is any plague or illness,

²⁹every prayer or petition that any person or that all your people Israel may have — they each know their own affliction and suffering — as they spread out their hands toward this temple,

³⁰may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and may you forgive and give to everyone according to all their ways, since you know each heart, for you alone know the human heart,

³¹so that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days they live on the land you gave our ancestors.

³²Even for the foreigner who is not of your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your strong hand and outstretched arm: when he comes and prays toward this temple,

³³may you hear in heaven in your dwelling place, and do all the foreigner asks you. Then all the peoples of the earth will know your name, to fear you as your people Israel do and know that this temple I have built bears your name.

³⁴When 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,

³⁵may you hear their prayer and petition in heaven and uphold their cause.

³⁶When 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,

³⁷and when they come to their senses in the land where they were deported and repent and petition you in their captors’ land, saying: “We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,”

³⁸and when they return to you with all their mind and all their 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,

³⁹may you hear their prayer and petitions in heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause. May you forgive your people who sinned against you.

⁴⁰Now, my God, please let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

⁴¹Now therefore: Arise, LORD God, come to your resting place, you and your powerful ark. May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and may your faithful people rejoice in goodness.

⁴²LORD God, do not reject your anointed one; remember the promises to your servant David.

¹When Solomon finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

²The priests were not able to enter the LORD’s temple because the glory of the LORD filled the temple of the LORD.

³All 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.

⁴The king and all the people were offering sacrifices in the LORD’s presence.

⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep and goats. In this manner the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple.

⁶The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made to give thanks to 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.

⁷Since the bronze altar that Solomon had made could not accommodate the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the fellowship offerings, Solomon first consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the LORD’s temple and then offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings there.

⁸So 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.

⁹On the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for the dedication of the altar lasted seven days and the festival seven days.

¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people home, rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.

¹¹So 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.

¹²Then 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.

¹³If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people,

¹⁴and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

¹⁵My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place.

¹⁶And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

¹⁷As 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,

¹⁸I will establish your royal throne, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man ruling in Israel.

¹⁹However, if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,

²⁰then 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.

²¹As 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?

²²Then they will say: Because they abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, he brought all this ruin on them.