2 Chronicles 6

Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would live in the thick darkness.

1Then said Solomon, The LORD hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

Note"The LORD" printed in small capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants roughly YHWH, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; where the King James has "Lord" in ordinary type it is translating an ordinary word for master. "Thick darkness" translates a Hebrew word for dense storm-cloud; it echoes the descriptions of God appearing at Mount Sinai wrapped in cloud and gloom, and matches the temple's innermost room, which had no windows.

2But I have built you a lofty house, a place for you to live in forever."

2But I have built an house of habitation for thee, and a place for thy dwelling for ever.

Note"House" here and throughout the chapter means the temple. Hebrew uses the ordinary word for a dwelling, so the same term covers a family home and a god's house; the joke of the whole prayer turns on that double sense. The King James "house of habitation" translates a phrase whose sense is disputed: it may mean a lofty or princely house, or simply a house for you to live in.

3The king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all of them stood there.

3And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood.

Note"Congregation" in the King James does not mean a church membership; it is the standard word for the whole people of Israel gathered in one place, here as a national assembly. To "bless" people is to pronounce a formal declaration of favor over them, something a king or priest did on public occasions.

4He said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel. With his own hand he has carried out what he promised with his own mouth to my father David. He said,

4And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying,

Note"Blessed be the LORD" uses the same word in the opposite direction: when God blesses people he gives them good; when people bless God they praise and acknowledge him. The contrast between what God "spake with his mouth" and what he "fulfilled with his hands" is a stock Hebrew pairing for a promise carried through into action.

5'From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel where a house could be built for my name. And I have not chosen anyone to be ruler over my people Israel.

5Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel:

NoteFor a name to be "there" is an idiom of ownership and presence: the place is publicly identified as belonging to that god, the way a name on a deed marks a property. It stops short of saying the god is confined to the building, which is the point Solomon presses in verse 18.

6But now I have chosen Jerusalem as the place for my name, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.'

6But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

7Now my father David wanted very much to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

7Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

8But the LORD said to my father David, 'You wanted to build a house for my name, and you did well to want that.

8But the LORD said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart:

9Even so, you are not the one who will build the house. Your son, your own child, will build the house for my name.'

9Notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house; but thy son which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name.

Note"Come forth out of thy loins" is a plain Hebrew idiom for a man's biological offspring; it carries no delicacy or euphemism in the original.

10The LORD has now done what he said he would do. I have taken the place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised. And I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

10The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

Note"Room" in 1611 English meant place or position, not a chamber of a building. "I am risen up in the room of David" means simply that Solomon has succeeded his father.

11In it I have placed the ark, which holds the covenant the LORD made with the people of Israel."

11And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel.

NoteThe ark was a gilded wooden chest, about four feet long, carried on poles; inside it were the stone tablets of the law. A "covenant" is a binding agreement between two parties, of the kind ancient kings made with peoples or with each other, with stated obligations on both sides; the tablets were the document of the agreement, and the chest housed it the way a treaty was deposited in a temple.

12Then Solomon stood in front of the altar of the LORD, before the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands.

12And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands:

NoteThe altar was the large bronze structure standing in the open courtyard, where animals and grain were burned as offerings. Spreading out the hands, palms up and arms raised, was the ordinary posture for prayer in this period, as normal then as folded hands or bowed heads are now.

13Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down in front of the whole assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.

13For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,

NoteA cubit was roughly eighteen inches, about the length of a forearm from elbow to fingertip. The platform was therefore about seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high. "Brasen" is the King James word for bronze; brass as we know it did not exist then. Kneeling was not the everyday posture for prayer here (standing was), so the detail marks the moment as unusual.

14He said, "LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. You keep your covenant and show faithful love to your servants who live before you with all their hearts.

14And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts:

Note"Walk before thee" is an idiom for conducting one's whole life in someone's presence and service, the way a courtier lives before a king. The King James "mercy" translates Hebrew *hesed*, which means loyal commitment shown to someone you are bound to by agreement, closer to steadfast faithfulness than to pity.

15You have kept the promise you made to your servant David, my father. What you said with your mouth you have carried out with your hand, as everyone can see today.

15Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him; and spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day.

16So now, LORD, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant David, my father. You said, 'You will never fail to have a man sitting before me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful to live by my law, as you have lived before me.'

16Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.

Note"There shall not fail thee a man ... to sit upon the throne" is the standard way of promising an unbroken royal line: there will always be a descendant available to reign. The Hebrew grammar of the condition attached to it is genuinely open: it can be read as a guarantee with a proviso, or as a promise contingent on the descendants' obedience, and translators divide over which.

17And now, LORD, God of Israel, please let the promise you made to your servant David come true.

17Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David.

18But will God really live with people on the earth? Even heaven, and the highest heavens, cannot hold you. How much less this house that I have built!

18But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!

Note"The heaven of heavens" is a Hebrew superlative built by repeating the noun, like "king of kings"; it means the very highest heaven there is. Ancient temples were normally understood to house a god's presence, so the question Solomon asks is a pointed one about his own building.

19Still, pay attention to your servant's prayer and his plea, LORD my God. Listen to the cry and the prayer your servant is praying to you.

19Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee:

20May your eyes watch over this house day and night, over the place where you said you would put your name. Listen to the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

20That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place.

NotePraying "toward this place" describes a real physical practice: people at a distance turned to face the temple when they prayed, and the chapter assumes this from here to verse 38. "Have respect" and "hearken" in the King James both mean simply to pay attention and listen.

21Listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from where you live, from heaven. And when you hear, forgive.

21Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive.

22If someone wrongs his neighbor and is made to swear an oath about it, and he comes to swear that oath before your altar in this house,

22If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;

NoteThis describes a specific legal procedure. When a dispute could not be settled by evidence (a lost deposit, a suspected theft with no witness) the accused was required to swear an oath at the sanctuary, calling down a penalty on himself if he was lying. God, not the court, was expected to enforce the verdict.

23then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants. Pay back the guilty one by bringing what he has done down on his own head, and clear the one who is in the right by giving him what his right conduct deserves.

23Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.

Note"Justifying" and "condemning" are courtroom words in Hebrew as in English: to justify is to declare formally that someone is in the right, not to make them good. "Recompensing his way upon his own head" is the standard phrase for a penalty falling back on the person who earned it.

24If your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and then they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and pleading before you in this house,

24And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house;

25then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. Bring them back to the land you gave to them and to their ancestors.

25Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.

26If the sky is closed up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and then they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn away from their sin because you have brought trouble on them,

26When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them;

Note"When the heaven is shut up" is the ordinary Hebrew image for drought, the sky pictured as closed doors that release no rain. In a land farmed entirely on seasonal rainfall rather than irrigation, this was the difference between a harvest and none.

27then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the good way they should live. And send rain on your land, which you gave to your people as their lasting possession.

27Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance.

Note"Inheritance" translates a word for a permanent allotted holding of land, the share assigned to a family or tribe that was not supposed to be sold off. It is a property term, not a reference to a will.

28If there is famine in the land, or disease, or crop blight, or mildew, or locusts, or grasshoppers; if their enemies surround their cities to attack them; whatever trouble or sickness comes,

28If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be:

NoteThe King James list uses old agricultural vocabulary: "dearth" is famine, "pestilence" is epidemic disease, "blasting" is the scorching of crops by hot dry wind, "mildew" is a fungal blight that yellows grain, and "caterpillers" is the 1611 word for locusts at a particular stage of growth. Two related insect words appear, but their exact species are uncertain. "Sore" here means an affliction or wound of any kind, not specifically a skin sore.

29then listen to whatever prayer or plea is made by any one person, or by all your people Israel, when each one knows his own pain and his own grief and spreads out his hands toward this house.

29Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:

30Hear from heaven, where you live, and forgive. Give to each person what his whole way of life deserves, since you know his heart. You alone know the hearts of human beings.

30Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:)

Note"Children of men" is a Hebrew way of saying human beings in general; it carries no sense of youth.

31Do this so that they will honor you and live your way for as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.

31That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

Note"Fear thee" in this idiom means to hold in awe and take seriously enough to obey, closer to reverence than to being frightened.

32The same goes for the foreigner, who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant country because of your great name, your strong hand, and your outstretched arm. When such a person comes and prays toward this house,

32Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house;

Note"Stranger" in the King James means a foreigner, someone from outside Israel, not an unknown person. "Thy mighty hand and thy stretched out arm" is a fixed phrase drawn from the exodus story; it was originally the language of a king's military power reaching out to act.

33then hear from heaven, from where you live, and do everything the foreigner asks of you. Then all the peoples of the earth will know your name and honor you, as your people Israel do, and will know that this house I have built bears your name.

33Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.

34If your people go out to fight their enemies, wherever you send them, and they pray to you facing this city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name,

34If thy people go out to war against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name;

35then hear their prayer and their plea from heaven, and see that they get justice.

35Then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

36If they sin against you, since there is no one who does not sin, and you become angry with them and hand them over to their enemies, who carry them off as prisoners to a land far away or near,

36If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near;

NoteDeportation was standard imperial practice: a conquering power moved a defeated population to another part of its territory to break local resistance. The book of Chronicles was compiled after Judah had actually undergone this at the hands of Babylon, so the readers knew the scenario Solomon describes as history.

37and if they come to their senses in the land where they have been taken, and turn back and pray to you there, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,'

37Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly;

Note"Bethink themselves" is old English for coming to their senses or taking the matter to heart. The three verbs that follow (sinned, done amiss, dealt wickedly) are a formal confession formula, piling up near-synonyms the way legal language does.

38and if they turn back to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and pray facing their own land, which you gave to their ancestors, and facing the city you have chosen, and the house I have built for your name,

38If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name:

39then hear their prayer and their pleas from heaven, from where you live, and see that they get justice. Forgive your people, who have sinned against you.

39Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.

40Now, my God, I ask you, keep your eyes open and your ears attentive to the prayer made in this place.

40Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

41Now rise up, LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark that shows your strength. LORD God, may your priests be clothed with salvation, and may your faithful people be glad in your goodness.

41Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness.

NoteThis verse and the next closely follow the closing lines of Psalm 132, adapted. "Arise ... into thy resting place" uses the language of a march ending: the ark had traveled with Israel in a portable tent, and "resting place" means the permanent home where the journeying stops. "Saints" translates a word meaning the loyal or faithful ones, formed from the same root as the "mercy" of verse 14; it has nothing to do with canonised saints.

42LORD God, do not turn away the one you have anointed. Remember your faithful love for David your servant."

42O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant.

Note"Anointed" means smeared with olive oil, the ceremony by which a king was installed in office; the Hebrew word is *mashiach*, from which "messiah" comes, and here it refers to the reigning king himself. "Turn not away the face of" is court language for refusing a petitioner an audience, the opposite of granting a request.