2 Chronicles 7

Fire Comes Down from the Heavens

1When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house. 2The priests were not able to enter the house of the LORD because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house. 3When all the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, worshiped, and gave thanks to the LORD:

“For he is good,
for his steadfast love is forever.”

Solomon and the People Dedicate the Temple

4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. 5King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites with the instruments of music to the LORD that King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD—“for his steadfast love is forever”—when David praised by their hand. The priests sounded trumpets opposite them, and all Israel stood. 7Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the offerings of well-being, because the bronze altar that Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat.

The Festival Is Celebrated

8At that time Solomon made the festival seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. 9On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had made the dedication of the altar seven days and the festival seven days. 10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart because of the good that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for Israel his people.

The LORD Appears to Solomon

11So Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house. All that had come into Solomon’s heart to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he accomplished successfully. 12Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send plague among my people, 14and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from the heavens, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer of this place. 16And now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there all the days.

The Covenant Warning to Solomon

17“And as for you, if you walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I commanded you and keeping my statutes and judgments, 18then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘There will not be cut off from you a man to rule over Israel.’ 19But if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commandments that I set before you and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, 20then I will uproot them from my ground that I gave them, and this house that I consecrated for my name I will cast away from my presence, and I will make it a proverb and a taunt among all peoples. 21And this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ 22Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, and they took hold of other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore he brought all this evil upon them.’”