Study Desk

My father David had his heart seton building a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

The Lord has fulfilled what he promised.I have taken the place of my father David,and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised.I have built the temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

Therefore, Lord God of Israel,keep what you promisedto your servant, my father David:You will never fail to have a manto sit before me on the throne of Israel,if only your sons take care to walk before meas you have walked before me.

Now Lord God of Israel,please confirm what you promisedto your servant, my father David.

But will God indeed live on earth?Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you,much less this temple I have built.

Listen to your servant’s prayer and his petition,Lord my God,so that you may hear the cry and the prayerthat your servant prays before you today,

For you, Lord God, have set them apart as your inheritancefrom all peoples of the earth,as you spoke through your servant Moseswhen you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.

May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us

May my words with which I have made my petition before the Lord be near the Lord our God day and night. May he uphold his servant’s cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires.

May all the peoples of the earth know that the Lord is God. There is no other!

Be wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord our God to walk in his statutes and to keep his commands, as it is today.”

Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt—observed the festival at that time in the presence of the Lord our God, seven days, and seven more days—fourteen days.

Then they will say: Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They held on to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, the Lord brought all this ruin on them.

Blessed be the Lord your God! He delighted in you and put you on the throne of Israel, because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel. He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness.”

The whole world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.

When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.

The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.

God raised up Rezon son of Eliada as an enemy against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master King Hadadezer of Zobah

and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand. I will give you ten tribes,

For they have abandoned me; they have bowed down to Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in my ways to do what is right in my sight and to carry out my statutes and my judgments as his father David did.