Solomon’s Temple-dedication Prayer

¹⁴Then, with the whole congregation of Israel standing, the king faced about and blessed the whole congregation of Israel. ¹⁵He said: “Praised be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with deeds the promise He made to my father David. For He said, ¹⁶‘Ever since I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city among all the tribes of Israel for building a House where My name might abide; but I have chosen David to rule My people Israel.’

¹⁷“Now my father David had intended to build a House for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁸But the Lord said to my father David, ‘As regards your intention to build a House for My name, you did right to have that intention. ¹⁹However, you shall not build the House yourself; instead, your son, the issue of your loins, shall build the House for My name.’

²⁰“And the Lord has fulfilled the promise that He made: I have succeeded my father David and have ascended the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built the House for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel; ²¹and I have set a place there for the Ark, containing the covenant which the Lord made with our fathers when He brought them out from the land of Egypt.”

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole community of Israel; he spread the palms of his hands toward heaven ²³and said, “O Lord God of Israel, in the heavens above and on the earth below there is no god like You, who keep Your gracious covenant with Your servants when they walk before You in wholehearted devotion; ²⁴You who have kept the promises You made to Your servant, my father David, fulfilling with deeds the promise You made—as is now the case. ²⁵And now, O Lord God of Israel, keep the further promise that You made to Your servant, my father David: ‘Your line on the throne of Israel shall never end, if only your descendants will look to their way and walk before Me as you have walked before Me.’ ²⁶Now, therefore, O God of Israel, let the promise that You made to Your servant my father David be fulfilled.

²⁷“But will God really dwell on earth? Even the heavens to their uttermost reaches cannot contain You, how much less this House that I have built! ²⁸Yet turn, O Lord my God, to the prayer and supplication of Your servant, and hear the cry and prayer which Your servant offers before You this day. ²⁹May Your eyes be open day and night toward this House, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall abide there’; may You heed the prayers which Your servant will offer toward this place. ³⁰And when You hear the supplications which Your servant and Your people Israel offer toward this place, give heed in Your heavenly abode—give heed and pardon.

³¹“Whenever one man commits an offense against another, and the latter utters an imprecation to bring a curse upon him, and comes with his imprecation before Your altar in this House, ³²oh, hear in heaven and take action to judge Your servants, condemning him who is in the wrong and bringing down the punishment of his conduct on his head, vindicating him who is in the right by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

³³“Should Your people Israel be routed by an enemy because they have sinned against You, and then turn back to You and acknowledge Your name, and they offer prayer and supplication to You in this House, ³⁴oh, hear in heaven and pardon the sin of Your people Israel, and restore them to the land that You gave to their fathers.

³⁵“Should the heavens be shut up and there be no rain, because they have sinned against You, and then they pray toward this place and acknowledge Your name and repent of their sins, when You answer them, ³⁶oh, hear in heaven and pardon the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, after You have shown them the proper way in which they are to walk; and send down rain upon the land which You gave to Your people as their heritage. ³⁷So, too, if there is a famine in the land, if there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locusts or caterpillars, or if an enemy oppresses them in any of the settlements of the land.

“In any plague and in any disease, ³⁸in any prayer or supplication offered by any person among all Your people Israel—each of whom knows his own affliction— when he spreads his palms toward this House, ³⁹oh, hear in Your heavenly abode, and pardon and take action! Render to each man according to his ways as You know his heart to be—for You alone know the hearts of all men—⁴⁰so that they may revere You all the days that they live on the land that You gave to our fathers.

⁴¹“Or if a foreigner who is not of Your people Israel comes from a distant land for the sake of Your name— ⁴²for they shall hear about Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm—when he comes to pray toward this House, ⁴³oh, hear in Your heavenly abode and grant all that the foreigner asks You for. Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built.

⁴⁴“When Your people take the field against their enemy by whatever way You send them, and they pray to the Lord in the direction of the city which You have chosen, and of the House which I have built to Your name, ⁴⁵oh, hear in heaven their prayer and supplication and uphold their cause.

⁴⁶“When they sin against You—for there is no man who does not sin—and You are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and their captors carry them off to an enemy land, near or far; ⁴⁷and then they take it to heart in the land to which they have been carried off, and they repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captors, saying: ‘We have sinned, we have acted perversely, we have acted wickedly,’ ⁴⁸and they turn back to You with all their heart and soul, in the land of the enemies who have carried them off, and they pray to You in the direction of their land which You gave to their fathers, of the city which You have chosen, and of the House which I have built to Your name—⁴⁹oh, give heed in Your heavenly abode to their prayer and supplication, uphold their cause, ⁵⁰and pardon Your people who have sinned against You for all the transgressions that they have committed against You. Grant them mercy in the sight of their captors that they may be merciful to them. ⁵¹For they are Your very own people that You freed from Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace. ⁵²May Your eyes be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, and may You heed them whenever they call upon You. ⁵³For You, O Lord God, have set them apart for Yourself from all the peoples of the earth as Your very own, as You promised through Moses Your servant when You freed our fathers from Egypt.”