¹Then Solomon said,

“The Lord said that he would dwell

In thick clouds.

²And I have built

A dwelling place for you

And an age-abiding abode

For you to reside in.”

³Then the king turned round and blessed the whole convocation of Israel, and the whole convocation of Israel was standing ⁴as 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, ⁵‘From the day when I brought my people out of the land 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, and I did not choose a man to be a leader over my people Israel, ⁶then I chose Jerusalem for my name to be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel.’ ⁷And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. ⁸But 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. ⁹However, it is not you who will build the house, but it is your son who will come from your loins who will build the house for my name.’ ¹⁰And 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. ¹¹And I set up the ark there, where the covenant of the Lord is, which he made with the sons of Israel.” ¹²And he stood before the Lord's altar opposite the whole convocation of Israel, and he stretched out his hands. ¹³For Solomon had made a copper laver, and he had put it in the enclosure, and its length was five cubits, and its width was five cubits, and its height was three cubits. And he stood on it and knelt down in the presence of the whole convocation of Israel, and he stretched out his hands towards heaven, ¹⁴and he said, “O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on the earth – you who keep the covenant and kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart – ¹⁵in 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. ¹⁶So 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 in my law, as you have walked before me.’ ¹⁷And now, O Lord God of Israel, may your word which you spoke to your servant – to David – be upheld. ¹⁸For will God truly dwell with man on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, so how much less this house which I have built? ¹⁹But 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, ²⁰that your eyes may be open by day and night to this house – to the place of which you said to set up your name there – so as to hear the prayer which your servant will pray facing this place. ²¹And do hear the supplications of your servant and your people Israel, who will pray facing this place, and do hear from the place where you are seated – from the heavens – so do hear and forgive. ²²If 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, ²³then hear from heaven and take action, and judge your servants in requiting the wicked, in bringing his way back on his head, and in justifying the righteous, in rewarding him according to his righteousness. ²⁴And if your people Israel are struck down in confrontation with an enemy because they have sinned against you, and they repent and confess your name, and they pray and make supplications before you in this house, ²⁵then do hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers. ²⁶When 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. ²⁷And 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. ²⁸If 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, ²⁹then 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 his affliction and his grief – he will stretch out his hands towards this house. ³⁰Then do hear from heaven, the abode where you reside, and do forgive, and repay each man according to all his ways, whose heart you know, for you alone know the heart of the sons of Adam, ³¹so that they may fear you in walking in your ways, for all the days that they live on the surface of the land which you have given to our fathers. ³²And also concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, but who has come from a distant land for the sake of your great name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray facing this house, ³³then do hear from 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, and know to fear you, as your people Israel does, and to know that your name is called on at this house which I have built. ³⁴When your people go out to war against their enemies by the way which you send them, they will pray to you in the direction of this city which you have chosen, and of the house which I have built for your name. ³⁵And do hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and do execute judgment for them. ³⁶When 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 a land, be it far or near, ³⁷then when they have a change of heart in the land in which they have been taken captive, and repent, and they make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, and they say, ‘We have sinned and committed iniquity and behaved wickedly’, ³⁸and they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their captivity where they have taken them captive, and they pray in the direction of their land which you gave their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and towards the house which I have built for your name, ³⁹then do hear from heaven – from the abode where you reside – their prayer and their supplications, and do execute judgment for them, and do forgive your people who sinned against you. ⁴⁰Now, O God of mine, may your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to the prayer of this place.

⁴¹So now, O Lord God,

Arise to your resting place

– You and the ark of your strength.

Let your priests, O Lord God,

Be clothed with salvation,

So that those of yours under your grace

May rejoice in goodness.

⁴²O Lord God,

Do not turn the face of your anointed away;

Remember the acts of kindness

Shown to David your servant.”