“May you be attentive ¹  to your servant’s and your people Israel’s requests for help and may you respond to all their prayers to you. ² 

Everyone ¹  in the world wanted to visit Solomon to see him display his God-given wisdom. ² 

But respond favorably to ¹  your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer ²  the desperate prayer ³  your servant is presenting to you. ⁴ 

All the kings of the earth wanted to visit Solomon to see him display his God-given wisdom. ¹ 

So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly which included men and women and all those able to understand what they heard. (This happened on the first day of the seventh month.)

Over and over again ¹  the Lord has sent ²  his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention. ³ 

You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not paid any attention to them.

This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ¹  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed ¹  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves ²  you.

I also call on you ¹  to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually ²  in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

But they did not obey ¹  their leaders. Instead they prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped ²  them. They quickly turned aside from the path ³  their ancestors ⁴  had walked. Their ancestors had obeyed the Lord’s commands, but they did not. ⁵ 

The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite ¹  grabbed his concubine and made her go outside. ²  They raped ³  her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn.

Now, hand over the good-for-nothings ¹  in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.” ²  But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.

So your servant said, ‘May the word of my lord the king be my security, for my lord the king is like the angel of God when it comes to deciding between right and wrong! May the Lord your God be with you!’”

God said to him, “Because you asked for the ability to make wise judicial decisions, and not for long life, or riches, or vengeance on your enemies, ¹ 

Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. ¹  May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place. ² 

They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. ¹  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ²  You did not abandon them,

¹ Be careful what you do ²  when you go to the temple ³  of God; draw near to listen ⁴  rather than to offer a sacrifice ⁵  like fools, ⁶  for they do not realize that they are doing wrong.

The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ¹  so that I know how to help the weary. ²  He wakes me up every morning; he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ³ 

The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, ²  ‘I, the Lord, say: ³  “You must learn a lesson from this ⁴  about obeying what I say! ⁵