¹Then Solomon convened the elders of Israel – all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the paternal families of the sons of Israel – to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David, which is Zion. ²So every head man of Israel was convened to King Solomon in the month of Ethanim at the festival time – that is in the seventh month. ³So all the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark. ⁴And they brought the ark of the Lord up, and the tent of contact, and all the holy equipment which was in the tent. And it was the priests and Levites who brought it up. ⁵Then King Solomon, and the whole congregation of Israel which was assembled with him, sacrificed with him before the ark sheep and oxen which could not be numbered and could not be counted for abundance. ⁶And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place – to the place of address of the house, to the holy of holies – under the wings of the cherubim, ⁷for the cherubim stretch out their wings towards the place of the ark, and the cherubim cover the ark and its staves from above. ⁸And they extended the staves such that the ends of the staves were visible from the sanctuary in front of the place of address, but they were not visible outside. And they have been there up to this day. ⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets which Moses deposited there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰Then it came to pass when the priests came out of the sanctuary that a cloud filled the house of the Lord. ¹¹And the priests could not stand to serve because of the cloud, because the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. ¹²Then Solomon said,

“The Lord said that he would dwell

In thick clouds.

¹³I have conscientiously built

A dwelling place for you

– An age-abiding abode

For you to reside in.”

¹⁴Then the king turned round and blessed the whole convocation of Israel, and the whole convocation of Israel was standing ¹⁵as he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who spoke by his own mouth with David my father, and who accomplished it, when he said, ¹⁶‘From the day when I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I did not select a city from any of the tribes of Israel to build a house for my name to be there, but I chose David to be over my people Israel.’ ¹⁷And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁸But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Inasmuch as it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well, for it was in your heart. ¹⁹However, it is not you who will build the house, but rather your son who will come from your loins who will build the house for my name.’ ²⁰And the Lord fulfilled his word which he had spoken, and I arose in the place of David my father, and I sat on the throne of Israel, as the Lord had said, and I built the house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. ²¹And I laid out a place for the ark there, where the covenant of the Lord is, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.” ²²And Solomon stood before the Lord's altar opposite the whole convocation of Israel, and he stretched out his hands towards heaven, ²³and he said, “O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on the earth below – you who keep the covenant and kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart – ²⁴in that what you said to your servant – David my father – you kept for him, for you spoke with your mouth, and you have accomplished it, as it is today. ²⁵So now, O Lord God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you said to him when you said, ‘No-one of your line sitting on the throne of Israel will be cut off before me, provided your sons keep their way by walking before me, as you have walked before me.’ ²⁶And now, O God of Israel, please may your words which you spoke to your servant David my father be upheld. ²⁷For will God truly dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, so how much less this house which I have built? ²⁸But you have considered the prayer of your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, in hearing the shout and the prayer which your servant is praying before you today, ²⁹that your eyes may be open night and day to this house – to this place of which you said, ‘My name will be there’ – so as to hear the prayer which your servant will pray facing this place. ³⁰And do hear the supplication of your servant and your people Israel, who will pray facing this place, and do hear in the place where you are seated, in the heavens, so do hear and forgive. ³¹Whenever a man sins against his neighbour, and an oath is imposed on him, so as to adjure him, and the oath comes before your altar in this house, ³²then hear in heaven and take action, and judge your servants, in condemning the wicked, in bringing his way back on his head, and in justifying the righteous, in rewarding him according to his righteousness. ³³When your people Israel are struck down in confrontation with an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they return to you and confess your name, and they pray and make supplications to you in this house, ³⁴then do hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back into the land which you gave to their fathers. ³⁵When the heavens are shut, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, then they will pray facing this place, and they will confess your name, and they will turn back from their sin when you oppress them. ³⁶And do hear in heaven, and do forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, then do teach them the