¹Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, that is Zion.

²All the men of Israel assembled to King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the festival, that is the seventh month.

³All the elders of Israel came, and the priests lifted up the ark.

⁴They brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy utensils that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up.

⁵And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had met by appointment beside him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing flock and cattle that could not be counted or be numbered for their multitude.

⁶The priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, to the inner sanctuary of the house, to the holiest place, right under the wings of the cherubim.

⁷For the cherubim were spreading out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered over the ark and over its poles from above.

⁸And they made the poles long; and the heads of the poles were seen from the holy place, before the face of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and they have been there to this day.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh cut a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰And it happened that when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of Yahweh.

¹¹And the priests could not stand to serve because of the cloud, for the weightiness of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.

¹²Then Solomon said: Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick dark cloud.

¹³I have indeed built a lofty house for you, a settled place for you to dwell in forever.

¹⁴The king turned his face and blessed all the company of Israel, while all the company of Israel stood.

¹⁵He said, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and with his hand has fulfilled it, saying,

¹⁶Since the day when I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house for my name to be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.

¹⁷It was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel.

¹⁸And Yahweh said to David my father, Because it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

¹⁹Only you will not build the house, but your son who comes out of your loins, he will build the house for my name.

²⁰Yahweh established his word that he spoke, and I rose in place of David my father, and I sat on the throne of Israel, just as Yahweh spoke, and I built the house for the name of Yahweh the God of Israel.

²¹I set there a place for the ark, where the covenant of Yahweh is, which he cut with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

²²Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh before all the company of Israel, and spread abroad his palms to the heavens,

²³and he said, Yahweh the God of Israel, there is no God in you in the heavens above and over the land the under, who keeps the covenant and the loyal love to your slaves who go to your face with all their heart;

²⁴who kept for your slave David my father what you spoke to him—you spoke with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled it, as it is this day.

²⁵And now, Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your slave David my father what you spoke to him, saying, A man of yours will not be cut off from before my face, one sitting on the throne of Israel, only if your sons guard their way, to walk before my face as you have walked before my face.

²⁶And now, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you spoke to your slave David my father.

²⁷But will God truly dwell on the land? Look, the skies and the sky of the skies cannot hold you, how much less this house which I built!

²⁸Turn to the prayer of your slave and to his plea, Yahweh my God, to hear the ringing cry and the prayer which your slave is praying before you today.

²⁹that your eyes may be opened wide toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said, My name will be there, to listen to the prayer that your slave will pray toward this place.

³⁰And you will hear the plea of your servant and your people Israel, which they will pray toward this place; and you will hear in the place where you dwell, in the heavens; and you will hear and forgive.

³¹When a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is exacted from him to put him under oath, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,

³²then you will hear in the heavens, and you will make and judge your slaves, to condemn the wicked, to set his way on his head, and to acquit the righteous, to set to him as his righteousness.

³³When your people Israel are struck before an enemy because they sin against you, and they turn back to you, and praise your name, and pray and seek favor from you in this house,

³⁴then you will hear in the heavens, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and return them to the ground which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵When the skies are closed and there will be no rain, because they sin against you, and they pray toward this place and praise your name, and turn back from their sin, because you afflict them,

³⁶then you will hear in the heavens, and forgive the sin of your slaves and your people Israel, that you will teach them the good way which they will go in, and you will set rain over your land which you set to your people for the inheritance.

³⁷If there is famine in the land, pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust, devouring locust, if it happens that his enemy presses hard upon him in the land of his gates, every plague, any sickness,

³⁸every prayer, every plea that will belong to any person, to all your people Israel, who will each know the plague of his own heart, and spread abroad his palms toward this house,

³⁹then you will hear in the heavens, the settled place of your dwelling, and forgive, and make, and set to the man as all his way which you will know his heart, for you alone know the heart of all the children of the man,

⁴⁰so that they may fear you all the days that they live on the face of the ground that you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹And also to the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, and comes from a distant land for the sake of your name,

⁴²for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm; and he will come and pray toward this house,

⁴³then you will hear in the heavens, the settled place of your dwelling, and make as all which the foreigner will call to you, that all the people of the land will know your name, to fear you as your people Israel, and to know that your name is called over this house which I built.

⁴⁴When your people go out to war against their enemy, by the way that you send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city that you chose and the house that I built for your name,

⁴⁵then you will hear in the heavens their prayer and their plea, and do them justice.

⁴⁶When they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin) and you are angry with them and set them before an enemy, and their captors take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near,

⁴⁷and they bring it back to their heart in the land where they were taken captive, and they turn back and seek favor from you in the land of their captors, saying, We have sinned, we have perverted, we have acted wickedly;

⁴⁸and they turn back to you with all their heart and with all their being, in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and they pray to you in the direction of their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you chose, and the house that I built for your name,

⁴⁹then you will hear in the heavens, the fixed place of your dwelling, their prayer and their plea, and do them justice;

⁵⁰and forgive your people who sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they rebelled against you, and set them as objects of compassion before their captors, so that they have compassion on them.

⁵¹For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace.

⁵²That your eyes may be opened wide to the plea of your slave and to the plea of your people Israel, to listen to them in all their calling to you.

⁵³For you separated them for yourself as an inheritance from all the peoples of the land, just as you spoke by the hand of Moses your slave, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Adonai Yahweh.

⁵⁴It happened, as Solomon completed praying to Yahweh all this prayer and plea, he rose from before the altar of Yahweh, from crouching on his knees with his palms spread abroad to the skies;

⁵⁵And he stood and blessed all the company of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

⁵⁶Blessed be Yahweh, who has set a resting place for his people Israel, according to all that he has spoken; not one word has fallen from all his good word that he spoke by the hand of Moses his slave.

⁵⁷May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he not forsake us and may he not abandon us.

⁵⁸to incline our heart to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his justices, which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹And may these words of mine, with which I have sought favor before the face of Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, to do the justice of his slave and the justice of his people Israel, the word of each day in its own day,

⁶⁰so that all the peoples of the land may know that Yahweh, he is God; there is none besides.

⁶¹And let your heart be complete with Yahweh our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, as on this day.

⁶²And the king, and all Israel with him, were sacrificing a sacrifice before the face of Yahweh.

⁶³Solomon sacrificed the sacrifice of the peace offerings that he sacrificed to Yahweh: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand of the flock; and the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Yahweh.

⁶⁴On that day the king set apart the middle of the court that was before the face of the house of Yahweh, for there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the face of Yahweh was too small to contain the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵And Solomon celebrated at that time the festival, and all Israel with him, a great company, from Lebo-hamath to the wadi of Egypt, before the face of Yahweh our God, seven days and seven days, fourteen days.

⁶⁶On the eighth day he sent away the people, and they blessed the king and went to their tents, joyful and good of heart over all the good that Yahweh had done for David his slave and for Israel his people.