1 Kings 8:22-53 - Solomon's Prayer To Yahweh
22 And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and extending his hands toward heaven, 23 he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in the heavens above or on earth beneath, who keeps the covenant and mercy with thy slaves that walk before thee with all their heart, 24 who hast kept unto thy slave David, my father, what thou didst declare unto him; thou didst say it with thy mouth and hast fulfilled it with thy hand, as we see this day. 25 Therefore, now, LORD God of Israel, fulfill unto thy slave David, my father, what thou didst promise him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if thy sons keep their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. 26 And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be made firm, which thou didst speak unto thy slave David, my father. 27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens, the heavens of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built? 28 Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy slave and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy slave prays before thee today, 29 that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there that thou may hearken unto the prayer which thy slave shall make in this place. 30 Therefore, thou shalt hearken unto the supplication of thy slave and of thy people Israel when they shall pray in this place and hear in thy dwelling place, from the heavens; please hear and forgive. 31 When anyone shall have sinned against his neighbour, and an oath is laid upon him to cause him to swear and the oath comes before thy altar in this house, 32 thou shalt hear from heaven and do and judge thy slaves, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. 33 When thy people Israel are smitten down before the enemy because they have sinned against thee and shall turn again to thee and confess thy name and pray and make supplication with humility unto thee in this house, 34 then thou shalt hear in the heavens and forgive the sin of thy people Israel and bring them again unto the land which thou didst give unto their fathers. 35 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee, if they pray in this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou hast afflicted them, 36 then thou shalt hear in the heavens and forgive the sin of thy slaves and of thy people Israel, teaching them the good way in which they should walk and shalt give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. 37 When there is famine in the land or pestilence or blasting or mildew or locusts or caterpillars, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, 38 every prayer and every supplication made by any man or by all thy people Israel, when anyone knows the plague of his own heart and spreads forth his hands toward this house, 39 then thou shalt hear in the heavens, in the habitation of thy dwelling place, and forgive and do and give to each one according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the sons of men), 40 that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou didst give unto our fathers. 41 Likewise concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but comes out of a far country for thy name's sake 42 (for they shall have heard of thy great name and of thy strong hand and of thy stretched out arm), when he shall come to pray in this house, 43 thou shalt hear in the heavens, in the habitation of thy dwelling place, and do according to all that for which the stranger shall have called unto thee, that all peoples of the earth may know thy name and fear thee as do thy people Israel and that they may know that thy name is invoked upon this house, which I have built. 44 If thy people go out to battle against their enemies by the way which thou shalt send them and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen and toward the house that I have built for thy name, 45 thou shalt hear in the heavens their prayer and their supplication and do their judgment. 46 If they have sinned against thee (for there is no man that does not sin) and thou should be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near, 47 and they return unto their heart in the land where they were carried captives and return and make supplication unto thee in the land of those that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned and have done iniquity, we have committed wickedness; 48 and so convert themselves unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who led them away captive and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou didst give unto their fathers, toward the city which thou hast chosen and the house which I have built for thy name, 49 thou shalt hear in the heavens, in the habitation of thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplication and do what is right unto them 50 and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee and all their rebellions by which they have rebelled against thee and cause those who carried them captive to have mercy on them, 51 for they are thy people and thy inheritance, which thou didst bring forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace. 52 Let thine eyes be open unto the supplication of thy slave and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee. 53 For thou didst separate them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be thy inheritance, as thou didst speak by the hand of Moses, thy slave, when thou didst bring our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.