46. “If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to their land far away or near.
47. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’
48. If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their enemies and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name—
49. then hear their prayers and their petition from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause.
50. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. Forgive all the offenses they have committed against you. Make their captors merciful to them,
51. for they are your people—your special possession—whom you brought out of the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt.
52. “May your eyes be open to my requests and to the requests of your people Israel. May you hear and answer them whenever they cry out to you.
53. For when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Sovereign lord, you told your servant Moses that you had set Israel apart from all the nations of the earth to be your own special possession.”
54. When Solomon finished making these prayers and petitions to the lord, he stood up in front of the altar of the lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands raised toward heaven.