The Covenant Box Is Brought to the Temple

¹Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem in order to take the Lord's Covenant Box from Zion, David's City, to the Temple.

²They all assembled during the Festival of Shelters in the seventh month, in the month of Ethanim.

³When all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the Covenant Box

⁴and carried it to the Temple. The Levites and the priests also moved the Tent of the Lord's presence and all its equipment to the Temple.

⁵King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle—too many to count.

⁶Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures.

⁷Their outstretched wings covered the box and the poles it was carried by.

⁸The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.)

⁹There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.

¹⁰As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud

¹¹shining with the dazzling light of the Lord's presence, and they could not go back in to perform their duties.

¹²Then Solomon prayed: “You, Lord, have placed the sun in the sky, yet you have chosen to live in clouds and darkness.

¹³Now I have built a majestic temple for you, a place for you to live in forever.”

Solomon's Address to the People

¹⁴As the people stood there, King Solomon turned to face them, and he asked God's blessing on them.

¹⁵He said, “Praise the Lord God of Israel! He has kept the promise he made to my father David, when he told him,

¹⁶‘From the time I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen any city in all the land of Israel in which a temple should be built where I would be worshiped. But I chose you, David, to rule my people.’”

¹⁷And Solomon continued, “My father David planned to build a temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel,

¹⁸but the Lord said to him, ‘You were right in wanting to build a temple for me,

¹⁹but you will never build it. It is your son, your own son, who will build my temple.’

²⁰“And now the Lord has kept his promise. I have succeeded my father as king of Israel, and I have built the Temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel.

²¹I have also provided a place in the Temple for the Covenant Box containing the stone tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”

Solomon's Prayer

²²Then in the presence of the people Solomon went and stood in front of the altar, where he raised his arms

²³and prayed, “Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You keep your covenant with your people and show them your love when they live in wholehearted obedience to you.

²⁴You have kept the promise you made to my father David; today every word has been fulfilled.

²⁵And now, Lord God of Israel, I pray that you will also keep the other promise you made to my father when you told him that there would always be one of his descendants ruling as king of Israel, provided they obeyed you as carefully as he did.

²⁶So now, O God of Israel, let everything come true that you promised to my father David, your servant.

²⁷“But can you, O God, really live on earth? Not even all of heaven is large enough to hold you, so how can this Temple that I have built be large enough?

²⁸Lord my God, I am your servant. Listen to my prayer, and grant the requests I make to you today.

²⁹Watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have chosen to be worshiped. Hear me when I face this Temple and pray.

³⁰Hear my prayers and the prayers of your people when they face this place and pray. In your home in heaven hear us and forgive us.

³¹“When a person is accused of wronging another and is brought to your altar in this Temple to take an oath that he is innocent,

³²O Lord, listen in heaven and judge your servants. Punish the guilty one as he deserves, and acquit the one who is innocent.

³³“When your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and then when they turn to you and come to this Temple, humbly praying to you for forgiveness,

³⁴listen to them in heaven. Forgive the sins of your people and bring them back to the land which you gave to their ancestors.

³⁵“When you hold back the rain because your people have sinned against you, and then when they repent and face this Temple, humbly praying to you,

³⁶listen to them in heaven. Forgive the sins of the king and of the people of Israel, and teach them to do what is right. Then, O Lord, send rain on this land of yours, which you gave to your people as a permanent possession.

³⁷“When there is famine in the land or an epidemic or the crops are destroyed by scorching winds or swarms of locusts, or when your people are attacked by their enemies, or when there is disease or sickness among them,

³⁸listen to their prayers. If any of your people Israel, out of heartfelt sorrow, stretch out their hands in prayer toward this Temple,

³⁹hear their prayer. Listen to them in your home in heaven, forgive them, and help them. You alone know the thoughts of the human heart. Deal with each person as he deserves,

⁴⁰so that your people may obey you all the time they live in the land which you gave to our ancestors.

^41-42“When a foreigner who lives in a distant land hears of your fame and of the great things you have done for your people and comes to worship you and to pray at this Temple,

⁴³listen to his prayer. In heaven, where you live, hear him and do what he asks you to do, so that all the peoples of the world may know you and obey you, as your people Israel do. Then they will know that this Temple I have built is the place where you are to be worshiped.

⁴⁴“When you command your people to go into battle against their enemies and they pray to you, wherever they are, facing this city which you have chosen and this Temple which I have built for you,

⁴⁵listen to their prayers. Hear them in heaven and give them victory.

⁴⁶“When your people sin against you—and there is no one who does not sin—and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away,

⁴⁷listen to your people's prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O Lord.

⁴⁸If in that land they truly and sincerely repent and pray to you as they face toward this land which you gave to our ancestors, this city which you have chosen, and this Temple which I have built for you,

⁴⁹then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them.

⁵⁰Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness.

⁵¹They are your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt, that blazing furnace.

⁵²“Sovereign Lord, may you always look with favor on your people Israel and their king, and hear their prayer whenever they call to you for help.

⁵³You chose them from all the peoples to be your own people, as you told them through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

The Final Prayer

⁵⁴After Solomon had finished praying to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar, where he had been kneeling with uplifted hands.

⁵⁵In a loud voice he asked God's blessings on all the people assembled there. He said,

⁵⁶“Praise the Lord who has given his people peace, as he promised he would. He has kept all the generous promises he made through his servant Moses.

⁵⁷May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us;

⁵⁸may he make us obedient to him, so that we will always live as he wants us to live, keeping all the laws and commands he gave our ancestors.

⁵⁹May the Lord our God remember at all times this prayer and these petitions I have made to him. May he always be merciful to the people of Israel and to their king, according to their daily needs.

⁶⁰And so all the nations of the world will know that the Lord alone is God—there is no other.

⁶¹May you, his people, always be faithful to the Lord our God, obeying all his laws and commands as you do today.”

The Dedication of the Temple

⁶²Then King Solomon and all the people there offered sacrifices to the Lord.

⁶³He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings. And so the king and all the people dedicated the Temple.

⁶⁴That same day he also consecrated the central part of the courtyard, the area in front of the Temple, and then he offered there the sacrifices burned whole, the grain offerings, and the fat of the animals for the fellowship offerings. He did this because the bronze altar was too small for all these offerings.

⁶⁵There at the Temple, Solomon and all the people of Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters for seven days. There was a huge crowd of people from as far away as Hamath Pass in the north and the Egyptian border in the south.

⁶⁶On the eighth day Solomon sent the people home. They all praised him and went home happy because of all the blessings that the Lord had given his servant David and his people Israel.

¹Then I looked again at all the injustice that goes on in this world. The oppressed were crying, and no one would help them. No one would help them, because their oppressors had power on their side.

²I envy those who are dead and gone; they are better off than those who are still alive.

³But better off than either are those who have never been born, who have never seen the injustice that goes on in this world.

⁴I have also learned why people work so hard to succeed: it is because they envy the things their neighbors have. But it is useless. It is like chasing the wind.

⁵They say that we would be fools to fold our hands and let ourselves starve to death.

⁶Maybe so, but it is better to have only a little, with peace of mind, than be busy all the time with both hands, trying to catch the wind.

⁷I have noticed something else in life that is useless.

⁸Here is someone who lives alone. He has no son, no brother, yet he is always working, never satisfied with the wealth he has. For whom is he working so hard and denying himself any pleasure? This is useless, too—and a miserable way to live.

⁹Two are better off than one, because together they can work more effectively.

¹⁰If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it's just too bad, because there is no one to help him.

¹¹If it is cold, two can sleep together and stay warm, but how can you keep warm by yourself

¹²Two people can resist an attack that would defeat one person alone. A rope made of three cords is hard to break.

^13-14Someone may rise from poverty to become king of his country, or go from prison to the throne, but if in his old age he is too foolish to take advice, he is not as well off as a young man who is poor but intelligent.

¹⁵I thought about all the people who live in this world, and I realized that somewhere among them there is a young man who will take the king's place.

¹⁶There may be no limit to the number of people a king rules; when he is gone, no one will be grateful for what he has done. It is useless. It is like chasing the wind.

Don't Make Rash Promises

¹Be careful about going to the Temple. It is better to go there to learn than to offer sacrifices like foolish people who don't know right from wrong.

²Think before you speak, and don't make any rash promises to God. He is in heaven and you are on earth, so don't say any more than you have to.

³The more you worry, the more likely you are to have bad dreams, and the more you talk, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

⁴So when you make a promise to God, keep it as quickly as possible. He has no use for a fool. Do what you promise to do.

⁵Better not to promise at all than to make a promise and not keep it.

⁶Don't let your own words lead you into sin, so that you have to tell God's priest that you didn't mean it. Why make God angry with you? Why let him destroy what you have worked for?

⁷No matter how much you dream, how much useless work you do, or how much you talk, you must still stand in awe of God.

Life Is Useless

⁸Don't be surprised when you see that the government oppresses the poor and denies them justice and their rights. Every official is protected by someone higher, and both are protected by still higher officials.

⁹Even a king depends on the harvest.

¹⁰If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless.

¹¹The richer you are, the more mouths you have to feed. All you gain is the knowledge that you are rich.

¹²Workers may or may not have enough to eat, but at least they can get a good night's sleep. The rich, however, have so much that they stay awake worrying.

¹³Here is a terrible thing that I have seen in this world: people save up their money for a time when they may need it,

¹⁴and then lose it all in some bad deal and end up with nothing left to pass on to their children.

¹⁵We leave this world just as we entered it—with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us.

¹⁶It isn't right! We go just as we came. We labor, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get?

¹⁷We get to live our lives in darkness and grief, worried, angry, and sick.

¹⁸Here is what I have found out: the best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for during the short life that God has given us; this is our fate.

¹⁹If God gives us wealth and property and lets us enjoy them, we should be grateful and enjoy what we have worked for. It is a gift from God.

²⁰Since God has allowed us to be happy, we will not worry too much about how short life is.

¹I have noticed that in this world a serious injustice is done.

²God will give us wealth, honor, and property, yes, everything we want, but then will not let us enjoy it. Some stranger will enjoy it instead. It is useless, and it just isn't right.

³We may have a hundred children and live a long time, but no matter how long we live, if we do not get our share of happiness and do not receive a decent burial, then I say that a baby born dead is better off.

⁴It does that baby no good to be born; it disappears into darkness, where it is forgotten.

⁵It never sees the light of day or knows what life is like, but at least it has found rest—

⁶more so than the man who never enjoys life, though he may live two thousand years. After all, both of them are going to the same place.

⁷We do all our work just to get something to eat, but we never have enough.

⁸How are the wise better off than fools? What good does it do the poor to know how to face life?

⁹It is useless; it is like chasing the wind. It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else.

¹⁰Everything that happens was already determined long ago, and we all know that you cannot argue with someone who is stronger than you.

¹¹The longer you argue, the more useless it is, and you are no better off.

¹²How can anyone know what is best for us in this short, useless life of ours—a life that passes like a shadow? How can we know what will happen in the world after we die?

A Prayer for Help in Time of Trouble

¹Lord, don't be angry and rebuke me! Don't punish me in your anger!

²I am worn out, O Lord; have pity on me! Give me strength; I am completely exhausted

³and my whole being is deeply troubled. How long, O Lord, will you wait to help me?

⁴Come and save me, Lord; in your mercy rescue me from death.

⁵In the world of the dead you are not remembered; no one can praise you there.

⁶I am worn out with grief; every night my bed is damp from my weeping; my pillow is soaked with tears.

⁷I can hardly see; my eyes are so swollen from the weeping caused by my enemies.

⁸Keep away from me, you evil people! The Lord hears my weeping;

⁹he listens to my cry for help and will answer my prayer.

¹⁰My enemies will know the bitter shame of defeat; in sudden confusion they will be driven away.