One Year Bible.

Solomon Blesses the LORD

¹Then Solomon declared:

“The LORD has said that He would dwell

in the thick cloud.

²But I have built You an exalted house,

a place for You to dwell forever.”

³And as the whole assembly of Israel stood there, the king turned around and blessed them all ⁴and said:

“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying, ⁵‘Since the day I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be ruler over My people Israel. ⁶But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

⁷Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. ⁸But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart. ⁹Nevertheless, you are not the one to build it; but your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name.’

¹⁰Now the LORD has fulfilled the word that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the house for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹¹And there I have placed the ark, which contains the covenant of the LORD that He made with the children of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

¹²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. ¹³Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven, ¹⁴and said:

“O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth, keeping Your covenant of loving devotion with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. ¹⁵You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day.

¹⁶Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: ‘You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’ ¹⁷And now, O LORD, God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant David.

¹⁸But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built. ¹⁹Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You.

²⁰May Your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your Name, so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place. ²¹Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.

²²When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple, ²³then may You hear from heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing down on his own head what he has done, and justifying the righteous man by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

²⁴When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading before You in this temple, ²⁵then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to them and their fathers.

²⁶When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them, ²⁷then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

²⁸When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come, ²⁹then may whatever prayer or plea Your people Israel make— each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple— ³⁰be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart — for You alone know the hearts of men — ³¹so that they may fear You and walk in Your ways all the days they live in the land that You gave to our fathers.

³²And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm — when he comes and prays toward this temple, ³³then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.

³⁴When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You in the direction of this city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name, ³⁵then may You hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and may You uphold their cause.

³⁶When they sin against You— for there is no one who does not sin— and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to a land far or near, ³⁷and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’ ³⁸and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name, ³⁹then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and pleas, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who sinned against You.

⁴⁰Now, my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

⁴¹Now therefore, arise, O LORD God, and enter Your resting place,

You and the ark of Your might.

May Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation,

and may Your godly ones rejoice in goodness.

⁴²O LORD God, do not reject Your anointed one.

Remember Your loving devotion to Your servant David.”

Fire from Heaven

¹When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. ²The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it.

³When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD:

“For He is good;

His loving devotion endures forever.”

Sacrifices of Dedication

⁴Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. ⁵And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

⁶The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD and with which David had offered praise, saying, “For His loving devotion endures forever.” Across from the Levites, the priests sounded trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.

⁷Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of the LORD, and there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, since the bronze altar he had made could not hold all these offerings.

⁸So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him— a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt— kept the feast for seven days. ⁹On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.

¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the good things that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

The LORD’s Response to Solomon

¹¹When Solomon had finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace, successfully carrying out all that was in his heart to do for the house of the LORD and for his own palace, ¹²the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, ¹⁴and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

¹⁵Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. ¹⁶For I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.

¹⁷And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, ¹⁸then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’

¹⁹But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, ²⁰then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

²¹And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ²²And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them— because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

God Remains Faithful

¹What, then, is the advantage of being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ²Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

³What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? ⁴Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written:

“So that You may be proved right when You speak

and victorious when You judge.”

⁵But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms. ⁶Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world? ⁷However, if my falsehood accentuates God’s truthfulness, to the increase of His glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner? ⁸Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!

There Is No One Righteous

⁹What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. ¹⁰As it is written:

“There is no one righteous,

not even one.

¹¹There is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

¹²All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

¹³“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The venom of vipers is on their lips.”

¹⁴“Their mouths are full

of cursing and bitterness.”

¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ruin and misery lie in their wake,

¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”

¹⁸“There is no fear of God

before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

Righteousness through Faith in Christ

²¹But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets. ²²And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

²⁵God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. ²⁶He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith. ²⁸For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

²⁹Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

³¹Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

Abraham Justified by Faith

¹What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has discovered? ²If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. ³For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. ⁵However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷“Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

⁸Blessed is the man

whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

⁹Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before.

¹¹And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹²And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Abraham Receives the Promise

¹³For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring — not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.

¹⁸Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. ²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

²³Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham, ²⁴but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited— for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.