2 Chronicles 7:11-22

The Voice

True God: As promised, I have chosen this temple as the place where My name will dwell and where I will receive sacrifices and prayer. I heard your prayer, and I will honor it.

¹³ If I close up the heavens and their rain and send any of the disasters you described—drought, locusts, pestilence—to ravish the land and people; ¹⁴ and My people (who are known by My name) humbly pray, follow My commandments, and abandon any actions or thoughts that might lead to further sinning, then I shall hear their prayers from My house in heaven, I shall forgive their sins, and I shall save their land from the disasters. ¹⁵ Now I will witness with My eyes and hear with My ears the prayers offered in this temple ¹⁶ because I have chosen and consecrated this temple as the eternal resting place for My reputation, My eyes, and My heart.

¹⁷ If you follow My ways as your father David did, do all that I ask you to do, and follow My laws and commands, ¹⁸ then I will establish your royal throne and keep My covenant with your father David: “One of your descendants will always be a king of Israel.”

¹⁹ If you and the Israelites ignore My ways and disregard My laws, if you serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will remove you all from My land, the land I gave to you and your ancestors, and I will destroy this temple, which I have consecrated for My reputation, making it a proverb and a byword among the nations. ²¹ Everyone who passes by this exalted temple will be astonished: “Why has the Eternal destroyed His land and His house?” ²² They will conclude, “He has done this because they abandoned the Eternal, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they served other gods and worshiped them. He is the One who has brought this evil upon them.”