1 Kings 8 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Then Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel — every tribal leader and head of the ancestral families — in Jerusalem, to bring up the chest of Yahweh's covenant from the City of David, which is Zion.

Every man of Israel gathered to King Solomon during the festival in the month of Ethanim — that's the seventh month.

When all the elders of Israel arrived, the priests lifted the chest

and carried it up along with the tent of meeting and all the sacred equipment that was in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them all up.

King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel who had gathered with him stood before the chest, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that no one could count or keep track of them.

Then the priests brought the chest of Yahweh's covenant to its place in the inner room of the house — the most sacred space — beneath the wings of the winged guardians.

The winged guardians spread their wings over the place where the chest sat, forming a canopy over the chest and its carrying poles from above.

The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the sacred space in front of the inner room, but they couldn't be seen from outside. They're still there to this day.

There was nothing in the chest except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh made his covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

When the priests came out of the sacred space, a cloud filled the house of Yahweh.

The priests couldn't even stand there to do their work because of the cloud — Yahweh's glory had completely filled his house.

Then Solomon said, "Yahweh has said he would live in thick darkness."

"I have built you an exalted house — a place for you to live forever."

Then the king turned around and spoke words of goodness over the entire assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly stood.

He said, "Praise Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke his promise directly to my father David and has now fulfilled it with his own hands. He said,"

"'Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I didn't choose any city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house where my name would live. But I chose David to lead my people Israel.'"

"Now, my father David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel."

"But Yahweh said to my father David, 'The fact that you had it in your heart to build a house for my name — you did well to have that in your heart.'"

"'But you won't be the one to build the house. Instead, your son — the one who will come from your own body — he will build the house for my name.'"

"And Yahweh has made good on what he promised. I've risen to take my father David's place and sit on the throne of Israel, just as Yahweh said. And I've built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel."

"I've set up a place there for the chest that holds the covenant Yahweh made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in front of the entire assembly of Israel, spread his hands toward the sky,

and said, "Yahweh, God of Israel — there is no God like you in the sky above or on the earth below. You keep your covenant and show loyal love to your servants who walk before you with everything they have."

"You kept your promise to your servant David, my father. What you spoke with your mouth, you've fulfilled with your hand — as it is today."

"So now, Yahweh, God of Israel, keep what you promised your servant David my father when you said, 'You will never fail to have a man sitting before me on the throne of Israel — as long as your descendants are careful to walk before me the way you have walked before me.'"

"And now, God of Israel, please let the word you spoke to your servant David my father prove true."

"But will God really live on earth? Look — the sky and the highest heaven can't contain you. How much less this house I've built!"

"But please turn toward the prayer of your servant and his plea for favor, Yahweh my God. Hear the cry and the prayer your servant is praying before you today."

"Let your eyes be open toward this house night and day — the place where you said, 'My name will be there' — and hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place."

"Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from your home in heaven, and when you hear — forgive."

"When someone wrongs their neighbor and is required to take an oath, and comes to swear before your altar in this house — "

" — then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants. Declare the guilty party guilty and bring the consequences of their actions on their own head, and declare the innocent party innocent by giving them what their right conduct deserves."

"When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they've failed you, but then they turn back to you, acknowledge your name, and pray and plead with you in this house — "

" — then hear from heaven and forgive the failure of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors."

"When the sky is shut up and there's no rain because they've failed you, but then they pray toward this place, acknowledge your name, and turn away from their failures because you've humbled them — "

" — then hear from heaven and forgive the failure of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the good way they should walk in, and send rain on your land that you gave your people as their inheritance."

"When there's famine in the land, or plague, or crop disease, or mildew, or locusts, or grasshoppers — when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities — whatever disaster, whatever sickness — "

" — whatever prayer or plea is made by any person or by all your people Israel — each one knowing the pain in their own heart — when they spread their hands toward this house,"

" — then hear from heaven, your home, and forgive. Act and give each person what their conduct deserves, since you know their heart — because you alone know every human heart — "

" — so that they will honor you all the days they live on the land you gave our ancestors."

"And what about the foreigner who doesn't belong to your people Israel but comes from a distant land because of your name — "

" — because they'll hear about your great name, your powerful hand, and your outstretched arm — when they come and pray toward this house,"

" — then hear from heaven, your home, and do everything the foreigner asks of you. Do this so that all the peoples of the earth will know your name and honor you, just as your people Israel do, and so they'll know that this house I've built carries your name."

"When your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever route you send them, and they pray to Yahweh in the direction of the city you've chosen and the house I've built for your name —"

" — then hear their prayer and their plea from heaven and uphold their cause."

"When they fail you — because there's no one who doesn't fail — and you become angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, and their captors carry them away to an enemy land, whether far away or nearby,"

" — and they come to their senses in the land where they've been taken captive, and they turn back and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, 'We've failed, we've done wrong, we've acted wickedly' — "

" — and they return to you with all their heart and all their being in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and they pray to you in the direction of their land that you gave their ancestors, the city you've chosen, and the house I've built for your name — "

"— then hear their prayer and their plea from heaven, your home, and uphold their cause."

"Forgive your people who have failed you — all the ways they've wronged you — and make their captors show them compassion."