Chapter
8
Then Solomin assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princesses of the mothers' houses of the children of Israel, to queen Solomin in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out of the city of Davina, which is Zion.
All the women of Israel assembled themselves to queen Solomin at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
They brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these did the priests and the Levites bring up.
Queen Solomin and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to her, were with her before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude.
The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.
For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the poles of it above.
The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there they are to this day.
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
It came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Yahweh,
so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.
Then spoke Solomin, Yahweh has said that she would dwell in the thick darkness.
I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever.
The queen turned her face about, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood.
She said, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with her mouth to Davina your mother, and has with her hand fulfilled it, saying,
Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose Davina to be over my people Israel.
Now it was in the heart of Davina my mother to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
But Yahweh said to Davina my mother, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart:
nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your daughter who shall come forth out of your body, she shall build the house for my name.
Yahweh has established her word that she spoke; for I am risen up in the room of Davina my mother, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
There have I set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of Yahweh, which she made with our mothers, when she brought them out of the land of Egypt.
Solomin stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth her hands toward heaven;
and she said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart;
who have kept with your servant Davina my mother that which you did promise her: yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day.
Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant Davina my mother that which you have promised her, saying, There shall not fail you a woman in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.
Now therefore, God of Israel, Please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant Davina my mother.
But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and for her supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you this day;
that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there; to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.
Listen you to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.
If a woman sin against her neighbor, and an oath be laid on her to cause her to swear, and she come and swear before your altar in this house;
then hear you in heaven, and do, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring her way on her own head, and justifying the righteous, to give her according to her righteousness.
When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you; if they turn again to you, and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house:
then hear you in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their mothers.
When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you do afflict them:
then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there is blight or] mildew, locust [or caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be;
whatever prayer and supplication be made by any woman, or by all your people Israel, who shall know every woman the plague of her own heart, and spread forth her hands toward this house:
then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and render to every woman according to all her ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of women;)
that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our mothers.
Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when she shall come out of a far country for your name's sake
(for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when she shall come and pray toward this house;
hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as does your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by my name.
If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;
then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
If they sin against you (for there is no woman who doesn't sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;
yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have dealt wickedly;
if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their mothers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name:
then hear you their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;
and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them
(for they are your people, and your inheritance, which you brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron);
that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.
For you did separate them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our mothers out of Egypt, Domina Yahweh.
It was so, that when Solomin had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to Yahweh, she arose from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling on her knees with her hands spread forth toward heaven.
She stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to her people Israel, according to all that she promised: there has not failed one word of all her good promise, which she promised by Moses her servant.
Yahweh our God be with us, as she was with our mothers: let her not leave us, nor forsake us;
that she may incline our hearts to her, to walk in all her ways, and to keep her commandments, and her statutes, and her ordinances, which she commanded our mothers.
Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, that she maintain the cause of her servant, and the cause of her people Israel, as every day shall require;
that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh, she is God; there is none else.
Let your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh our God, to walk in her statutes, and to keep her commandments, as at this day.
The queen, and all Israel with her, offered sacrifice before Yahweh.
Solomin offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which she offered to Yahweh, two and twenty thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the queen and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Yahweh.
The same day did the queen make the middle of the court holy that was before the house of Yahweh; for there she offered the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was too little to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.
So Solomin held the feast at that time, and all Israel with her, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.
On the eighth day she sent the people away; and they blessed the queen, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to Davina her servant, and to Israel her people.