Study Desk

And Solomon stood before the Altar of the Lord, in the presence of all the Congregation of Israel, and spread foorth his handes toward heauen:

And hee said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heauen aboue, or on earth beneath, who keepest couenant and mercy with thy seruants, that walke before thee with all their heart:

Who hast kept with thy seruant Dauid my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day.

Therefore now Lord God of Israel, keepe with thy seruant Dauid my father, that thou promisedst him, saying; There shall not faile thee a man in my sight to sit on the Throne of Israel; so that thy children take heede to their way, that they walke before me as thou hast walked before me:

And now, O God of Israel, let thy worde (I pray thee) bee verified, which thou spakest vnto thy seruant Dauid my father.

But will God indeede dwell on the earth? Behold, the heauen, and heauen of heauens cannot conteine thee: how much lesse this House that I haue builded?

Yet haue thou respect vnto the prayer of thy seruant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken vnto the crie and to the prayer, which thy seruant prayeth before thee to day:

That thine eyes may be open toward this house, night and day, euen toward the place of which thou hast said, My Name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken vnto the prayer which thy seruant shall make towards this place.

And hearken thou to the supplication of thy seruant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray towards this place: and heare thou in heauen thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest, forgiue.

If any man trespasse against his neighbour, and an oath be laid vpon him to cause him to sweare, and the oath come before thine Altar in this house:

Then heare thou in heauen, and doe, and iudge thy seruants, condemning the wicked to bring his way vpon his head, and iustifying the righteous, to giue him according to his righteousnesse.

When thy people Israel bee smitten downe before the enemie, because they haue sinned against thee, and shall turne againe to thee, and confesse thy Name, and pray, and make supplication vnto thee in this house:

Then heare thou in heauen, and forgiue the sinne of thy people Israel, and bring them againe vnto the land, which thou gauest vnto their fathers.

When heauen is shut vp, and there is no raine, because they haue sinned against thee: if they pray towards this place, and confesse thy Name, and turne from their sinne, when thou afflictest them:

Then heare thou in heauen, and forgiue the sinne of thy seruants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walke, and giue raine vpon thy land which thou hast giuen to thy people for an inheritance.

If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller: if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatsoeuer plague, whatsoeuer sicknes there be;

What prayer and supplication soeuer be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know euery man the plague of his owne heart, and spread forth his handes towards this house:

Then heare thou in heauen thy dwelling place, and forgiue, and do, and giue to euery man according to his wayes, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, euen thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men,)

That they may feare thee all the dayes that they liue, in the land which thou gauest vnto our fathers.

Moreouer, concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Israel, but commeth out of a farre countrey, for thy Names sake;

(For they shall heare of thy great Name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arme) when hee shall come and pray towards this house:

Heare thou in heauen thy dwelling place, and doe according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy Name, to feare thee, as doe thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I haue builded, is called by thy Name.

If thy people goe out to battell against their enemie, whithersoeuer thou shalt send them, and shall pray vnto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I haue built for thy Name:

Then heare thou in heauen their prayer & their supplication, and mainteine their cause.

If they sinne against thee, ( for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliuer them to the enemy, so that they cary them away captiues, vnto the land of the enemy, farre or neere;

Yet if they shall bethinke themselues, in the land whither they were caried captiues, and repent, and make supplication vnto thee in the land of them that caried them captiues, saying, Wee haue sinned, and haue done peruersly, we haue committed wickednes;

And so returne vnto thee with all their heart, and with all their soule, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captiue, and pray vnto thee toward their land, which thou gauest vnto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I haue built for thy Name:

Then heare thou their prayer and their supplication in heauen thy dwelling place, and mainteine their cause,

And forgiue thy people that haue sinned against thee, and all their transgressions, wherein they haue transgressed against thee, and giue them compassion before them who caried them captiue, that they may haue compassion on them:

For they bee thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest foorth out of Egypt, from the mids of the furnace of iron:

That thine eyes may be open vnto the supplication of thy seruant, and vnto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken vnto them in all that they call for vnto thee.

For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy seruant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.

And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication vnto the Lord, he arose from before the Altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees, with his handes spread vp to heauen.

And he stood, and blessed all the Congregation of Israel, with a lowd voice, saying;

Blessed be the Lord, that hath giuen rest vnto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his seruant.

The Lord our God be with vs, as he was with our fathers: let him not leaue vs, nor forsake vs:

That hee may encline our hearts vnto him, to walke in all his wayes, and to keepe his Commaundements, and his Statutes, and his Iudgements which hee commaunded our fathers.

And let these my wordes wherewith I haue made supplication before the Lord, be nigh vnto the Lord our God, day and night, that hee maintaine the cause of his seruant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require:

That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God: and that there is none else.

Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord your God, to walke in his Statutes, and to keepe his Commandements, as at this day.