Parallel Bible results for "1 kings 8"

1 Kings 8

GOD'S WORD Translation GW

1 Then Solomon assembled the respected leaders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the Israelite families. They came to King Solomon in Jerusalem to take the ark of the LORD's promise from the City of David (that is, Zion).

2 All the people of Israel gathered around King Solomon at the Festival [of Booths] in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

3 When all the leaders of Israel had arrived, the priests picked up the LORD's ark.

4 They brought the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy utensils in it [to the temple]. The priests and the Levites carried them

5 while King Solomon with the whole assembly from Israel were offering countless sheep and cattle sacrifices in front of the ark.

6 The priests brought the ark of the LORD's promise to its place in the inner room of the temple (the most holy place) under the wings of the angels.

7 When the angels' outstretched wings were over the place where the ark [rested], the angels became a covering above the ark and its poles.

8 The poles were so long that their ends could be seen in the holy place by anyone standing in front of the inner room, but they couldn't be seen outside. (They are still there today.)

9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a promise to the Israelites after they left Egypt.

10 When the priests left the holy place, a cloud filled the LORD's temple.

11 The priests couldn't serve because of the cloud. The LORD's glory filled his temple.

12 Then Solomon said, "The LORD said he would live in a dark cloud.

13 I certainly have built you a high temple, a home for you to live in permanently."

14 Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel while they were standing.

15 "Thanks be to the LORD God of Israel. With his mouth he made a promise to my father David; with his hand he carried it out. He said,

16 'Ever since I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I didn't choose any city in any of the tribes of Israel as a place to build a temple for my name. But now I've chosen David to rule my people Israel.'

17 "My father David had his heart set on building a temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

18 However, the LORD said to my father David, 'Since you had your heart set on building a temple for my name, your intentions were good.

19 But you must not build the temple. Instead, your own son will build the temple for my name.'

20 The LORD has kept the promise he made. I have taken my father David's place, and I sit on the throne of Israel as the LORD promised. I've built the temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

21 I've made a place there for the ark which contains the LORD's promise that he made to our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt."

22 In the presence of the entire assembly of Israel, Solomon stood in front of the LORD's altar. He stretched out his hands toward heaven

23 and said, "LORD God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep your promise of mercy to your servants, who obey you wholeheartedly.

24 You have kept your promise to my father David, your servant. With your mouth you promised it. With your hand you carried it out as it is today.

25 "Now, LORD God of Israel, keep your promise to my father David, your servant. You said, 'You will never fail to have an heir sitting in front of me on the throne of Israel if your descendants are faithful to me as you have been faithful to me.'

26 "So now, God of Israel, may the promise you made to my father David, your servant, come true.

27 "Does God really live on earth? If heaven itself, the highest heaven, cannot hold you, then how can this temple that I have built?

28 Nevertheless, my LORD God, please pay attention to my prayer for mercy. Listen to my cry for help as I pray to you today.

29 Night and day may your eyes be on this temple, the place about which you said, 'My name will be there.' Listen to me as I pray toward this place.

30 Hear the plea for mercy that your people Israel and I pray toward this place. Hear us [when we pray] to heaven, the place where you live. Hear and forgive.

31 "If anyone sins against another person and is required to take an oath and comes to take the oath in front of your altar in this temple,

32 then hear [that person] in heaven, take action, and make a decision. Condemn the guilty person with the proper punishment, but declare the innocent person innocent.

33 "An enemy may defeat your people Israel because they have sinned against you. But when your people turn to you, praise your name, pray, and plead with you in this temple,

34 then hear [them] in heaven, forgive the sins of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave to their ancestors.

35 "When the sky is shut and there's no rain because they are sinning against you, and they pray toward this place, praise your name, and turn away from their sin because you made them suffer,

36 then hear [them] in heaven. Forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the proper way to live. Then send rain on the land, which you gave to your people as an inheritance.

37 "There may be famine in the land. Plant diseases, heat waves, funguses, locusts, or grasshoppers may destroy crops. Enemies may blockade Israel's city gates. During every plague or sickness

38 [hear] every prayer for mercy, made by one person or by all the people in Israel, whose consciences bother them, who stretch out their hands toward this temple.

39 Hear [them] in heaven, where you live. Forgive [them], and take action. Give each person the proper reply. (You know what is in their hearts, because you alone know what is in the hearts of all people.)

40 Then, as long as they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors, they will fear you.

41 "People will hear about your great name, mighty hand, and powerful arm. So when people who are not Israelites come from distant countries because of your name

42 to pray facing this temple,

43 hear [them] in heaven, the place where you live. Do everything they ask you so that all the people of the world may know your name and fear you like your people Israel and learn also that this temple which I built bears your name.

