God’s Promise and Warning

9 Now it happened when Solomon had finished building the house (temple) of the Lord and the king’s house (palace), and all else which he was pleased to do, ² that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, just as He had appeared to him ^[a]at Gibeon. ³ The Lord told him, “I have heard your prayer and supplication which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My Name and My Presence there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. ⁴ As for you, if you walk (live your life) before Me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, acting in accordance with everything that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My precepts, ⁵ then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised your father David, saying, ‘You shall not be without a man (descendant) on the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “But if you or your sons turn away 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, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and I will cast out of My sight the house which I have consecrated for My Name and Presence. Then Israel will become a proverb (a saying) and a byword (object of ridicule) among all the peoples. ⁸ This house (temple) will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be appalled and ^[b]sneer and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ And they [who know] will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they have chosen other gods and have worshiped and served them; that is the reason the Lord has brought on them all this adversity.’”