1 Then said Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 2 But I have built a house to thy name, holy to thee, And prepared [for thee] to dwell in forever. 3 And the king turned his face, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood by. 4 And he said, Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel: he has even fulfilled with his hands as he spoke with his mouth to my father David, saying, 5 From the day when I brought up my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city of all the tribes of Israel, to build a house that my name should be there; neither did I choose a man to be a leader over my people Israel. 6 But I chose Jerusalem that my name should be there; and I chose David to be over my people Israel. 7 And it came into the heart of David my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 8 But the Lord said to my father David, Whereas it came into thy heart to build a house for my name, thou didst well that it came into thy heart. 9 Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; for thy son who shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. 10 And the Lord has confirmed this word, which he spoke; and I am raised up in the room of my father David, and I sit upon the throne of Israel as the Lord said, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord God of Israel: 11 and I have set there the ark in which [is] the covenant of the Lord, which he made with Israel. 12 And he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands. 13 For Solomon [had] made a brazen scaffold, and set it in the midst of the court of the sanctuary; the length of it [was] five cubits, and the breadth of it five cubits, and the height of it three cubits: and he stood upon it, and fell upon his knees before the whole congregation of Israel, and spread abroad his hands to heaven, 14 and said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven, or on the earth; keeping covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with [their] whole heart. 15 Even as thou hast kept [them] with thy servant David my father, as thou hast spoken to him in words—thou hast both spoken with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled [it] with thy hands, as it is this day. 16 And now, Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father the things which thou spokest to him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man before me sitting on the throne of Israel, if only thy sons will take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou didst walk before me. 17 And now, Lord God of Israel, let, I pray thee, thy word be confirmed, which thou hast spoken to thy servant David. 18 For will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? if the heaven and the heaven of heavens will not suffice thee, what then is this house which I have built? 19 Yet thou shalt have respect to the prayer of thy servant, and to my petition, O Lord God, so as to hearken to the petition and the prayer which thy servant prays before thee this day: 20 so that thine eyes should be open over this house by day and by night, toward this place, whereon thou saidst thy name should be called, so as to hear the prayer which thy servant prays toward this house. 21 And thou shalt hear the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, whatsoever prayers they shall make toward this place: and thou shalt hearken in thy dwelling place out of heaven, yea thou shalt hear, and be merciful. 22 If a man sin against his neighbor, and he bring an oath upon him so as to make him swear, and he come and swear before the altar in this house; 23 then shalt thou hearken out of heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, to recompense the transgressor, and to return his ways upon his head: and to justify the righteous, to recompense him according to his righteousness. 24 And if thy people Israel should be put to the worse before the enemy, if they should sin against thee, and [then] turn and confess to thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house; 25 then shalt thou hearken out of heaven and shalt be merciful to the sins of thy people Israel, and thou shalt restore them to the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. 