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.
52. “Thus may your eyes be open to the petition of your servant and to the petition of your people Israel; thus may you listen to them whenever they call upon you.
53. For you have set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord my God.”
54. After Solomon finished offering this entire prayer and petition to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling, hands outstretched toward heaven.
55. He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, saying in a loud voice:
56. “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not a single word has gone unfulfilled of the entire gracious promise he made through Moses his servant.
57. May the Lord, our God, be with us as he was with our ancestors and may he not forsake us nor cast us off.
58. May he draw our hearts to himself, that we may walk in his ways and keep the commands, statutes, and ordinances that he enjoined on our ancestors.
59. May these words of mine, the petition I have offered before the Lord, our God, be present to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel as each day requires,
60. so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and there is no other.
61. Your heart must be wholly devoted to the Lord, our God, observing his statutes and keeping his commandments, as on this day.”
62. The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord.