2 Chronicles 6

Solomon's Dedication

1 ¹Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

2 "I have built You a lofty house, And a place for Your dwelling forever."

3 Then the king faced * about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.

4 He said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hands, saying,

5 'Since the day that I brought My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man for a leader over My people Israel;

6 but ²I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I ³have chosen David to be over My people Israel.'

7 "⁴Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

8 "But the LORD said to my father David, 'Because * it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart.

9 'Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will be born * to you, he shall build the house for My name.'

10 "Now the LORD has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

11 "There I have set the ark ⁵in which is the covenant of the LORD, which He made with the sons of Israel."

Solomon's Prayer of Dedication

12 Then he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

13 ⁶Now Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, ⁷knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

14 He said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, ⁸there is no god like You in heaven or on earth, ⁹keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;

15 ¹⁰who has kept with Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him; indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.

16 "Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him, saying, '¹¹You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.'

17 "Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.

18 "But ¹²will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, ¹³heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much * less this house which I have built.

19 "Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You;

20 that Your ¹⁴eye may be open toward this house day and night, toward ¹⁵the place of which You have said that You would put Your name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

21 "Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; ¹⁶hear and forgive.

22 "If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house,

23 then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, ¹⁷punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

24 "If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because ¹⁸they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house,

25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and to their fathers.

26 "When the ¹⁹heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them;

27 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, ²⁰teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.

28 "If there is ²¹famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,

29 whatever * prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house,

30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know ²²for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,

31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long * as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

32 "Also concerning ²³the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name's sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,

33 then hear from heaven, from 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 which I have built is ²⁴called by Your name.

34 "When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name,

35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

36 "When they sin against You (²⁵for there is no man who does not sin ) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land far off or near,

37 if they take thought in the land where * they are taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly ';

38 ²⁶if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which You have given to their fathers and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name,

39 then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

40 "Now, O my God, I pray, ²⁷let Your eyes be open and ²⁸Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

41 "²⁹Now therefore arise, O LORD God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.

42 "O LORD God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; ³⁰remember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David."

2 Chronicles 6 Commentary

Chapter 6

Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple.

- The order of Solomon's prayer is to be observed. First and chiefly, he prays for repentance and forgiveness, which is the chief blessing, and the only solid foundation of other mercies: he then prays for temporal mercies; thereby teaching us what things to mind and desire most in our prayers. This also Christ hath taught us in his perfect pattern and form of prayer, where there is but one prayer for outward, and all the rest are for spiritual blessings. The temple typified the human nature of Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The ark typified his obedience and sufferings, by which repenting sinners have access to a reconciled God, and communion with him. Jehovah has made our nature his resting-place for ever, in the person of Emmanuel, and through him he dwells with, and delights in his church of redeemed sinners. May our hearts become his resting-place; may Christ dwell therein by faith, consecrating them as his temples, and shedding abroad his love therein. May the Father look upon us in and through his Anointed; and may he remember and bless us in all things, according to his mercy to sinners, in and through Christ.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 8:12-50
• 2. 2 Chronicles 12:13
• 3. 1 Chronicles 28:4
• 4. 1 Kings 5:3; 1 Chronicles 28:2
• 5. 2 Chronicles 5:7, 10
• 6. Nehemiah 8:4
• 7. 1 Kings 8:54
• 8. Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 3:24
• 9. Deuteronomy 7:9
• 10. 1 Chronicles 22:9, 10
• 11. 1 Kings 2:4; 2 Chronicles 7:18
• 12. Psalms 113:5, 6
• 13. 2 Chronicles 2:6; Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:49
• 14. Psalms 33:18; Psalms 34:15
• 15. Deuteronomy 12:11
• 16. Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22; Micah 7:18
• 17. Isaiah 3:11; Romans 2:8, 9
• 18. Psalms 51:4
• 19. 1 Kings 17:1
• 20. Psalms 94:12
• 21. 2 Chronicles 20:9
• 22. 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Chronicles 28:9
• 23. Isaiah 56:3-8
• 24. 2 Chronicles 7:14
• 25. Job 15:14-16; James 3:2; 1 John 1:8-10
• 26. Jeremiah 29:12, 13
• 27. 2 Chronicles 7:15; Nehemiah 1:6, 11
• 28. Psalms 17:1
• 29. Psalms 132:8, 9
• 30. Psalms 89:24, 28; Psalms 132:10-12; Isaiah 55:3

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "turned his face about"
• [b]. Lit "with"
• [c]. Lit "with"
• [d]. Lit "with"
• [e]. Lit "will come forth from your loins"
• [f]. Lit "spoke"
• [g]. Lit "spoken to"
• [h]. Lit "spoken to"
• [i]. Lit "There shall not be cut off to you a man from before Me"
• [j]. Lit "heaven of heavens"
• [k]. Lit "returning"
• [l]. Lit "smitten"
• [m]. Lit "gates"
• [n]. Lit "whoever shall know"
• [o]. Or "reverence"
• [p]. Lit "all the days that they live on the face of the land"
• [q]. Or "reverence"
• [r]. Lit "Your name is called upon this house"
• [s]. Lit "their captors take them captive"
• [t]. Lit "return to their heart"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 21

This chapter respects the priests, the sons of Aaron, and forbids their mourning for the dead, unless in some cases, Le 21:1-6; or their marriage with an whore or a divorced woman, Le 21:7,8; and the daughters of any of them to commit fornication, which is made punishable with death, Le 21:9; and it contains particular laws for the high priest to observe, who was not to mourn for any, even for his parents, Le 21:10,11; nor to go out of the sanctuary, Le 21:12; nor to marry any woman but a virgin, Le 21:13-15; and it also directs, that none of the priests having any blemish in them should be employed in divine service, though they might eat of the holy things, Le 21:16-24.