2 Chronicles 6 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

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

But I have built a magnificent house for you — a permanent place for you to live forever."

Then the king turned around and spoke a good word over the entire assembly of Israel while the whole assembly stood.

He said, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, deserves praise — he has fulfilled with his own hands what he promised with his own mouth to my father David. He said,

'From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house for my name to be there, and I chose no man to be leader over my people Israel.

But then I chose Jerusalem for my name to be there, and I chose David to be over my people Israel.'

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

But Yahweh said to my father David, 'Because it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

However, you yourself will not build the house. Instead, your son — the one who will come from your own body — he is the one who will build the house for my name.'

"And Yahweh has kept the promise he made: I have taken my father David's place and now sit on the throne of Israel, just as Yahweh promised. And I have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

And I have placed the chest there — the one containing the covenant that Yahweh made with the people of Israel."

Then Solomon stood before Yahweh's altar in front of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

(Solomon had made a bronze platform — seven and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide, and four and a half feet high — and had placed it in the center of the courtyard. He stood on it, then knelt down on his knees before the entire assembly of Israel, spread out 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 their whole heart.

You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. What you said with your mouth, you have fulfilled with your hand this very day.

"Now, Yahweh, God of Israel, keep the other promise you made to your servant David, my father, when you said, 'You will never fail to have a man from your line sitting before me on the throne of Israel — if only your descendants are careful about their way of life, walking according to my instructions just as you have walked before me.'

Now, Yahweh, God of Israel, let the promise you made to your servant David prove true.

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

But turn toward the prayer of your servant and his plea for your favor, Yahweh my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you.

Let your eyes be open toward this house day and night — toward the place where you said you would put your name — listening to the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

Listen to the pleas of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, the place where you live — and when you hear, forgive.

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

then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants: pay back the guilty person by bringing what they've done down on their own head, and declare the one who is in the right to be innocent, giving them what their right standing deserves.

"When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have failed you, and they come back and acknowledge your name, praying and pleading before you in this house —

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

"When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have failed you, and they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name, turning away from their failure because you have 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 to your people as an inheritance.

"When there is famine in the land, or plague, or crop disease or mildew, or locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in any of their cities — whatever disaster or sickness comes —

then whatever prayer or plea is made by anyone at all — or by all your people Israel — each person knowing their own suffering and pain, spreading out their hands toward this house —

then hear from heaven, the place where you live. Forgive, and give to each person according to all their ways, since you know their heart — for you alone know the human heart —

so that they will honor you, walking in your ways all the days they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.

"And also the foreigner — someone who is not from your people Israel — who comes from a distant land because of your great name, your powerful hand, and your outstretched arm: when they come and pray toward this house —

then hear from heaven, the place where you live, 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 own people Israel do, and so they will know that this house I've built bears your name.

"When your people go out to war against their enemies, on whatever road you send them, and they pray to you in the direction of this city you have chosen and this house I have built for your name —

then hear their prayer and their plea from heaven, and uphold their cause.

"When they fail you — and there is no one who doesn't fail — and you become angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, so that their captors carry them away to a land far or near,

and they have a change of heart in the land where they've been taken captive, and they come back to you and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have failed, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly' —

and they come back to you with their whole heart and their whole being in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive, and they pray in the direction of their land that you gave to their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen, and toward the house I have built for your name —

then hear from heaven, the place where you live, their prayer and their pleas. Uphold their cause and forgive your people who have failed you.

"Now, my God, please — let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer made in this place.

"Now rise up, Yahweh God, and come to your resting place — you and the chest that holds your strength. Let your priests be clothed with deliverance, and let those devoted to you celebrate what is good.

"Yahweh God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. Remember the acts of loyal love shown to your servant David."