2 Chronicles 6

²¹And the people stood at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

⁸Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.

⁹He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet.

²And the Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to enter freely into the Most Holy Place behind the veil in front of the mercy seat on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

¹¹You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

¹²Then Solomon declared: “The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

¹³I have indeed built You an exalted house, a place for You to dwell forever.”

³The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

⁴Behold, I am about to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God to dedicate to Him for burning fragrant incense before Him, for displaying the showbread continuously, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening as well as on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts of the Lord our God. This is ordained for Israel forever.

⁵The house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.

²¹Blessed be the Lord from Zion—He who dwells in Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.

²⁰David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do it. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you before all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.

⁶And He said to me, ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build My house and My courts, for I have chosen him as My son, and I will be his Father.

¹³For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:

¹⁴“This is My resting place forever and ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired this home.

¹⁴And as the whole assembly of Israel stood there, the king turned around and blessed them all

²When David had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.

²³“Tell Aaron and his sons: This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

²⁴‘May the Lord bless you and keep you;

⁶So Joshua blessed them and sent them on their way, and they went to their homes.

⁵⁰When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them.

⁵¹While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven.

⁵⁵And he stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

⁵⁶“Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel according to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises He made through His servant Moses.

¹⁸Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.

¹⁹And blessed be His glorious name forever; may all the earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen.

³²Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; sing praises to the Lord—Selah

³³to Him who rides upon the highest heavens of old; behold, His mighty voice resounds.

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

¹³Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

⁴Sing to God! Sing praises to His name. Exalt Him who rides on the clouds—His name is the Lord—and rejoice before Him.

¹⁵and said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,

¹¹then the Lord your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the Lord.

¹⁶‘Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name would be there. But I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

¹⁹O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”

¹³“You have acted foolishly,” Samuel declared. “You have not kept the command that the Lord your God gave you; if you had, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.

¹⁴But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought a man after His own heart and appointed him ruler over His people, because you have not kept the command of the Lord.”

⁶For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt until this day, but I have moved about with a tent as My dwelling.

⁷In all My journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever asked any of the leaders I appointed to shepherd My people Israel, ‘Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’

²⁴You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

⁴Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me out of all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah as leader, and from the house of Judah He chose my father’s household, and from my father’s sons He was pleased to make me king over all Israel.

¹³For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:

¹³Thus King Rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

⁶⁸But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever.

¹A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain.

³²What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The Lord has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”

³“As you are well aware, due to the wars waged on all sides against my father David, he could not build a house for the Name of the Lord his God until the Lord had put his enemies under his feet.

¹After David had settled into his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.”

⁷“My son,” said David to Solomon, “it was in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God,

²Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people. It was in my heart to build a house as a resting place for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and as a footstool for our God. I had made preparations to build it,

³but God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for My Name, because you are a man of war who has shed blood.’

²he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

³And Nathan replied to the king, “Go and do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

¹⁷Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

¹⁸But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart.

¹⁹Nevertheless, you are not the one to build it; but your son, your own offspring, will build the house for My Name.’

⁸She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial.

¹²And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.

¹³He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

¹¹And when your days are fulfilled and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

¹²He will build a house for Me, and I will establish his throne forever.

⁴“Go and tell My servant David that this is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build Me a house in which to dwell.

¹¹And when your days are fulfilled and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

⁶Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

⁷And now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in.

¹⁵For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.

⁴Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

¹Now Solomon son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and highly exalted him.

¹⁸I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

¹⁹And who knows whether that man will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take over all the labor at which I have worked skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.

¹⁰There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

⁷Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

²¹And there I have provided a place for the ark, which contains the covenant of the Lord that He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

⁴containing the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of the land of Egypt.

²⁰Moses took the Testimony and placed it in the ark, attaching the poles to the ark; and he set the mercy seat atop the ark.

¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord; let him lean on his God.

³³Then Moses departed from Pharaoh, went out of the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord. The thunder and hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.

⁴So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift my hands.

¹³As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,

⁶I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah

³¹Envoys will arrive from Egypt; Cush will stretch out her hands to God.

⁵⁴Now when Solomon had finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the Lord, he got up before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.

