2 Chronicles 5

1 When all the work undertaken by Solomon for the temple of the LORD had been completed, he brought in the dedicated offerings of his father David, putting the silver, the gold and all the other articles in the treasuries of the house of God.
2 At Solomon's order the elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes of the Israelite ancestral houses, came to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the LORD'S covenant from the City of David (which is Zion).
3 All the men of Israel assembled before the king during the festival of the seventh month.
4 When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark,
5 and they carried the ark and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels that were in the tent; it was the levitical priests who carried them.
6 King Solomon and the entire community of Israel gathered about him before the ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen so numerous that they could not be counted or numbered.
7 The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple.
8 The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, sheltering the ark and its poles from above.
9 The poles were long enough so that their ends could be seen from that part of the holy place nearest the sanctuary; however, they could not be seen beyond. The ark has remained there to this day.
10 There was nothing in it but the two tablets which Moses put there on Horeb, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with the Israelites at their departure from Egypt.
11 When the priests came out of the holy place (all the priests who were present had purified themselves without reference to the rotation of their various classes),
12 the Levites who were singers, all who belonged to Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, stood east of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets.
13 When the trumpeters and singers were heard as a single voice praising and giving thanks to the LORD, and when they raised the sound of the trumpets, cymbals and other musical instruments to give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever, the building of the LORD'S temple was filled with a cloud.
14 The priests could not continue to minister because of the cloud, since the LORD'S glory filled the house of God.

2 Chronicles 6

1 Then Solomon said: The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud.
2 I have truly built you a princely house and dwelling, where you may abide forever.
3 Turning about, the king greeted the whole community of Israel as they stood.
4 He said: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth made a promise to my father David and by his own hands brought it to fulfillment. He said:
5 'Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen any city from among all the tribes of Israel for the building of a temple to my honor, nor have I chosen any man to be commander of my people Israel;
6 but now I choose Jerusalem, where I shall be honored, and I choose David to rule my people Israel.'
7 My father David wished to build a temple to the honor of the LORD, the God of Israel,
8 but the LORD said to him: 'In wishing to build a temple to my honor, you do well.
9 However, you shall not build the temple; rather, your son whom you will beget shall build the temple to my honor.'
10 Now the LORD has fulfilled the promise that he made. I have succeeded my father David and have taken my seat on the throne of Israel, as the LORD foretold, and I have built the temple to the honor of the LORD, the God of Israel.
11 And I have placed there the ark, in which abides the covenant of the LORD which he made with the Israelites.
12 Solomon then took his place before the altar of the LORD in the presence of the whole community of Israel and stretched forth his hands.
13 He had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, which he had placed in the middle of the courtyard. Having ascended it, Solomon knelt in the presence of the whole of Israel and stretched forth his hands toward heaven.
14 Thus he prayed: LORD, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth; you keep your covenant and show kindness to your servants who are wholeheartedly faithful to you.
15 You have kept the promise you made to my father David, your servant. With your own mouth you spoke it, and by your own hand you have brought it to fulfillment this day.
16 Now, therefore, LORD, God of Israel, keep the further promise you made to my father David, your servant, when you said, 'You shall always have someone from your line to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided only that your descendants look to their conduct so as always to live according to my law, even as you have lived in my presence.'
17 Now, LORD, God of Israel, may this promise which you made to your servant David be confirmed.
18 Can it indeed be that God dwells with mankind on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!
19 Look kindly on the prayer and petition of your servant, O LORD, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication your servant makes before you.
20 May your eyes watch day and night over this temple, the place where you have decreed you shall be honored; may you heed the prayer which I your servant offer toward this place.
21 Listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel which they direct toward this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling, and when you have heard, pardon.
22 When any man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath of execration against himself, and when he comes for the oath before your altar in this temple,
23 listen from heaven: take action and pass judgment on your servants, requiting the wicked man and holding him responsible for his conduct, but absolving the innocent and rewarding him according to his virtue.
24 When your people Israel have sinned against you and are defeated by the enemy, but afterward they return and praise your name, and they pray to you and entreat you in this temple,
25 listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave them and their fathers.
26 When the sky is closed so that there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, but then they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they withdraw from sin because you afflict them,
27 listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. But teach them the right way to live, and send rain upon your land which you gave your people as their heritage.
28 When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, or blight, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; when their enemies besiege them at any of their gates; whenever there is a plague or sickness of any kind;
29 when any Israelite of all your people offers a prayer or petition of any kind, and in awareness of his affliction and pain, stretches out his hands toward this temple,
30 listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and forgive. Knowing his heart, render to everyone according to his conduct, for you alone know the hearts of men.
31 So may they fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live on the land you gave our fathers.
32 For the foreigner, too, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a distant land to honor your great name, your mighty power, and your outstretched arm, when they come in prayer to this temple,
33 listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner entreats you, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, fearing you as do your people Israel, and knowing that this house which I have built is dedicated to your honor.
34 When your people go forth to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and pray to you in the direction of this city and of the house I have built to your honor,
35 listen from heaven to their prayer and petition, and defend their cause.
36 When they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver them to the enemy, so that their captors deport them to another land, far or near,
37 when they repent in the land where they are captive and are converted, when they entreat you in the land of their captivity and say, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,'
38 and with their whole heart and with their whole soul they turn back to you in the land of those who hold them captive, when they pray in the direction of their land which you gave their fathers, and of the city you have chosen, and of the house which I have built to your honor,
39 listen from your heavenly dwelling place, hear their prayer and petitions, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
40 My God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.
41 And now, Advance, LORD God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your majesty. May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, may your faithful ones rejoice in good things.
42 LORD God, reject not the plea of your anointed, remember the devotion of David, your servant.

2 Chronicles 7

1 When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the holocaust and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house.
2 But the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
3 All the Israelites looked on while the fire came down and the glory of the LORD was upon the house, and they fell down upon the pavement with their faces to the earth and adored, praising the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.
4 The king and all the people were offering sacrifices before the LORD.
5 King Solomon offered as sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep.
6 Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests were standing at their stations, as were the Levites, with the musical instruments of the LORD which King David had made for praising the LORD, for his mercy endures forever, when David used them to accompany the hymns. Across from them the priests blew the trumpets and all Israel stood.
7 Then Solomon consecrated the middle part of the court which lay before the house of the LORD; there he offered the holocausts and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made could not hold the holocausts, the cereal offerings and the fat.
8 On this occasion Solomon and with him all Israel, who had assembled in very large numbers from Labo of Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, celebrated the festival for seven days.
9 On the eighth day they held a special meeting, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the feast for seven days.
10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people back to their tents, rejoicing and glad at heart at the good things the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.
11 Solomon completed the house of the LORD and the royal palace; he successfully accomplished everything he had planned to do in regard to the house of the LORD and his own house.
12 The LORD appeared to Solomon during the night and said to him: I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for my house of sacrifice.
13 If I close heaven so that there is no rain, if I command the locust to devour the land, if I send pestilence among my people,
14 and if my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land.
15 Now my eyes shall be open and my ears attentive to the prayer of this place.
16 And now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart also shall be there always.
17 As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David did, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and ordinances,
18 I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David when I said, 'There shall never be lacking someone of yours as ruler in Israel.'
19 But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and commands which I placed before you, if you proceed to venerate and worship strange gods,
20 then I will uproot the people from the land I gave them; I will cast from my sight this house which I have consecrated to my honor, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
21 This temple which is so exalted--everyone passing by it will be amazed and ask: 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'
22 And men will answer: 'They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted strange gods and worshiped them and served them. That is why he has brought down upon them all this evil.'