26 When heaven is restrained, and there is no rain, because they shall have sinned against thee, and [when] they shall pray toward this place, and praise thy name, and shall turn from their sins, because thou shalt afflict them; 27 then shalt thou hearken from heaven, and thou shalt be merciful to the sins of thy servants, and of thy people Israel; for thou shalt show them the good way in which they shall walk; and thou shalt send rain upon thy land, which thou gavest to thy people for an inheritance. 28 If there should be famine upon the land, if there should be death, a pestilent wind and blight; if there should be locust and caterpillar, and if the enemy should harass them before their cities: in whatever plague and whatever distress [they may be]; 29 then whatever prayer and whatever supplication shall be made by any man and all thy people Israel, if a man should know his own plague and his own sickness, and should spread forth his hands toward this house; 30 then shalt thou hear from heaven, out of thy prepared dwelling place, and shalt be merciful, and shalt recompense to the man according to his ways, as thou shalt know his heart [to be]; for thou alone knowest the heart of the children of men: 31 that they may reverence all thy ways all the days which they live upon the face of the land, which thou gavest to our fathers. 32 And every stranger who is not himself of thy people Israel, and who shall have come from a distant land because of thy great name, and thy mighty hand, and thy high arm; when they shall come and worship toward this place— 33 then shalt thou hearken out of heaven, out of thy prepared dwelling place, and shalt do according to all that the stranger shall call upon thee for; that all the nations of the earth may know thy name, and that they may fear thee, as thy people Israel [do], and that they may know that thy name is called upon this house which I have built. 34 And if thy people shall go forth to war against their enemies by the way by which thou shalt send them, and shall pray to thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and [toward] the house which I have built to thy name; 35 then shalt thou hear out of heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. 36 Whereas if they shall sin against thee (for there is no man who will not sin), and thou shalt smite them, and deliver them up before their enemies, and they that take them captive shall carry them away into a land of enemies, to a land far off or near; 37 and [if] they shall repent in their land whither they were carried captive, and shall also turn and make supplication to thee in their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have transgressed, we have wrought unrighteously; 38 and [if] they shall turn to thee with all their heart and all their soul in the land of them that carried them captives, whither they carried them captives, and shall pray toward their land which thou gavest to their fathers, and the city which thou didst choose, and the house which I built to thy name— 39 then shalt thou hear out of heaven, out of thy prepared dwelling place, their prayer and their supplication, and thou shalt execute justice, and shalt be merciful to thy people that sin against thee. 40 And now, Lord, let, I pray thee, thine eyes be opened, and thine ears be attentive to the petition [made in] this place. 41 And now, O Lord God, arise into thy resting place, Thou, and the ark of thy strength: Let thy priests, O Lord God, clothe themselves with salvation, And thy sons rejoice in prosperity. 42 O Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: Remember the mercies of thy servant David.
2 Chronicles · Updated Brenton English Septuagint
2 Chronicles 6 Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Same Septuagint text as Brenton, with modernised spelling.
