⁷ He even set a carved image of ^[a]Asherah that he had made, in the ^[b]house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, ^(A)“In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;

¹⁶ For now ^(A)I have chosen and ^[a]sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and ^[b]My eyes and ^[c]My heart will be there perpetually.

³ And the Lord said to him: ^(A)“I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built ^(B)to put My name there forever, ^(C)and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

²⁹ that Your eyes may be open toward this ^[a]temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ^(A)‘My name shall be ^(B)there,’ that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes ^(C)toward this place.

^13 (A)He shall build a house for My name, and I will ^(B)establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

³⁴ But they ^(A)set their abominations in ^[a]the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

^9 (A)but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, ^(B)though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’

¹⁵ He took away ^(A)the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city.