2 Chronicles
Chapter 7
1 After Solomon finished praying, fire fell from the sky and burned up the offering and sacrifices; and God’s glory filled the temple.
2 The priests could not go into God’s house because God’s glory filled it.
3 When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and God’s glory on the temple, they knelt on the ground with their faces down, worshiped, and praised God, saying, “He is good; his love lasts forever.”
4 Then the king and all the people gave sacrifices to God.
5 King Solomon gave a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep; so he and everyone dedicated God’s house.
6 The priests performed their duties: the Levites played musical instruments made by King David to praise God, for His kindness lasts forever. This happened as David gave praise with their help; the priests blew trumpets in front of them, and all Israel stood up.
7 Solomon made the center of the courtyard in front of the house of God holy because that is where he made burned offerings and the fat from the offerings for friendship. This was because the bronze altar that Solomon built could not hold all the burned offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat.
8 Solomon and all Israel celebrated the feast for seven days with a very large crowd, from Hamath to the river of Egypt.
9 On the eighth day, they held a special meeting because they had celebrated the altar dedication for seven days and the feast for seven days.
10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he let the people go to their tents, happy and cheerful because of the kindness that God had shown to David, Solomon, and to the people of Israel.
11 Solomon completed God’s house and the royal palace. Everything Solomon planned to do in God’s house and his own, he successfully did.
12 God came to Solomon in the night and said, “I have heard your prayer and picked this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.”
13 If I close the sky so no rain falls, or if I order the locusts to eat up the crops, or if I send disease among my people;
14 If my people, who are known by my name, humble themselves, pray, seek me, and turn from their bad ways, then I will listen from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
15 Now my eyes will be open, and my ears will listen to the prayers made in this place.
16 I have now chosen and made this house holy, so that my name will always be there; and I will always watch over and care for it deeply.
17 If you follow me as your father David did, and do everything I have told you, and keep my laws and decisions;
18 I will secure your kingdom’s throne, just as I promised David your father, saying, “You will always have a man to rule over Israel.”
19 But if you turn away and ignore my laws and commands that I have given you, and if you go and serve other gods and worship them;
20 Then I will pull them out of the land I have given them, and this house I have made holy for my name, I will throw away, and it will become a common saying and a joke among all peoples.
21 This tall house will amaze everyone who sees it. They will ask, “Why did God do this to the land and to this house?”
22 The answer will be, “Because they abandoned the God of their ancestors, who led them out of Egypt, and they followed and worshiped other gods, and served them, that is why he has brought all this harm to them.”