⁴Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for this occasion. At his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and at his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

⁶O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

⁵At the evening offering, I got up from my humiliation with my tunic and cloak torn, and I fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord my God,

⁹He made the courtyard of the priests and the large court with its doors, and he overlaid the doors with bronze.

¹²The great courtyard was surrounded by three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams, as were the inner courtyard and portico of the house of the Lord.

¹¹Who among the gods is like You, O Lord? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

⁹Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

⁵Then I said: “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion with those who love Him and keep His commandments,

⁸O Lord God of Hosts, who is like You? O mighty Lord, Your faithfulness surrounds You.

¹²encouraging you, comforting you, and urging you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

²⁸I will forever preserve My loving devotion for him, and My covenant with him will stand fast.

⁹But a son will be born to you who will be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name will be Solomon, and I will grant to Israel peace and quiet during his reign.

¹⁰He is the one who will build a house for My Name. He will be My son, and I will be his Father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’

²⁴You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day.

¹²And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.

⁴and so that the Lord may fulfill His promise to me: ‘If your descendants take heed to walk faithfully before Me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you.

¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.

¹²If your sons keep My covenant and the testimony I will teach them, then their sons will also sit on your throne forever and ever.”

¹⁸then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’

¹Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord.

¹²And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.

¹³He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

⁵This was in order to establish the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is to this day.” “Amen, Lord,” I answered.

²⁵And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house. Do as You have promised,

²⁶so that Your name will be magnified forever when it is said, ‘The Lord of Hosts is God over Israel.’ And the house of Your servant David will be established before You.

¹⁰and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

¹⁴and said: “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth, keeping Your covenant of loving devotion with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.

¹⁷The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

⁴and said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,

⁶But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?

¹This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?

⁷Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?

⁸If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.

²I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows.

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or where will My place of repose be?

¹⁵So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, and do not let him mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand!”

²⁸Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O Lord my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You today.

²O Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.

¹For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

²May He send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion.

²⁰I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message,

¹Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart:

²“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men.

¹⁵The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.

⁵The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is the shade on your right hand.

⁶But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

¹⁰Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

⁶let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to hear the prayer that I, Your servant, now pray before You day and night for Your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins that we Israelites have committed against You. Both I and my father’s house have sinned.

²you are to take some of the firstfruits of all your produce from the soil of the land that the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name,

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

¹⁹O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”

²⁵I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.

³⁹then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and pleas, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who sinned against You.

²⁷Then the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard their voice, and their prayer came into His holy dwelling place in heaven.

³If You, O Lord, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

⁴But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.

¹¹an oath before the Lord shall be made between the parties to determine whether or not the man has taken his neighbor’s property. The owner must accept the oath and require no restitution.

¹⁹And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse.

²⁰But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’—

¹⁸And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’

¹“If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity.

³¹When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple,

³²then may You hear from heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing down on his own head what he has done, and justifying the righteous man by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

⁹Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God.

⁵⁶For a destroyer is coming against her—against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken, for the Lord is a God of retribution; He will repay in full.

²⁰The soul who sins is the one who will die. A son will not bear the iniquity of his father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of his son. The righteousness of the righteous man will fall upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked man will fall upon him.

⁹There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek;

¹⁰but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Greek.

¹⁰Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

¹⁵Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the Lord.

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”

¹⁷And in the seventh month of that very year, the prophet Hananiah died.

¹⁷And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

¹⁰You have made us retreat from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered us.

¹¹And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

²⁵The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads.

²Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

¹Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.”

²Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress?

⁶Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

⁷I will restore Judah and Israel from captivity and will rebuild them as in former times.

⁴³Thus the Lord gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their fathers, and they took possession of it and settled in it.

¹⁵for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.

⁴⁰So the anger of the Lord burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

⁴¹He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

¹In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

²“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.

⁸And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord!’”

²³The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

¹⁷or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the Lord is giving you.

¹⁹I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

¹³He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

¹Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

²Then a revelation from the Lord came to Elijah:

¹Ask the Lord for rain in springtime; the Lord makes the storm clouds, and He will give everyone showers of rain and crops in the field.

²⁴They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

³⁵When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,

³⁶then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

¹²Blessed is the man You discipline, O Lord, and teach from Your law,

¹⁶This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’

³³Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep them to the end.

