Day 126 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

2 Chronicles 6

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 for ever. 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, towards this place, whereon thou saidst thy name should be called, so as to hear the prayer which thy servant prays towards this house. 21 And thou shalt hear the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, whatsoever prayers they shall make towards 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 neighbour, 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 towards 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 shew 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 7

1 And when Solomon had finished praying, then the fire came down from heaven, and devoured the whole-burnt-offerings and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. 2 And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord at that time, for the glory of the Lord filled the house. 3 And all the children of Israel saw the fire descending, and the glory of the Lord was upon the house: and they fell upon their face to the ground on the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord; for [it is] good [to do so], because his mercy [endures] for ever. 4 And the king and all the people [were] offering sacrifices before the Lord. 5 And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of calves twenty and two thousand, of sheep a hundred and twenty thousand: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6 And the priests were standing at their watches, and the Levites with instruments of music of the Lord, belonging to king David, to give thanks before the Lord, for his mercy [endures] for ever, with the hymns of David, by their ministry: and the priests were blowing the trumpets before them, and all Israel standing. 7 And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in the house of the Lord: for he offered there the whole-burnt-offerings and the fat of the peace-offerings, for the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not sufficient to receive the whole-burnt-offerings, and the meat-offerings, and the fat. 8 And Solomon kept the feast at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entering in of Æmath, and as far as the river of Egypt. 9 And on the eighth day he kept a solemn assembly: for he kept a feast of seven days as the dedication of the altar. 10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he dismissed the people to their tents, rejoicing, and with a glad heart because of the good deeds which the Lord had done to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people. 11 So Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king's house: and in whatever Solomon wished in his heart to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house, he prospered. 12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, I have heard thy prayer, and I have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. 13 If I should restrain the heaven and there should be no rain, and if I should command the locust to devour the trees, and if I should send pestilence upon my people; 14 then if my people, on whom my name is called, should repent, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, I also will hear from heaven, and I will be merciful to their sins, and I will heal their land. 15 And now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer of this place. 16 And now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name should be there for ever: and my eyes and my heart shall be there always. 17 And if thou wilt walk before me as David thy father [did], and wilt do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my ordinances and my judgments; 18 then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom, as I covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man ruling in Israel. 19 But if ye should turn away, and forsake my ordinances and my commandments, which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them; 20 then will I remove you from the land which I gave them; and this house which I have consecrated to my name I will remove out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a by-word among all nations. 21 And [as for] this lofty house, every one that passes by it shall be amazed, and shall say, Wherefore has the Lord done [thus] to this land, and to this house? 22 And [men] shall say, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they attached themselves to other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: and therefore he has brought upon them all this evil.

2 Chronicles 8

1 And it came to pass after twenty years, in which Solomon built the house of the Lord, and his own house, 2 that Solomon rebuilt the cities which Chiram had given to Solomon, and caused the children of Israel to dwell in them. 3 And Solomon came to Bæsoba, and fortified it. 4 And he built Thoedmor in the wilderness, and all the strong cities which he built in Emath. 5 And he built Bæthoron the upper, and Bæthoron the lower, strong cities,—they had walls, gates, and bars; 6 and Balaath, and all the strong cities which Solomon had, and all his chariot cities, and cities of horsemen, and all things that Solomon desired according to his desire of building, in Jerusalem, and in Libanus, and in all his kingdom. 7 [As for] all the people that was left of the Chettites, and the Amorites, and the Pherezites, and the Evites, and the Jebusites, who are not of Israel, 8 but were of the children of them whom the children of Israel destroyed not, that were left after them in the land, even them did Solomon make tributaries to this day. 9 But Solomon did not make any of the children of Israel servants in his kingdom; for, behold, [they were] warriors and rulers, and mighty [men], and captains of chariots and horsemen. 10 And these are the chiefs of the officers of king Solomon, two hundred and fifty overseeing the work among the people. 11 And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharao from the city of David to the house which he had built for her: for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the city of David, the king of Israel, for [the place] is holy into which the ark of the Lord has entered. 12 Then Solomon offered up to the Lord whole-burnt-offerings on the altar which he had built to the Lord before the temple, 13 according to the daily rate, to offer up [sacrifices] according to the commandments of Moses, on the sabbaths, and at the new moons, and at the feasts, three times in the year, at the feast of unleavened bread, and at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles. 14 And he established, according to the order of his father David, the courses of the priests, and [that] according to their public ministrations: and the Levites [were appointed] over their charges, to praise and minister before the priests according to the daily order: and the porters were appointed according to their courses to the different gates: for thus [were] the commandments of David the man of God. 15 They transgressed not the commandments of the king concerning the priests and the Levites with regard to everything else, and with regard to the treasures. 16 Now all the work had been prepared from the day when the foundation was laid, until Solomon finished the house of the Lord. 17 Then Solomon went to Gasion Gaber, and to Ælath near the sea in the land of Idumea. 18 And Chiram sent by the hand of his servants ships, and servants skilled in naval affairs; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Sophira, and brought thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and they came to king Solomon.