Cross references (42)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Exodus 20:21; Psalm 18:8–11; Leviticus 16:2; Deuteronomy 4:11; 1 Kings 8:12–50
- 2 2 Chronicles 2:4–6; Psalm 135:21; Revelation 21:3; 1 Chronicles 28:20; 1 Chronicles 28:6
- 3 1 Kings 8:14; 1 Chronicles 16:2; Numbers 6:23–27; Joshua 22:6; Luke 24:50–51
- 4 Psalm 72:18–19; Psalm 68:32–35; Matthew 24:35; Psalm 41:13; Psalm 68:4
- 5 Deuteronomy 12:11; 1 Kings 8:16; Daniel 9:19; 1 Samuel 13:13–14; 2 Samuel 7:6–7
- 6 1 Chronicles 28:4; Psalm 132:13; 2 Chronicles 12:13; Psalm 78:68–70; Psalm 48:1
- 7 1 Kings 5:3; 1 Chronicles 17:1; 1 Chronicles 22:7; 1 Chronicles 28:2–4; 2 Samuel 7:2–3
- 8 2 Corinthians 8:12; 1 Kings 8:18–21; Mark 14:8
- 9 2 Samuel 7:12–13; 1 Chronicles 17:11–12; 1 Chronicles 17:4
- 10 1 Chronicles 17:11; 1 Kings 3:6–7; 1 Chronicles 29:15; Ecclesiastes 1:4; 2 Chronicles 1:1
- 11 2 Chronicles 5:10; 2 Chronicles 5:7; 1 Kings 8:21; Hebrews 9:4; 1 Kings 8:9
- 12 Isaiah 50:10; Exodus 9:33; Psalm 63:4; Job 11:13; Psalm 143:6
- 13 1 Kings 8:54; Nehemiah 8:4; Psalm 95:6; Ezra 9:5; 2 Chronicles 4:9
- 14 Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 7:9; Nehemiah 1:5; Psalm 89:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:12
- 15 1 Chronicles 22:9–10; 1 Kings 8:24; 2 Samuel 7:12
- 16 1 Kings 2:4; John 15:14–15; Psalm 132:12; 2 Chronicles 7:18; Psalm 119:1
- 17 Jeremiah 11:5; 2 Samuel 7:25–29; Exodus 24:10; 2 Chronicles 6:14; Isaiah 41:17
- 18 2 Chronicles 2:6; Isaiah 66:1; Psalm 139:7–10; 2 Corinthians 12:2; Acts 7:48–49
- 19 1 Kings 8:28; Psalm 130:2; Psalm 4:1; Psalm 20:1–3; John 17:20
- 20 Psalm 34:15; Psalm 121:5; 2 Chronicles 6:6; Daniel 6:10; Nehemiah 1:6
- 21 Micah 7:18; Daniel 9:19; Isaiah 43:25; 2 Chronicles 6:39; 2 Chronicles 30:27
- 22 Exodus 22:11; Numbers 5:19–22; Matthew 23:18; Leviticus 5:1; 1 Kings 8:31–32
- 23 Jeremiah 51:56; Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 2:9–10; Isaiah 3:10–11; Proverbs 17:15
- 24 Leviticus 26:17; Psalm 44:10; Judges 2:11; Deuteronomy 28:25; Nehemiah 9:1–37
- 25 Jeremiah 33:6–13; Joshua 21:43; Genesis 13:15; Psalm 106:40–47; Ezra 1:1–6
- 26 Deuteronomy 28:23; Deuteronomy 11:17; Leviticus 26:19; Proverbs 28:13; Hosea 5:15–6:1
- 27 Zechariah 10:1; Jeremiah 5:24; 1 Kings 8:35–36; Psalm 94:12; Jeremiah 6:16
- 28 Joel 2:25; Ruth 1:1; James 5:13; Revelation 9:3–11; 2 Chronicles 32:1
- 29 2 Chronicles 6:12–13; Psalm 91:15; Psalm 50:15; Psalm 32:2–6; Proverbs 14:10
- 30 1 Chronicles 28:9; 1 Samuel 16:7; Revelation 2:23; Matthew 16:27; Hebrews 4:13
- 31 1 Samuel 12:24; Psalm 128:1; Acts 9:31; Exodus 20:20; Job 28:28
- 32 Isaiah 56:3–7; 1 Kings 8:41–43; Matthew 8:10–11; John 12:20; Acts 10:1–4
- 33 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 22:27; Isaiah 49:6; 1 Samuel 17:46; Psalm 46:10
- 34 2 Chronicles 20:6–13; Isaiah 14:32; Judges 1:1–2; 1 Samuel 15:3; 2 Chronicles 14:9–12
- 35 Psalm 9:3–4; Isaiah 37:21–36; Daniel 9:17–19; Jeremiah 5:28
- 36 1 John 1:8–10; James 3:2; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Job 15:14–16; Psalm 143:2
- 37 Luke 15:17–19; Jeremiah 31:18–20; Isaiah 64:6–12; Daniel 9:5–11; Job 33:27–28
- 38 Joel 2:12–13; Deuteronomy 30:2–6; 2 Chronicles 33:11–13; 2 Chronicles 6:34; Daniel 9:3–4
- 39 2 Chronicles 6:35; Psalm 25:18; Micah 7:18–20; Zechariah 1:15–16
- 40 2 Chronicles 7:15; Psalm 116:2; Psalm 17:1; Nehemiah 1:6; Nehemiah 1:11
- 41 Isaiah 61:10; 1 Chronicles 28:2; Psalm 132:8–10; Philippians 3:3; Revelation 19:8
- 42 Isaiah 55:3; Psalm 132:1; Psalm 2:2; Psalm 89:24; Psalm 132:10
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
But that it belongs to God only to know men's secrets, hear what saith the prophet, "Thou most entirely alone knowest the hearts;" and again, "God trieth the hearts and reins; " and Jeremiah too saith, "The heart is deep above all things, and it is man, and who shall know him?" and, "Man shall look on the face, but …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Afterwards Solomon hearing his father David speak these things, built a wondrous house, and foreseeing Him who was to come into it, said in astonishment, Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)