2 Chronicles 6:12–42

And ↦he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and ↦spread forth his hands:⇇

For Solomon had made a brasen ↦scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of ↦the court: and upon it he stood, and ↦kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,⇇

And said, ↦O LORD God of Israel, there is ↦no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which ↦keepest covenant, and shewest ↦mercy unto thy servants, that ↦walk before thee with all their hearts:⇇

Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him; ↦and spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day.⇇

Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, ↦keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, ↦saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way ↦to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.⇇

Now then, ↦O LORD God of Israel, ↦let thy word be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David.⇇

↦But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, ↦heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; ↦how much less this house which I have built!⇇

↦Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, ↦to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee:⇇

That ↦thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest ↦put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth ↦toward this place.⇇

Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from ↦thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, ↦forgive.⇇

If a man ↦sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and ↦the oath come before thine altar in this house;⇉⇇

Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by ↦requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by ↦justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.⇇

And if thy people Israel be ↦put to the worse before the enemy, ↦because they have sinned against thee; and ↦shall return and confess thy name, and ↦pray and make supplication before thee in this house;⇇

Then hear thou from the heavens, and ↦forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land ↦which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.⇇

When ↦the heaven is shut up, and ↦there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet ↦if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and ↦turn from their sin, when ↦thou dost afflict them;⇇

Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, ↦when thou hast taught them the ↦good way, wherein they should walk; and ↦send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance.⇇

↦If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, ↦locusts, or caterpillers; if ↦their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; ↦whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be:⇇

Then ↦what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall ↦know his own sore and his own grief, and shall ↦spread forth his hands in this house:⇇

Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and ↦render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for ↦thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:)⇇

That they may ↦fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.⇇

Moreover concerning ↦the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but ↦is come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and ↦thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; ↦if they come and pray in this house;⇇

Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; ↦that all people of the earth may know thy name, and ↦fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.⇉⇇

If ↦thy people go out to war against their enemies ↦by the way that thou shalt send them, and ↦they pray unto thee ↦toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name;⇇

Then ↦hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and ↦maintain their ↦cause.⇇

If ↦they sin against thee, (↦for there is no man which sinneth not,) and ↦thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near;⇇

↦Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, ↦We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly;⇇

If they ↦return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and ↦pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward ↦the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name:⇇

Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their ↦cause, and ↦forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.⇇

Now, ↦my God, let, I beseech thee, ↦thine eyes be open, and let ↦thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.⇇

Now therefore ↦arise, O LORD God, into ↦thy resting place, thou, and ↦the ark of thy strength: let ↦thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let ↦thy saints rejoice in goodness.⇇

O LORD God, ↦turn not away the face of ↦thine anointed: ↦remember the mercies of David thy servant.⇇