SECOND
CHRONICLES
2 Chronicles
Chapter 6
1
¶ Then Solomon said, The LORD has said that he would dwell in the thick
darkness.
2
But I have built a house for you, a place for you to dwell in forever.
3
And the king turned his face, and blessed the entire congregation of
4
And he said, Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who has with his hands
fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying,
5
Since the day that I brought my people out of the
6
But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David
to be over my people Israel.
7
Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the
LORD God of Israel.
8
But the LORD said to David my father, You planned to
build a house for my name, and you did well to plan it:
9
But you must not build the house; instead your son who shall come out of your
loins, will build the house for my name.
10
Now the LORD has fulfilled his promise: for I have risen up in the place of
David my father, and am sitting on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised,
and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
11
And I put into it the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel.
12
¶ And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the
presence of the whole congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands:
13
For Solomon had made a brass scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits wide,
and three cubits high, and had placed it in the center of the court: and he
stood on it, and kneeled down upon his knees before the entire congregation of
Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven,
14
And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heaven,
or in the earth; who keeps a covenant, and shows mercy to your
servants, who walk before you with all their hearts:
15
You who have kept your promise to your servant David my father; and have
fulfilled with your hand what you spoke with your mouth, as it is this day.
16
Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father
that which you promised him, saying, You will never fail to have a man before
me sitting upon the throne of Israel; if only your children take heed to their
way to walk in my law, as you have walked before me.
17
Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let your promise,
which you have spoken to your servant David, become fact.
18
But will God actually dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the
heaven of heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house which I have
built!
19
Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, O LORD
my God, to hear the cry and the prayer which your servant prays before you:
20
That your eyes may be open day and night on this house, on the place of which
you said that you would put your name there; to hear the prayer which your
servant prays toward this place.
21
So heed the requests of your servant, and your people Israel, which they shall
make toward this place: hear from your dwelling place, even from heaven;
and when you hear, forgive.
22
If a man sins against his neighbor, and he is required to take an oath, and the
oath comes before your altar in this house;
23
Then hear from heaven, and do, and judge your servants, by punishing the
wicked, by bringing his actions down upon his own head; and by vindicating the
righteous, by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
24
And if your people Israel have been defeated by the enemy, because they have
sinned against you; and shall return and confess your name, and pray and make
supplication before you in this house;
25
Then hear from the heavens, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and
bring them back to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.
26
When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain,
because they have sinned against you; yet if they pray toward this
place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them;
27
Then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people
Israel, when you have taught them the good way, in which they should walk; and
send rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an
inheritance.
28
If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, or
mildew, locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemies besiege them in the cities
of their land; whatever affliction or sickness there may be:
29
Then whatever prayer or supplication any man, or all of your
people Israel, shall make, each knowing his own affliction and his own grief,
and spreading out his hands in this house:
30
Then hear from heaven your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to every man
according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you alone know the hearts
of the children of men:)
31
That they may fear you, to walk in your ways, as long as they live in the land
that you gave to our fathers.
32
Moreover concerning the stranger, who is not of your people Israel, but has
come from a far country for your great name’s sake, and your mighty hand, and
your out stretched arm; if they come and pray in this house;
33
Then hear from the heavens, from your dwelling place, and do according to all
that the stranger asks you for; that all people of the earth may know your
name, and fear you, as do your people Israel, and may know that this
house which I have built is called by your name.
34
If your people go out to fight against their enemies by the way that you send
them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen, and the house
which I have built for your name;
35
Then hear their prayer and their supplication from the heavens, and maintain
their cause.
36
If they sin against you, (for there is no man who does not sin,) and you
are angry with them, and put them in the hands of an enemy, who carries them
away captive into a land far away or near;
37
Yet if they return to their senses in the land to which they are taken
as prisoners, and turn and pray to you in the land of their captivity, saying,
We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly;
38
If they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land
of their captivity, where they have been taken as prisoners, and pray toward
their land, which you gave to their fathers, and toward the city that
you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name:
39
Then hear their prayer and their supplications from the heavens, from your
dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have
sinned against you.
40
Now, my God, let, I beseech you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be
attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
41
Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of
your strength: let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let
your saints rejoice in goodness.
42
O LORD God, do not turn away the face of your anointed: remember the mercies of
David your servant.