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Royalty and Ruin
that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud;
for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.”
Verses 13, 14
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Solomon’s Prayer
In the midst of the temple court a brass platform had been built.
On this Solomon stood, and with hands lifted up he blessed the vast
multitude before him. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has
fulfilled with His hands what He spoke with His mouth to my father
David, saying, ... ‘I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be
there.’”
2 Chronicles 6:4-6
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Solomon then knelt on the platform, lifted his hands toward
heaven, and prayed: “Heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot
contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! ... May
You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel,
when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling
place, and when You hear, forgive. ...
[16]
“If Your people Israel ... have sinned against You, and return
and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You
in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your
people Israel. ...
“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because
they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and
confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them,
then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants. ...
“When their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities;
whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer,
whatever supplication is made by anyone or by all Your people
Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and
spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear from heaven
Your dwelling place, and forgive, ... that they may fear You, to walk
in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our
fathers.
“Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who ... has come from a far
country for the sake of Your great name ..., when they come and pray
in this temple; then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do
according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples
of the earth may know Your name and fear You. ...