^6 (A)But if you or your sons at all ^[a]turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

⁹ “As for you, my son Solomon, ^(A)know the God of your father, and serve Him ^(B)with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for ^(C)the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. ^(D)If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will ^(E)cast you off forever.

^14 (A)I will be his Father, and he shall be ^(B)My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the ^[a]blows of the sons of men. ¹⁵ But My mercy shall not depart from him, ^(C)as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ And ^(D)your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before ^[b]you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

² And he went out ^[a]to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. ^(A)The Lord is with you while you are with Him. ^(B)If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but ^(C)if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

^19 (A)“But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, ^20 (B)then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have ^[a]sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a ^(C)byword among all peoples.

²¹ “And as for ^(D)this ^[b]house, which ^[c]is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be ^(E)astonished and say, ^(F)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ ²² Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”

⁴ For it was so, when Solomon was old, ^(A)that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his ^(B)heart was not ^[a]loyal to the Lord his God, ^(C)as was the heart of his father David. ⁵ For Solomon went after ^(D)Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after ^(E)Milcom^[b] the abomination of the ^(F)Ammonites. ⁶ Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. ^7 (G)Then Solomon built a ^[c]high place for ^(H)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on ^(I)the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. ⁸ And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

⁹ So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, ^(J)who had appeared to him twice, ¹⁰ and ^(K)had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.

³⁰ Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ^(A)‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ^(B)‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and ^(C)those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.