²⁵I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.

¹In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.

¹³Is any one of you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.

³And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.

⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

¹After all these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, intending to conquer them for himself.

²In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem

³with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless troops who came with him out of Egypt—Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites.

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

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

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

²Blessed is the man whose iniquity the Lord does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares in its joy.

¹A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A prayer. I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift my voice to the Lord for mercy.

²I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.

⁹As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the Lord does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart.”

²³Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁷For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.

¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

²⁴Above all, fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you.

¹A song of ascents. Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways!

³¹Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced a time of peace. It grew in strength and numbers, living in the fear of the Lord and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

²⁰“Do not be afraid,” Moses replied. “For God has come to test you, so that the fear of Him may be before you, to keep you from sinning.”

²⁸And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

⁴But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.

³Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”

⁴For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant—

⁴¹And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name—

⁴²for they will hear of Your great name and mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,

¹⁰When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

¹¹I say to you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁰Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.

¹At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was called the Italian Regiment.

²He and all his household were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to the people and prayed to God regularly.

¹⁶Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

¹⁷And should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, then the rain will not fall on them.

¹⁴and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

²⁷All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him.

⁶He says: “It is not enough for You to be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the protected ones of Israel. I will also make You a light for the nations, to bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

⁴⁶This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. This day I will strike you down, cut off your head, and give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the creatures of the earth. Then the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

¹⁰“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”

⁴All the kings of the earth will give You thanks, O Lord, when they hear the words of Your mouth.

⁵They will sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great.

⁶and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are You not the God who is in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can stand against You.

⁷Our God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham Your friend?

³²What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The Lord has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”

¹After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the Lord, “Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?”

²“Judah shall go up,” answered the Lord. “Indeed, I have delivered the land into their hands.”

³Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

⁹Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah.

¹⁰So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

⁴So the people of Judah gathered to seek the Lord, and indeed, they came from all the cities of Judah to seek Him.

³When my enemies retreat, they stumble and perish before You.

⁴For You have upheld my just cause; You sit on Your throne judging righteously.

²¹Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²²this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.

¹⁷So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary.

¹⁸Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.

²⁸They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

²We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.

²⁰Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

¹⁴What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,

²Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.

³If You, O Lord, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

¹⁷Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food, but here I am, starving to death!

¹⁸I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the Lord my God.

¹⁹After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

⁶Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

⁷No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

⁵we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances.

⁶We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.

²⁷Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.

²⁸He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and I will live to see the light.’

⁶and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.

⁷From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and subjected to the sword and to captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”

¹³So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.

²and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,

³then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the Lord your God has scattered you.

¹¹So the Lord brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹²And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.

³⁴When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You in the direction of this city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,

³So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

⁴And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments,

¹⁰Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

³⁵then may You hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and may You uphold their cause.

¹⁸Consider my affliction and trouble, and take away all my sins.

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

¹⁹He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

¹⁵but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares the Lord of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’

¹⁵Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

²Because He has inclined His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.

¹A prayer of David. Hear, O Lord, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer—it comes from lips free of deceit.

⁶let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to hear the prayer that I, Your servant, now pray before You day and night for Your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins that we Israelites have committed against You. Both I and my father’s house have sinned.

¹¹O Lord, may Your ear be attentive to my prayer and to the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (At that time I was the cupbearer to the king.)

²Incline Your ear to me; come quickly to my rescue. Be my rock of refuge, the stronghold of my deliverance.

¹⁰I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

²Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people. It was in my heart to build a house as a resting place for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and as a footstool for our God. I had made preparations to build it,

⁸Arise, O Lord, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength.

⁹May Your priests be clothed with righteousness, and Your saints shout for joy.

³For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

⁸She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.

¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.

³Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, so that your soul may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant—My loving devotion promised to David.

¹A song of ascents. O Lord, remember on behalf of David all the hardships he endured,

²The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against His Anointed One:

²⁴My faithfulness and loving devotion will be with him, and through My name his horn will be exalted.

¹⁰For the sake of Your servant David, do not reject Your anointed one.

³⁴In fact, God raised Him from the dead, never to see decay. As He has said: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’