44 "When your people go to war against their enemies (wherever you may send them) and they pray to you, O LORD, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I built for your name,

45 then hear their prayer for mercy in heaven, and do what is right [for them].

46 "They may sin against you. (No one is sinless.) You may become angry with them and hand them over to an enemy who takes them to [another] country as captives, [whether it is] far or near.

47 If they come to their senses, are sorry for what they've done, and plead with you in the land where they are captives, saying, 'We have sinned. We have done wrong. We have been wicked,'

48 if they change their attitude toward you in the land of their enemies where they are captives, if they pray to you toward the land that you gave their ancestors, and the city you have chosen, and the temple I have built for your name,

49 then in heaven, the place where you live, hear their prayer for mercy. Do what is right for them.

50 Forgive your people, who have sinned against you. [Forgive] all their wrongs when they rebelled against you, and cause those who captured them to have mercy on them

51 because they are your own people whom you brought out of Egypt from the middle of an iron smelter.

52 "May your eyes always see my plea and your people Israel's plea so that you will listen to them whenever they call on you.

53 After all, you, LORD God, set them apart from all the people of the world to be your own as you promised through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt."

54 When Solomon finished praying this prayer for mercy to the LORD, he stood in front of the LORD's altar, where he had been kneeling with his hands stretched out toward heaven.

55 Then he stood and in a loud voice blessed the entire assembly of Israel,

56 "Thanks be to the LORD! He has given his people Israel rest, as he had promised. None of the good promises he made through his servant Moses has failed to come true.

57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he never leave us or abandon us.

58 May he bend our hearts toward him. Then we will follow him and keep his commands, laws, and rules, which he commanded our ancestors [to keep].

59 May these words which I have prayed to the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night. Then he will give me and his people Israel justice every day as it is needed.

60 In this way all the people of the world will know that the LORD is God and there is no other [god].

61 May your hearts be committed to the LORD our God. Then you will live by his laws and keep his commands as you have today."

62 Then the king and all Israel offered sacrifices to the LORD.

63 Solomon sacrificed 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings to the LORD. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the LORD's temple.

64 On that day the king designated the courtyard in front of the LORD's temple as a holy place. He sacrificed the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat from the fellowship offerings because the bronze altar in front of the LORD was too small to hold all of them.

65 At that time Solomon and all Israel celebrated the Festival [of Booths]. A large crowd had come from [the territory between] the border of Hamath and the River of Egypt to be near the LORD our God for seven days.

66 On the eighth day he dismissed the people. They blessed the king and went to their tents. They rejoiced with cheerful hearts for all the blessings the LORD had given his servant David and his people Israel.

New International Version NIV

1 Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Zion, the City of David.

2 All the Israelites came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

3 When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark,

4 and they brought up the ark of the LORD and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up,

5 and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

6 The priests then brought the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.

7 The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles.

8 These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today.

9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD.

11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple.

12 Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud;

13 I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”

14 While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them.

15 Then he said: “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David. For he said,

16 ‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built so that my Name might be there, but I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’

17 “My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

18 But the LORD said to my father David, ‘You did well to have it in your heart to build a temple for my Name.

19 Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own flesh and blood—he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.’

20 “The LORD has kept the promise he made: I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

21 I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”

22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven

23 and said: “LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.

24 You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it—as it is today.

25 “Now LORD, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me faithfully as you have done.’

26 And now, God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David my father come true.

27 “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

28 Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.

29 May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

30 Hear the supplication 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.

31 “When anyone wrongs their neighbor and is required to take an oath and they come and swear the oath before your altar in this temple,

32 then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing down on their heads what they have done, and vindicating the innocent by treating them in accordance with their innocence.

33 “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and give praise to your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple,

34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.

35 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,

36 then 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 for an inheritance.

37 “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come,

38 and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts, and spreading out their hands toward this temple—

39 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know every human heart),

40 so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

41 “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name—

42 for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple,

43 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

44 “When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to the LORD toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name,

45 then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

46 “When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near;

47 and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’;

48 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name;

49 then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

50 And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy;

51 for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.

52 “May your eyes be open to your servant’s plea and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they cry out to you.

53 For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you, Sovereign LORD, brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

54 When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

55 He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

56 “Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.

57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us.

58 May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors.

59 And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need,

60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other.

61 And may your hearts be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”

62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD.

63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD.

64 On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the LORD, and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar that stood before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.

65 So Solomon observed the festival at that time, and all Israel with him—a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. They celebrated it before the LORD our God for seven days and seven days more, fourteen days in all.

66 On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the LORD had done for his servant David and his people Israel.