right way in which they should walk, and do give rain on your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance. ³⁷If there is a famine in the land, if there is a pestilence, if there is a blight or mildew, swarming locusts or consuming locusts, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, if there is any affliction or any sickness, ³⁸then for every prayer and every supplication which any man, or the whole of your people Israel may have – because each man will know the reason for the affliction of his heart – he will stretch his hands towards this house. ³⁹Then do hear in heaven, the abode where you reside, and do forgive and take action and repay each man according to all his ways, whose heart you know, for you alone know the heart of all the sons of Adam, ⁴⁰so that they may fear you for all the days that they live on the surface of the land which you have given to our fathers. ⁴¹And also concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, but who has come from a distant land for the sake of your name ⁴²(for they will hear of your great name and your strong hand, and your outstretched arm): he will come and pray facing this house. ⁴³Do hear in heaven, the abode where you reside, and act according to everything that the foreigner calls on you about, so that all the various peoples of the earth may know your name – to fear you – as your people Israel does, and to know that your name is called on at this house which I have built. ⁴⁴When your people go out to war against their enemy by the way which you send them, they will pray to the Lord in the direction of the city which you have chosen, and of the house which I have built for your name. ⁴⁵And do hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and do execute judgment for them. ⁴⁶When they sin against you – for there is no man who does not sin – and you are angry with them, and you deliver them to the enemy, and their captors take them captive to the land of the enemy, be it far or near, ⁴⁷then when they have a change of heart in the land in which they have been taken captive, and they repent, and they make supplications to you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned and committed iniquity and behaved wickedly’, ⁴⁸and they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and they pray to you in the direction of their land which you gave their fathers – the city which you have chosen, and of the house which I have built for your name, ⁴⁹then do hear in heaven – the abode where you reside – their prayer and their supplication, and do execute judgment for them. ⁵⁰And do forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions with which they have transgressed against you, and do grant them compassion in the presence of their captors, so that they have compassion on them. ⁵¹For they are your people and your inheritance whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the middle of an iron furnace, ⁵²so that your eyes should be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel in hearing them whenever they call out to you. ⁵³For you have separated them to yourself as an inheritance from all the various peoples of the earth, as you said through the intermediacy of Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O my Lord the Lord.” ⁵⁴And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from his position before the Lord's altar, from kneeling, and he held his hands stretched out to heaven. ⁵⁵And he stood and blessed the whole convocation of Israel in a loud voice and said, ⁵⁶“Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel in accordance with everything he has spoken. Not one thing has failed from all his good words which he spoke through the intermediacy of Moses his servant. ⁵⁷May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us and may he not forsake us, ⁵⁸while we incline our heart to him, so that we walk in all his ways and keep his commandments and his statutes and his regulations which he commanded our fathers. ⁵⁹And may these words of mine with which I have made supplications before the Lord be close to the Lord our God day and night, so that he executes the justice of his servant and the justice of his people Israel as a daily matter, ⁶⁰to the intent that all the various peoples of the earth should know that the Lord is God; there is no other. ⁶¹And may your heart be sincere with the Lord our God in walking in his statutes and in keeping his commandments, as on this day.” ⁶²And the king and all of Israel with him offered a sacrifice before the Lord. ⁶³And Solomon offered the peace-sacrifice, which he offered to the Lord – twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. And the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. ⁶⁴On that day the king sanctified the inside of the court which was in front of the house of the Lord, for it is there that he made the burnt offering and the meal-offering and offered the fat of the peace-offerings, because the copper altar which was before the Lord was too small to hold the burnt offering and the meal-offering and the fat of the peace-offerings. ⁶⁵And at that time Solomon and all Israel with him celebrated the festival – a large convocation, from the approach to Hamath to the Brook of Egypt – before the Lord our God, for seven days and seven days, that is, for fourteen days. ⁶⁶On the eighth day he dismissed the people, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents happy and in good spirits because of all the good which the Lord had done to David his servant and to Israel his people.

Reference(s) in Chapter 8: v.10 ↔ Revelation 15:8.