1 Kings 8:53-63

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.

1 Kings 8:53-63 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 8

This chapter gives an account of the introduction of the ark into the temple, 1Ki 8:1-9 of the glory of the Lord filling it, 1Ki 8:10,11 of a speech Solomon made to the people concerning the building of the temple, and how he came to be engaged in it, 1Ki 8:12-21, of a prayer of his he put up on this occasion, requesting, that what supplications soever were made at any time, or on any account, by Israelites or strangers, might be accepted by the Lord, 1Ki 8:22-53, and of his blessing the people of Israel at the close of it, with some useful exhortations, 1Ki 8:54-61, and of the great number of sacrifices offered up by him, and the feast he made for the people, upon which he dismissed them, 1Ki 8:62-66.