New American Bible, Revised Edition

1 Kings 8:39-51 New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE)

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,

45. listen in heaven to their prayer and petition, and uphold their cause.

46. “When they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver them to an enemy, so that their captors carry them off to the land of the enemy, far or near,

47. and they have a change of heart in the land of their captivity and they turn and entreat you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked’;

48. if with their whole heart and soul they turn back to you in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, the city you have chosen, and the house I have built for your name,

49. listen in heaven, your dwelling place, to their prayer and petition, and uphold their cause.

50. Forgive your people who have sinned against you and all the offenses they have committed against you, and grant them mercy in the sight of their captors, so that these will be merciful to them.

51. For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace.