1 Kings 8
All 66 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.
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- 1Solomon called together all the elders of Israel, every tribal leader, and every head of the ancestral families to meet with him in Jerusalem. His purpose was to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the city of David, which is Zion.
- 2All the men of Israel gathered before King Solomon for the festival in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
- 3When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests took up the ark.
- 4They brought up the ark of the LORD, the Tent of Meeting, and all the sacred items that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites carried everything up.
- 5King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel gathered in front of the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that no one could count them all.
- 6The priests carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its designated place inside the inner sanctuary of the temple — the most holy place — and set it beneath the wings of the cherubim.
- 7The cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, covering the ark and its poles above.
- 8The poles were long enough that their ends could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they couldn't be seen from outside. They remain there to this day.
- 9There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
- 10When the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD.
- 11The priests couldn't continue their duties because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.
- 12Then Solomon declared, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness."
- 13I have surely built you a house to live in, a permanent place for you to dwell forever.
- 14Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel as they stood before him.
- 15He said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hand, saying,
- 16'From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I never chose a city from any tribe of Israel as the place to build a house for my name. But I did choose David to rule over my people Israel.'
- 17My father David had his heart set on building a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
- 18But the LORD told my father David, 'It was good that your heart wanted to build a house for my name.
- 19However, you are not the one who will build it. Your own son will be the one to build the house for my name.'
- 20The LORD has kept his word. I have taken my father David's place and now sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised. And I have built this house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
- 21I have prepared a place in it for the ark, which holds the covenant the LORD made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt."
- 22Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire assembly of Israel and stretched out his hands toward heaven.
- 23He prayed, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep your covenant and show mercy to your servants who walk before you with all their heart.
- 24You have kept the promise you made to your servant David, my father. What you spoke with your own mouth, you have fulfilled with your own hand — and today we see it.
- 25Now, LORD God of Israel, keep the promise you made to my father David when you said, 'You will never lack a descendant to sit on the throne of Israel, as long as your sons are careful to walk before me the way you have walked before me.'
- 26So now, God of Israel, please let the word you spoke to your servant David my father prove true.
- 27But will God really live on earth? The heavens — even the highest heavens — cannot contain you. How much less this house I have built!
- 28Yet please pay attention to the prayer of your servant and his plea, LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying before you today.
- 29May your eyes be open toward this house night and day — this place where you said, 'My name shall be there' — so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.
- 30Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
- 31When someone sins against their neighbor and is required to take an oath, and they come and swear before your altar in this house,
- 32then hear in heaven and act. Judge your servants by condemning the wicked, bringing his way upon his head, and justifying the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness.
- 33When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and then they turn back to you, confess your name, and pray and plead with you in this house,
- 34then hear from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors.
- 35When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them,
- 36then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people as their inheritance.
- 37When famine strikes the land, or plague, or crop disease, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars — or when enemies lay siege to any of their cities — whatever disaster or sickness comes,
- 38whatever prayer or plea is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, each knowing the plague of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this house,
- 39then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, act, and give to each person according to his ways, since you know his heart. For you alone know the hearts of all the children of men.
- 40Do this so that they will fear you for as long as they live in the land you gave our ancestors.
- 41As for the foreigner who is not part of your people Israel but comes from a distant land because of your name —
- 42(for they will hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm) — when he comes and prays toward this house,
- 43hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you. Do this so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, just as your people Israel do, and so they may know that this house I have built bears your name.
- 44When your people go out to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and they pray to the LORD toward this city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name,
- 45then hear their prayer and their plea from heaven, and uphold their cause.
- 46When they sin against you — and there is no one who does not sin — and you become angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, who carries them away as captives to the land of the enemy, whether far away or nearby,
- 47and if they come to their senses in the land of their captivity, and they repent and plead with you there, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,'
- 48and if they return to you with all their heart and all their soul while in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and they pray toward this land you gave their ancestors, toward this city you have chosen, and toward this house I have built for your name,
- 49then hear their prayer and their plea from heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause.
- 50Forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you, and cause their captors to show them compassion.
- 51For they are your people, your own inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace.
- 52May your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they cry out to you.
- 53For you set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your own inheritance, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O LORD God.
- 54When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and plea to the LORD, he rose from where he had been kneeling before the altar of the LORD, his hands stretched out toward heaven.
- 55He stood and blessed the entire assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying,
- 56Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not a single word of all the good promises he made through his servant Moses has failed.
- 57May the LORD our God be with us, just as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us or abandon us.
- 58May he turn our hearts toward him, so that we walk in all his ways and keep his commands, his statutes, and his judgments that he gave our ancestors.
- 59May these words of mine, which I have prayed before the LORD, stay close to the LORD our God day and night, so that he upholds the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel — whatever each day requires.
- 60May this happen so that all the peoples of the earth will know that the LORD is God, and there is no other.
- 61So let your heart be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, just as you are doing today.
- 62Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD.
- 63Solomon offered peace offerings to the LORD: 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this way, the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
- 64That same day, the king consecrated the center of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD. He offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings there, because the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fat of the peace offerings.
- 65Solomon held the festival at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the river of Egypt. They celebrated before the LORD our God for seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days.
- 66On the eighth day, he sent the people away. They blessed the king and went to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant and for Israel his people.