Study Desk

He said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David, and fulfilled it with His hands, saying,

"Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

"Now the LORD has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in place of my father David and I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

And he said, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping the covenant and showing faithfulness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart,

"Now then, LORD, God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him, saying, 'You shall not be deprived of a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful about their way, to walk before Me as you have walked.'

"Now then, God of Israel, let Your words, please, be confirmed, which You have spoken to Your servant, my father David.

"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!

"Nevertheless, turn Your attention to the prayer of Your servant and to his plea, LORD, my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today,

"For You have singled them out from all the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, just as You spoke through Moses Your servant, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord GOD."

"May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us nor forsake us,

"And may these words of mine, with which I have implored the favor of the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, so that He will maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day requires,

so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no one else.

"Your hearts therefore shall be wholly devoted to the LORD our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day."

So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before the LORD our God, for seven days and seven more days, that is, fourteen days.

"And they will say, 'Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped and served them, for that reason the LORD has brought all this adversity on them.'"

"Blessed be the LORD your God who delighted in you to put you on the throne of Israel; because the LORD loves Israel forever, He made you king, to do justice and righteousness."

And all the earth was seeking the attention of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of his father David had been.

Now 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 also raised up another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master Hadadezer, king of Zobah.