Solomon's Prayer of Dedication

2 Chronicles 6

12 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 13 x Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits 1 long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. y Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, 14 and said, "O Lord, God of Israel, z there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, a keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, 15 b who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. 16 Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, c 'You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, d if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.' 17 Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David.

18 "But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, e heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! 19 Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, 20 f that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. 21 And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, g and when you hear, forgive.

22 "If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, 23 then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

24 "If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, 25 g then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers.

26 h "When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict 2 them, 27 g then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way 3 in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

28 i "If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemies besiege them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, 29 whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands toward this house, 30 g then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways, j for you, you only, know the hearts of the children of mankind, 31 that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers.

32 "Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, 33 hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house k that I have built is called by your name.

34 "If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.

36 "If they sin against you - l for there is no one who does not sin - and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, 37 yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,' 38 if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 39 then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. 40 Now, O my God, m let your eyes be open n and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.

41 "And now arise, O Lord God, and go to your o resting place,
you and the ark of your might.
Let your priests, O Lord God, be p clothed with salvation,
and let your saints q rejoice in your goodness.
 42 O Lord God, r do not turn away the face of your anointed one!
s Remember your steadfast love for David your servant."

  1. Cross References
    2 Kings 11:14
    And when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, "Treason! Treason!
    2 Kings 23:3
    And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.
  2. Cross References
    1 Kings 8:54
    Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven.
  3. Cross References
    Exodus 15:11
    Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
  4. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 7:9
    Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.
  5. Cross References
    1 Chronicles 22:9 - 10
    Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.
  6. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 7:18
    Then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, 'You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.
    1 Kings 2:4
    That the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.
  7. Cross References
    Psalms 132:12
    If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.
  8. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 2:6
    But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?
  9. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 6:40
    Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.
  10. Cross References
    Daniel 9:19
    O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.
  11. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 6:21
    And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
  12. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 7:13
    When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people.
    1 Kings 17:1
    Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.
  13. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 6:21
    And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
  14. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 20:9
    'If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you - for your name is in this house - and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.'
  15. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 6:21
    And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
  16. Cross References
    1 Samuel 16:7
    But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
  17. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 7:14
    If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
    James 2:7
    Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
  18. Cross References
    Ecclesiastes 7:20
    Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
    James 3:2
    For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
    1 John 1:8
    If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
  19. Cross References
    Nehemiah 1:6
    Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned.
    Nehemiah 1:11
    O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Now I was cupbearer to the king.
    2 Chronicles 6:20
    That your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.
    2 Chronicles 7:15
    Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
  20. Cross References
    Psalms 130:2
    O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
  21. Cross References
    Psalms 132:8 - 9
    Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
    1 Chronicles 28:2
    Then King David rose to his feet and said: "Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building.
  22. Cross References
    Isaiah 61:10
    I will greatly rejoice in the Lord ; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
  23. Cross References
    2 Chronicles 7:10
    On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the prosperity that the Lord had granted to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.
    Nehemiah 9:25
    And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
  24. Cross References
    Psalms 132:10
    For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.
  25. Cross References
    Psalms 132:1
    Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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