II Chronicles 6:21
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Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The words with which Solomon celebrates this wondrous evidence of the divine favour, entirely coincide with the narrative in Kg1 8:12-21, except that in Ch2 6:5. the actual words of Solomon's speech are more completely given than in Kg1 8:16, where the words, "and I have not chosen a man to be prince over my people Israel, and I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there," are omitted. For the commentary on this address, see on Kg1 8:12-21.
Open source ↗The glory of the Lord, in the vehicle of a thick cloud, having filled the house which Solomon built, by which God manifested his presence there, he immediately improves the opportunity, and addresses God, as a God now, in a peculiar manner, nigh at hand. I. He makes a solemn declaration of his intention in building this house, to the satisfaction of the people and the honour of God, both of whom he blessed (Ch2 6:1-11). II. He makes a solemn prayer to God that he would please graciously to accept and answer all the prayers that should be made in, or towards, that house (v. 12-42). This whole chapter we had before, with very little variation (1 Kings 8:12-53), to which it may not be amiss here to look back.
Open source ↗6:21-39 In his covenant with Israel, the Lord established blessings and life as consequences of obedience, and curses and death as consequences of disobedience (Deut 27:11–28:68; 30:15-18). Solomon prayed for God to hear . . . and forgive when the people failed to keep God’s covenant. The seven “if-then” petitions of his prayer represented any future situation that the people of the covenant might encounter. In each case, Solomon described the situation and asked God to intervene to help his people.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance— who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who sinned against You.
Then the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard their voice, and their prayer came into His holy dwelling place in heaven.
So then, this is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
I lift up my eyes to You, the One enthroned in heaven.