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2 Chronicles 6:12-42
New English Translation

12 He stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 13 Solomon had made a bronze platform and had placed it in the middle of the enclosure. It was 7½[a] long, 7½[b] wide, and 4½ feet[c] high. He stood on it and then got down on his knees in front of the entire assembly of Israel. He spread out his hands toward the sky, 14 and prayed:[d] “O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth! You maintain covenantal loyalty[e] to your servants who obey you with sincerity.[f] 15 You have kept your word to your servant, my father David;[g] this very day you have fulfilled what you promised.[h] 16 Now, O Lord God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, ‘You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel,[i] provided that your descendants watch their step and obey my law as you have done.’[j] 17 Now, O Lord God of Israel, may the promise you made to your servant David be realized.[k]

18 “God does not really live with humankind on the earth![l] Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built! 19 But respond favorably to[m] your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer[n] the desperate prayer[o] your servant is presenting to you.[p] 20 Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live.[q] May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place.[r] 21 Respond to the requests of your servant and your people Israel for this place.[s] Hear from your heavenly dwelling place and respond favorably and forgive.[t]

22 “When someone is accused of sinning against his neighbor and the latter pronounces a curse on the alleged offender before your altar in this temple,[u] 23 listen from heaven and make a just decision about your servants’ claims. Condemn the guilty party, declare the other innocent, and give both of them what they deserve.[v]

24 “If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy[w] because they sinned against you, then if they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you,[x] and pray for your help[y] before you in this temple, 25 then listen from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.[z]

26 “The time will come when[aa] the skies[ab] are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people[ac] sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you,[ad] and turn away from their sin because you punish[ae] them, 27 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly[af] you will then teach them the right way to live[ag] and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess.[ah]

28 “The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight, and disease, or a locust[ai] invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land,[aj] or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs. 29 When all your people Israel pray and ask for help,[ak] as they acknowledge their intense pain[al] and spread out their hands toward this temple, 30 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin,[am] and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of their motives.[an] (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.)[ao] 31 Then they will honor[ap] you by obeying you[aq] throughout their lifetimes as[ar] they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.

32 “Foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will come from a distant land because of your great reputation[as] and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds;[at] they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple. 33 Then listen from your heavenly dwelling place and answer all the prayers of the foreigners.[au] Then all the nations of the earth will acknowledge your reputation,[av] obey[aw] you as your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I built belongs to you.[ax]

34 “When you direct your people to march out and fight their enemies,[ay] and they direct their prayers to you toward this chosen city and this temple I built for your honor,[az] 35 then listen from heaven to their prayers for help[ba] and vindicate them.[bb]

36 “The time will come when your people[bc] will sin against you (for there is no one who is sinless!) and you will be angry at them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their land, whether far away or close by. 37 When your people[bd] come to their senses[be] in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray,[bf] we have done evil!’ 38 When they return to you with all their heart and being[bg] in the land where they are held prisoner and direct their prayers toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor,[bh] 39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help,[bi] vindicate them,[bj] and forgive your sinful people.

40 “Now, my God, may you be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place.[bk] 41 Now ascend, O Lord God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength! May your priests, O Lord God, experience your deliverance.[bl] May your loyal followers rejoice in the prosperity you give.[bm] 42 O Lord God, do not reject your chosen ones![bn] Remember the faithful promises you made to your servant David!”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 6:13 tn Heb “5 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the length would have been 7.5 feet (2.25 m).
  2. 2 Chronicles 6:13 tn Heb “5 cubits.”
  3. 2 Chronicles 6:13 tn Heb “3 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the height would have been 4.5 feet (1.35 m).
  4. 2 Chronicles 6:14 tn Heb “said.”
  5. 2 Chronicles 6:14 tn Heb “one who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.”
  6. 2 Chronicles 6:14 tn Heb “who walk before you with all their heart.”
  7. 2 Chronicles 6:15 tn Heb “[you] who kept to your servant David my father that which you spoke to him.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 6:15 tn Heb “you spoke by your mouth and by your hand you fulfilled, as this day.”
  9. 2 Chronicles 6:16 tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from before me sitting on the throne of Israel.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 6:16 tn Heb “guard their way by walking in my law as you have walked before me.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 6:17 tn Or “prove to be reliable.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 6:18 tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live with mankind on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which is reflected in the translation “God does not really live with mankind on the earth.”
  13. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “turn to.”
  14. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “by listening to.”
  15. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “the loud cry and the prayer.”
  16. 2 Chronicles 6:19 tn Heb “praying before you.”
  17. 2 Chronicles 6:20 tn Heb “so your eyes might be open toward this house night and day, toward the place about which you promised to place your name there.”
  18. 2 Chronicles 6:20 tn Heb “by listening to the prayer which your servant is praying concerning this place.”
  19. 2 Chronicles 6:21 tn Heb “listen to the requests of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 6:21 tn Heb “hear and forgive.”
  21. 2 Chronicles 6:22 tn Heb “and if the man who sins against his neighbor when one takes up against him a curse to curse him and the curse comes before your altar in this house.”
  22. 2 Chronicles 6:23 tn Heb “and you, hear [from] heaven and act and judge your servants by repaying the guilty, to give his way on his head, and to declare the innocent to be innocent, to give to him according to his innocence.”
  23. 2 Chronicles 6:24 tn Or “are struck down before an enemy.”
  24. 2 Chronicles 6:24 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
  25. 2 Chronicles 6:24 tn Heb “and they pray and ask for help.”
  26. 2 Chronicles 6:25 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 38).
  27. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 26-27a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
  28. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Or “heavens” (also in v. 12). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
  29. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Heb “they.”
  30. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
  31. 2 Chronicles 6:26 tn The Hebrew text reads “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (ʿanah, “answer”). However, this reference to a divine answer is premature, since the next verse asks for God to intervene in mercy. It is better to revocalize the consonantal text as תְעַנֵּם (teʿannem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (“afflict”).
  32. 2 Chronicles 6:27 tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense (“Certainly”). Other translations have “indeed” (NASB), “when” (NRSV), “so” (NEB), or leave the word untranslated (NIV).
  33. 2 Chronicles 6:27 tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”
  34. 2 Chronicles 6:27 tn Or “for an inheritance.”
  35. 2 Chronicles 6:28 tn Actually two Hebrew words appear here, both of which are usually (but not always) taken as referring to locusts. Perhaps different stages of growth or different varieties are in view, but this is uncertain. NEB has “locusts new-sloughed or fully grown”; NASB has “locust or grasshopper”; NIV has “locusts or grasshoppers”; NRSV has “locust, or caterpillar.”
  36. 2 Chronicles 6:28 tn Heb “in the land, his gates.”
  37. 2 Chronicles 6:29 tn Heb “every prayer, every request for help which will be to all the people, to all your people Israel.”
  38. 2 Chronicles 6:29 tn Heb “which they know, each his pain and his affliction.”
  39. 2 Chronicles 6:30 tn The words “their sin” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarification.
  40. 2 Chronicles 6:30 tn Heb “and give to each one according to all his ways because you know his heart.” In the Hebrew text vv. 28-30a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided up for stylistic reasons.
  41. 2 Chronicles 6:30 tn Heb “Indeed you know, you alone, the heart of the sons of mankind.”
  42. 2 Chronicles 6:31 tn Heb “fear.”
  43. 2 Chronicles 6:31 tn Heb “by walking in your ways.”
  44. 2 Chronicles 6:31 tn Heb “all the days [in] which.”
  45. 2 Chronicles 6:32 tn Heb “your great name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “your great reputation”).
  46. 2 Chronicles 6:32 tn Heb “and your strong hand and your outstretched arm.”
  47. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “and do all which the foreigner calls to [i.e., “requests of”] you.”
  48. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “name.” See the note on “reputation” in v. 32.
  49. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “fear.”
  50. 2 Chronicles 6:33 tn Heb “that your name is called over this house which I built.” The Hebrew idiom “call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28.
  51. 2 Chronicles 6:34 tn Heb “When your people go out for battle against their enemies in the way which you send them.”
  52. 2 Chronicles 6:34 tn Heb “toward this city which you have chosen and the house which I built for your name.”
  53. 2 Chronicles 6:35 tn Heb “their prayer and their request for help.”
  54. 2 Chronicles 6:35 tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”
  55. 2 Chronicles 6:36 tn Heb “they”; the referent (God’s people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  56. 2 Chronicles 6:37 tn Heb “they”; the referent (God’s people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  57. 2 Chronicles 6:37 tn Or “stop and reflect”; Heb “bring back to their heart.”
  58. 2 Chronicles 6:37 tn Or “done wrong.”
  59. 2 Chronicles 6:38 tn Or “soul.”
  60. 2 Chronicles 6:38 tn Heb “your name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “your honor”).
  61. 2 Chronicles 6:39 tn Heb “their prayer and their requests for help.”
  62. 2 Chronicles 6:39 tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”
  63. 2 Chronicles 6:40 tn Heb “May your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.”
  64. 2 Chronicles 6:41 tn Heb “be clothed with deliverance.”
  65. 2 Chronicles 6:41 tn Heb “and may your loyal ones rejoice in good.”
  66. 2 Chronicles 6:42 tc Heb “do not turn away the face of your anointed ones.” Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the ancient versions, read the singular, “your anointed,” which would probably refer to Solomon specifically, rather than the people.
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2 Chronicles 6:12-42
New International Version

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication(A)(B)

12 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 13 Now he had made a bronze platform,(C) five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high,[a] and had placed it in the center of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down(D) before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. 14 He said:

“Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you(E) in heaven or on earth—you who keep your covenant of love(F) with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. 15 You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised(G) and with your hand you have fulfilled it—as it is today.

16 “Now, Lord, the God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail(H) to have a successor to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law,(I) as you have done.’ 17 And now, Lord, the God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David come true.

18 “But will God really dwell(J) on earth with humans? The heavens,(K) even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 19 Yet, Lord my God, give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. 20 May your eyes(L) be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name(M) there. May you hear(N) the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 21 Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.(O)

22 “When anyone wrongs their neighbor and is required to take an oath(P) and they come and swear the oath before your altar in this temple, 23 then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning(Q) the guilty and bringing down on their heads what they have done, and vindicating the innocent by treating them in accordance with their innocence.

24 “When your people Israel have been defeated(R) by an enemy because they have sinned against you and when they turn back and give praise to your name, praying and making supplication before you in this temple, 25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.

26 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain(S) because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, 27 then hear from heaven and forgive(T) the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.

28 “When famine(U) or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, 29 and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of their afflictions and pains, and spreading out their hands toward this temple— 30 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive,(V) and deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know the human heart),(W) 31 so that they will fear you(X) and walk in obedience to you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

32 “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come(Y) from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand(Z) and your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, 33 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner(AA) asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

34 “When your people go to war against their enemies,(AB) wherever you send them, and when they pray(AC) to you toward this city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name, 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.

36 “When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin(AD)—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive(AE) to a land far away or near; 37 and if they have a change of heart(AF) in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and acted wickedly’; 38 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and toward the temple I have built for your Name; 39 then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive(AG) your people, who have sinned against you.

40 “Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive(AH) to the prayers offered in this place.

41 “Now arise,(AI) Lord God, and come to your resting place,(AJ)
    you and the ark of your might.
May your priests,(AK) Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
    may your faithful people rejoice in your goodness.(AL)
42 Lord God, do not reject your anointed one.(AM)
    Remember the great love(AN) promised to David your servant.”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 6:13 That is, about 7 1/2 feet long and wide and 4 1/2 feet high or about 2.3 meters long and wide and 1.4 meters high
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