Solomon's Great Prayer

"LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants." "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" "That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day."

When a man sins against his neighbor; when Israel is defeated because of sin; when there is no rain; famine, pestilence, locust; "Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake… Hear thou in heaven… that all people of the earth may know thy name."

"If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,)… so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; Yet if they shall bethink themselves… and pray unto thee toward their land… Then hear thou their prayer." Solomon blesses the people: "There hath not failed one word of all his good promise." A feast of fourteen days; the people go home "joyful and glad of heart."

A God no house can contain

Solomon's prayer holds two truths together: God is present where He chooses, and God cannot be confined to a building. Isaiah 66:1 and Stephen's speech (Acts 7:48–50) take up the same theme.

Exile in the prayer

The prayer's attention to captivity in a far land (8:46–53) leads many scholars to see it shaped in the exile; traditional readers see foresight based on Deuteronomy 28–30. Both readings note how it spoke to exiles who prayed toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10).

Then and later