1 Kings 8:51-64

51for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace. 52“May your eyes be open to your servant’s plea and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they cry out to you.

53For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you, Sovereign LORD, brought our ancestors out of Egypt.” 54When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

55He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying: 56“Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. 57May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. 58May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. 59And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, 60so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other.

61And may your hearts be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”

The Dedication of the Temple 62Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD .

63Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD : twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD .

64On that same day the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the LORD, and there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar that stood before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.