Apr 9 - 2 Chronicles 6-8
2 Chronicles
1Then Solomon said: "The Lord has promised that he would dwell in a cloud2But I have built a house to his name, so that he may dwell there forever.3And the king turned his face, and he blessed the entire multitude of Israel, (for the whole crowd was standing and attentive) and he said4"Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, who has completed the work that he spoke to David my father, saying5‘From the day when I led my people away from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city from all the tribes of Israel, so that a house would be built in it to my name. And I did not choose any other man, so that he would be the ruler of my people Israel6But I chose Jerusalem, so that my name would be in it. And I chose David, so that I might appoint him over my people Israel.7And though David, my father, had decided that he would build a house to the name of the Lord God of Israel8the Lord said to him: ‘In so far as it was your will that you build a house to my name, certainly you have done well in having such a will9But you shall not build the house. Truly, your son, who will go forth from your loins, shall build a house to my name.10Therefore, the Lord has accomplished his word, which he had spoken. And I have risen up in place of my father David, and I sit upon the throne of Israel, just as the Lord spoke. And I have built a house to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel11And I have placed in it the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he formed with the sons of Israel.12Then he stood before the altar of the Lord, facing the entire multitude of Israel, and he extended his hands13For indeed, Solomon had made a bronze base, and he had positioned it in the midst of the hall; it held five cubits in length, and five cubits in width, and three cubits in height. And he stood upon it. And next, kneeling down while facing the entire multitude of Israel, and lifting up his palms towards heaven14he said: "O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth. You preserve covenant and mercy with your servants, who walk before you with all their hearts15You fulfilled for your servant David, my father, whatsoever you had said to him. And you carried out the deed that you promised with your mouth, just as the present time proves16Now then, O Lord God of Israel, fulfill for your servant David, my father, whatsoever you said to him, saying: ‘There shall not fail to be a man from you before me, who will sit upon the throne of Israel, yet only if your sons will guard their ways, and will walk in my law, just as you also have walked before me.17And now, O Lord God of Israel, let your word be confirmed that you spoke to your servant David18How then is it to be believed that God would dwell with men upon the earth? If heaven and the heavens of the heavens do not contain you, how much less this house that I have built19But it has been done for this only, so that you may look with favor upon the prayer of your servant, and on his supplication, O Lord my God, and so that you may hear the prayers which your servant pours out before you20and so that you may open your eyes over this house, day and night, over the place where you promised that your name would be invoked21and so that you may heed the prayer which your servant is praying within it, and so that you may heed the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel. Whoever will pray in this place, listen from your habitation, that is, from heaven, and forgive22If anyone will have sinned against his neighbor, and he arrives to swear against him, and to bind himself with a curse before the altar in this house23you will hear him from heaven, and you will execute justice for your servants, so that you return, to the iniquitous man, his own way upon his own head, and so that you vindicate the just man, repaying him according to his own justice24If your people Israel will have been overwhelmed by their enemies, (for they will sin against you) and having been converted will do penance, and if they will have beseeched your name, and will have prayed in this place25you will heed them from heaven, and you will forgive the sin of your people Israel, and you will lead them back into the land that you gave to them and to their fathers26If the heavens have been closed, so that rain does not fall, because of the sin of the people, and if they will petition you in this place, and confess to your name, and be converted from their sins when you will afflict them27heed them from heaven, O Lord, and forgive the sins of your servants and of your people Israel, and teach them the good way, by which they may advance, and give rain to the land that you gave to your people as a possession28If a famine will have risen up in the land, or pestilence, or fungus, or mildew, or locusts, or beetles, or if enemies will have laid waste to the countryside and will have besieged the gates of the cities, or whatever scourge or infirmity will have pressed upon them29if anyone from your people Israel, knowing his own scourge and infirmity, will have made supplication and will have extended his hands in this house30you will heed him from heaven, indeed from your sublime habitation, and you will forgive, and you will repay each one according to his ways, which you know him to hold in his heart. For you alone know the hearts of the sons of men31So may they fear you, and so may they walk in your ways, during all the days that they live upon the face of the land, which you gave to our fathers32Also, if the outsider, who is not from your people Israel, will have arrived from a far away land, because of your great name, and because of your robust hand and your outstretched arm, and if he will adore in this place33you will heed him from heaven, your most firm habitation, and you will accomplish all the things about which this sojourner will have called out to you, so that all the people of the earth may know your name, and may fear you, just as your people Israel do, and so that they may know that your name is invoked over this house, which I have built34If, having gone out to war against their adversaries along the way that you will send them, your people adore you facing in the direction of this city, which you have chosen, and of this house, which I have built to your name35you will heed their prayers from heaven, and their supplications, and you will vindicate them36But if they will have sinned against you (for there is no man who does not sin) and you will have become angry against them, and if you will have delivered them to their enemies, and so they lead them away as captives to a far away land, or even to one that is near37and if, having been converted in their heart in the land to which they had been led as captives, they will do penance, and beseech you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have acted unjustly,38and if they will have returned to you, with their whole heart and with their whole soul, in the land of their captivity to which they were led away, and if they will adore you in the direction of their own land, which you gave to their fathers, and of the city, which you have chosen, and of the house, which I have built to your name39from heaven, that is, from your firm habitation, you will heed their prayers, and you will accomplish judgment, and you will forgive your people, even though they are sinners40For you are my God. Let your eyes be open, I beg you, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place41Now therefore, rise up, O Lord God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your holy ones rejoice in what is good42O Lord God, may you not turn away from the face of your Christ. Remember the mercies of your servant, David.
