2 Chronicles 6:12-42

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 ¹Now 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, ²knelt 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, ³there is no god like You in heaven or on earth, ⁴keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;

15 ⁵who 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, '⁶You 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 ⁷will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, ⁸heaven 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 ⁹eye may be open toward this house day and night, toward ¹⁰the 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; ¹¹hear 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, ¹²punishing 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 ¹³they 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 ¹⁴heavens 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, ¹⁵teach 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 ¹⁶famine 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 ¹⁷for 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 ¹⁸the 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 ¹⁹called 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 (²⁰for 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 ²¹if 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, ²²let Your eyes be open and ²³Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

41 "²⁴Now 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; ²⁵remember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David."

2 Chronicles 6:12-42 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

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

Footnotes

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