2 Chronicles 7:11-22

New International Reader's Version

The Lord Appears to Solomon

¹¹ Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He had done everything he had planned to do in the Lord’s temple and his own palace. ¹² The Lord appeared to him at night. The Lord said,

“I have heard your prayer. I have chosen this place for myself. It is a temple where sacrifices will be offered.

¹³ “Suppose I close up the sky and there isn’t any rain. Suppose I command locusts to eat up the crops. And I send a plague among my people. ¹⁴ But they make themselves humble in my sight. They pray and look to me. And they turn from their evil ways. Then I will listen to them from heaven. I will forgive their sin. And I will heal their land. After all, they are my people. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will see them. My ears will pay attention to the prayers they offer in this place. ¹⁶ I have chosen this temple. I have set it apart for myself. My Name will be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

¹⁷ “But you must walk faithfully with me, just as your father David did. Do everything I command you to do. Obey my rules and laws. ¹⁸ Then I will set up your royal throne. I made a covenant with your father David to do that. I said to him, ‘You will always have a son from your family line to rule over Israel.’

¹⁹ “But suppose all of you turn away from me. You refuse to obey the rules and commands I have given you. And you go off to serve other gods and worship them. ²⁰ Then I will remove Israel from my land. It is the land I gave them. I will turn my back on this temple. I will do it even though I have set it apart for my Name to be there. I will make all the nations hate it. They will laugh and joke about it. ²¹ This temple will become a pile of stones. All those who pass by it will be shocked. They will say, ‘Why has the Lord done a thing like this to this land and temple?’ ²² People will answer, ‘Because they have deserted the Lord. He is the God of their people who lived long ago. He brought them out of Egypt. But they have been holding on to other gods. They’ve been worshiping them. They’ve been serving them. That’s why the Lord has brought all this horrible trouble on them.’ ”