1And when Solomon had completed pouring out his prayers, fire descended from heaven, and it devoured the holocausts and the victims. And the majesty of the Lord filled the house2Neither were the priests able to enter into the temple of the Lord, because the majesty of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord3Moreover, all the sons of Israel saw the fire descending, and the glory of the Lord upon the house. And falling prone upon the ground, on the layer of pavement stones, they adored and praised the Lord: "For he is good. For his mercy is everlasting.4Then the king and all the people were immolating victims before the Lord5And so, king Solomon slaughtered victims: twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand rams. And the king and the entire people dedicated the house of God6Then the priests and the Levites were standing in their offices, with the instruments of music for the Lord, which king David made in order to praise the Lord: "For his mercy is eternal." And they were playing the hymns of David with their hands. And the priests were sounding out with trumpets before them, and all of Israel was standing7Also, Solomon sanctified the middle of the atrium in front of the temple of the Lord. For he had offered the holocausts and the fat of peace offerings in that place because the bronze altar, which he had made, had not been able to support the holocausts and the sacrifices and the fat8Therefore, Solomon kept the solemnity, at that time, for seven days, and all of Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath, even to the torrent of Egypt9And on the eighth day, he held a solemn gathering, because he had dedicated the altar over seven days, and he had celebrated the solemnity over seven days10And so, on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he dismissed the people to their dwellings, joyful and glad over the good that the Lord had done for David, and for Solomon, and for his people Israel11And Solomon completed the house of the Lord, and the house of the king, and all that he had resolved in his heart to do for the house of the Lord, and for his own house. And he prospered12Then the Lord appeared to him by night, and said: "I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice13If I close up heaven, so that no rain will fall, or if I order and instruct the locust to devour the land, or if I send a pestilence among my people14and if my people, over whom my name has been invoked, being converted, will have petitioned me and sought my face, and will have done penance for their wicked ways, then I will heed them from heaven, and I will forgive their sins, and I will heal their land15Also, my eyes will be open, and my ears will be attentive, to the prayer of him who shall pray in this place16For I have chosen and sanctified this place, so that my name may be there continually, and so that my eyes and my heart may remain there, for all days17And as for you, if you will walk before me, just as your father David walked, and if you will act in accord with all that I have instructed you, and if you will observe my justices and judgments18I will raise up the throne of your kingdom, just as I promised to your father David, saying: ‘There shall not be taken away a man from your stock who will be ruler in Israel.19But if you will have turned away, and will have forsaken my justices and my precepts, which I have set before you, and going astray, you serve strange gods, and you adore them20I will uproot you from my land, which I gave to you, and from this house, which I sanctified to my name, and I will cast it away from before my face, and I will deliver it to be a parable and an example for all the peoples21And this house will be like a proverb to all who pass by. And being astonished, they shall say: ‘Why has the Lord acted this way toward this land and toward this house?22And they shall respond: ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who led them away from the land of Egypt, and they took hold of foreign gods, and they adored and worshipped them. Therefore, all these evils have overwhelmed them.’
1Then, twenty years having passed since Solomon built the house of the Lord and his own house2he built the cities that Hiram had given to Solomon, and he caused the sons of Israel to live there3Also, he went to Hamath Zobah, and he obtained it4And he built Palmira in the desert, and he built very fortified cities in Hamath5And he built upper Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, as walled cities, having gates and bars and locks6as well as Baalath, and all the very strong cities which were of Solomon, and all the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen. Everything whatsoever that Solomon willed and decided, he built in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and throughout the entire land of his authority7All the people who had been left from the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, those who were not from the stock of Israel8those of their sons and their posterity whom the sons of Israel had not put to death, Solomon subjugated as tributaries, even to this day9But he did not appoint anyone from the sons of Israel to serve in the works of the king. For they were men of war, and first rulers, and commanders of his chariots and horsemen10Now all the leaders of the army of king Solomon were two hundred fifty, who were instructing the people11Truly, he transferred the daughter of Pharaoh, from the City of David, to the house that he had built for her. For the king said: "My wife shall not live in the house of David, king of Israel, for it has been sanctified. For the ark of the Lord has entered into it.12Then Solomon offered holocausts to the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had constructed before the portico13so that every day there would be an offering on it, in accord with the precept of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and three times a year on the feast days, that is, on the solemnity of unleavened bread, and on the solemnity of weeks, and on the solemnity of tabernacles14And he appointed, in accord with the plan of his father David, the offices of the priests in their ministries; and those of the Levites, in their orders, so that they might praise and minister before the priests according to the ritual of each day; and the porters, in their divisions, from gate to gate. For so had David, the man of God, instructed15Neither the priests, nor the Levites, transgressed against the commands of the king, in all that he had instructed, and in the keeping of the treasuries16Solomon had all the expenses prepared, from the day on which he founded the house of the Lord, even until the day when he perfected it17Then Solomon went away to Eziongeber, and to Eloth, on the coast of the Red Sea, which is in the land of Edom18And Hiram sent to him ships, by the hands of his servants, sailors and skillful navigators of the sea, and they went away with the servants of Solomon to Ophir. And they took from there four hundred fifty talents of gold, and they brought it to king Solomon