The Seven Petitions
22 “If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house, 23 then hear from heaven, act, and judge your servants, bringing retribution to the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. 24 “If your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house, 25 then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers. 26 “When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them, 27 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance. 28 “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is— 29 whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread out his hands toward this house, 30 then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men), 31 that they may fear you, to walk in your ways as long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers. 32 “Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for your great name’s sake and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house, 33 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name. 34 “If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name; 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. 36 “If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near; 37 yet if they come to their senses in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;’ 38 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name; 39 then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you. 40 “Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 41 “Now therefore arise, Yahweh God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, Yahweh God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness. 42 “Yahweh God, don’t turn away the face of your anointed. Remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant.”
Every case the dedication prayer imagines is a case of something going wrong, and the widest promise in it is made to a foreigner.
Seven situations are laid before God, each with the same hinge: then hear from heaven. What the seven have in common is more revealing than their differences. A dispute needing an oath. Defeat by an enemy. Drought. Famine, plague, blight, locust, siege. A foreigner arriving. An army sent out. And captivity in a distant land.
Six of the seven presuppose disaster, and in five of those the disaster is deserved. The house is dedicated by describing, at length, the occasions on which its worshipers will have ruined things.
The fourth petition is the most carefully worded. Whatever the affliction, the prayer is for the man who will each know his own plague and his own sorrow 2 Chronicles 6:29 — a public calamity understood as something each person carries privately. And the answer asked for is individual: give to every man according to his ways, for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men 2 Chronicles 6:30. That is the same claim David made when he charged Solomon 1 Chronicles 28:9, and it is the ground of the whole prayer.
The fifth petition is the widest thing in the chapter. When a foreigner comes from a far country for the sake of God's name and prays toward the house, Solomon asks that God do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for 2 Chronicles 6:32–33.
That is a larger request than any made for Israel. His own people are asked to be judged according to their ways; the outsider is asked to be given whatever he requests. And the reason given is not hospitality but publicity — that all the peoples of the earth may know your name. A national sanctuary is dedicated with a clause designed to make it international.
The seventh petition is the longest, and it is the one the book's first readers had lived. It describes exile precisely: sin, anger, captivity to a land far off, then coming to their senses, confessing, returning with all their heart and with all their soul, and praying toward the land, the city and the house 2 Chronicles 6:36–38.
Inside its opening clause sits a parenthesis that changes the status of the whole case: for there is no man who doesn't sin 2 Chronicles 6:36. The seventh situation is therefore not a remote hypothesis. It is stated, in passing, as the one that must eventually arise.
The prayer ends by borrowing words that were already old Psalms 132:8–10: arise, Yahweh God, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength 2 Chronicles 6:41. And the last line pleads nobody's merit but a dead man's: remember your loving kindnesses to David your servant 2 Chronicles 6:42.
settled What this mark means