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The Lord Appears to Solomon Again

(1 Kings 9.1-9)

11 The Lord's temple and Solomon's palace were now finished. In fact, everything Solomon had planned to do was completed.

12 Some time later, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said:

I heard your prayer, and I have chosen this temple as the place where sacrifices will be offered to me.

13 Suppose I hold back the rain or send locusts[a] to eat the crops or make my people suffer with deadly diseases. 14 If my own people will humbly pray and turn back to me and stop sinning, then I will answer them from heaven. I will forgive them and make their land fertile once again. 15 I will hear the prayers made in this temple, 16 because it belongs to me, and this is where I will be worshiped forever. I will never stop watching over it.

17 Your father David obeyed me, and now, Solomon, you must do the same. Obey my laws and teachings, 18 (A) and I will keep my solemn promise to him that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.

19 But if you or any of the people of Israel disobey my laws or start worshiping foreign gods, 20 I will pull you out of this land I gave you. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshiped, so that people everywhere will think it is only a joke and will make fun of it. 21 This temple is now magnificent. But when these things happen, everyone who walks by it will be shocked and will ask, “Why did the Lord do such a terrible thing to his people and to this temple?” 22 Then they will answer, “It was because the people of Israel rejected the Lord their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods.”

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Footnotes

  1. 7.13 locusts: See the note at 6.28.

The Lord Appears to Solomon(A)

11 When Solomon had finished(B) the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared(C) to him at night and said:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen(D) this place for myself(E) as a temple for sacrifices.

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain,(F) or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name,(G) will humble(H) themselves and pray and seek my face(I) and turn(J) from their wicked ways, then I will hear(K) from heaven, and I will forgive(L) their sin and will heal(M) their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.(N) 16 I have chosen(O) and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

17 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully(P) as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees(Q) and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted(R) with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor(S) to rule over Israel.’(T)

19 “But if you[a] turn away(U) and forsake(V) the decrees and commands I have given you[b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot(W) Israel from my land,(X) which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule(Y) among all peoples. 21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All[c] who pass by will be appalled(Z) and say,(AA) ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them(AB)—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 7:19 The Hebrew is plural.
  2. 2 Chronicles 7:19 The Hebrew is plural.
  3. 2 Chronicles 7:21 See some Septuagint manuscripts, Old Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Targum; Hebrew And though this temple is now so imposing, all