2 Chronicles 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:

If they return to thee ... in the land of their captivity ... and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers. These words gave rise to the favourite usage of the ancient as well as modern Jews, of turning in prayer toward Jerusalem, in whatever quarter of the world they might be, and of directing their faces toward the temple when in Jerusalem itself, or any part of the Holy Land (1 Kings 8:44).