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2 Chronicles 6
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6:1
Then said Solomon, The LORD hath
said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. |
(6:1)
"The LORD hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness."
Does God dwell in darkness
or in light?
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6:2
But I have built an house of habitation for thee, and a place for thy
dwelling for ever. |
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6:3
And the king turned his face, and blessed the whole congregation of
Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood. |
(6:3-41) "The whole congregation of
Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood ... And he [Solomon] said...."
Another long, boring speech from Solomon that every man in Israel had to listen to while standing up.
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6:4 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who hath with his hands
fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying, |
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6:5
Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I
chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my
name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people
Israel: |
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6:6
But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen
David to be over my people Israel. |
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6:7
Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name
of the LORD God of Israel. |
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6:8
But the LORD said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart
to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine
heart: |
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6:9
Notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house; but thy son which shall
come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. |
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6:10
The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am
risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel,
as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God
of Israel. |
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6:11
And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he
made with the children of Israel. |
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6:12
And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the
congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: |
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6:13
For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold of five cubits long, and five
cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the
court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the
congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven. |
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6:14
And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven,
nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy
servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts: |
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6:15
Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast
promised him; and spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine
hand, as it is this day. |
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6:16
Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father
that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man
in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children
take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me. |
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6:17
Now then, O LORD God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou hast
spoken unto thy servant David. |
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6:18
But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and
the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I
have built! |
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6:19
Have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant, and to his
supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and the prayer which
thy servant prayeth before thee: |
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6:20
That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place
whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken
unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place. |
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6:21
Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people
Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling
place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive.
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(6:21) "Hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven."
Does God live in the Pleiades?
Jehovah's Witnesses used to believe that God lives on the planet Alcyone in the Pleiades
cluster. The only biblical justification for this was this verse and
Job 38:31. This
belief was clearly stated in "Reconciliation"
(1928): "But the greatness in size of other stars or planets is small when
compared with the Pleiades in importance, because the Pleiades is the place of
the eternal throne of God." This is just one of many JW beliefs that has since
died a quiet death and is no longer mentioned in the Watchtower.
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6:22
If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make
him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;
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6:23
Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting
the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the
righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.
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6:24
And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because
they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and
pray and make supplication before thee in this house; |
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6:25
Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel,
and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their
fathers. |
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6:26
When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned
against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and
turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them; |
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6:27
Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of
thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they
should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy
people for an inheritance. |
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6:28
If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be
blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them
in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there
be: |
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6:29
Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or
of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own
grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house: |
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6:30
Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render
unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for
thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:) |
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6:31
That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the
land which thou gavest unto our fathers. |
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6:32
Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but
is come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand,
and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house;
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6:33
Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do
according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of
the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and
may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. |
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6:34
If thy people go out to war against their enemies by the way that thou
shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast
chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name; |
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6:35
Then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and
maintain their cause. |
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6:36
If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with
them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away
captives unto a land far off or near; |
(6:36) "For there is no man which sinneth not."
But according to 1 John
(3:6, 9,
5:18) some people do not, and indeed cannot, sin. Moreover,
several individuals were perfect and therefore sinless: Noah, Asa, Job, Zechariah,
and Elizabeth, Simeon, and Lot, for example.
Do Christians sin?
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6:37
Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried
captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying,
We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly;
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6:38
If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the
land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray
toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city
which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy
name: |
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6:39
Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their
prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy
people which have sinned against thee. |
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6:40
Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears
be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. |
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6:41
Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark
of thy strength: let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and
let thy saints rejoice in goodness. |
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6:42
O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies
of David thy servant.
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(6:42) "Remember the mercies of David."
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