New American Bible, Revised Edition

1 Kings 8:30-44 New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE)

30. Listen to the petition of your servant and of your people Israel which they offer toward this place. Listen, from the place of your enthronement, heaven, listen and forgive.

31. “If someone sins in some way against a neighbor and is required to take an oath sanctioned by a curse, and comes and takes the oath before your altar in this house,

32. listen in heaven; act and judge your servants. Condemn the wicked, requiting their ways; acquit the just, rewarding their justice.

33. “When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they sinned against you, and then they return to you, praise your name, pray to you, and entreat you in this house,

34. listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave their ancestors.

35. “When the heavens are closed, so that there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, but they pray toward this place and praise your name, and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,

36. listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel (for you teach them the good way in which they should walk). Give rain to this land of yours which you have given to your people as their heritage.

37. “If there is famine in the land or pestilence; or if blight comes, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; if an enemy of your people presses upon them in the land and at their gates; whatever plague or sickness there may be;

38. whatever prayer or petition any may make, any of your people Israel, who know heartfelt remorse and stretch out their hands toward this house,

39. listen in heaven, the place of your enthronement; forgive and take action. Render to each and all according to their ways, you who know every heart; for it is you alone who know the heart of every human being.

40. So may they revere you as long as they live on the land you gave our ancestors.

41. “To the foreigners, likewise, who are not of your people Israel, but who come from a distant land for the sake of your name

42. (since people will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm), when they come and pray toward this house,

43. listen in heaven, the place of your enthronement. Do all that the foreigner asks of you, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, may revere you as do your people Israel, and may know that your name has been invoked upon this house that I have built.

44. “When your people go out to war against their enemies, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name,