2 Chronicles, Chapter 7:

Verses from 2 Chronicles, Chapter 7 of the book of 2 Chronicles of the Bible.

2 Chronicles - Old Testament — 2 Chronicles – Old Testament

The consecration of the temple

1. As soon as Solomon concluded his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
2. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord filled it.
3. When all Israel saw the fire descend and the glory of the Lord upon the temple, they fell on their faces and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “He is good; Your love lasts forever".
4. Then the king and all Israel offered sacrifices to the Lord.
5. King Solomon sacrificed twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God.
6. The priests took their places, together with the Levites, who played the Lord's musical instruments, which King David had made to praise the Lord. On the other side, the priests blew their trumpets. All the people were standing.
7. Solomon consecrated the central part of the courtyard, which was before the temple of the Lord, and there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar that Solomon had made was not sufficient for the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and fat portions.
8. For seven days Solomon and all Israel celebrated the festival. There was a great crowd, from Lebo-hamath to the river of Egypt.
9. On the eighth day there was a solemn assembly. They dedicated the altar for seven days and the celebration continued for another seven days.
10. On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, the king sent the people to their homes. Everyone left happy and jubilant for the good things that the Lord had done for David, Solomon and for Israel, his people.

The Lord appears to Solomon

11. When Solomon finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, carrying out everything he had planned for the temple of the Lord and for his own palace,
12. the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple of sacrifice.
13. If I close the sky so that it does not rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send a plague among my people,
14. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
15. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
16. I chose and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there every day.
17. But if you walk before me as your father David did, and do everything I command you, obeying my decrees and commandments,
18. I will establish your throne, according to the covenant I made with David your father, when I said to him: You will never lack a descendant to rule Israel.
19. But if you turn away from me and forsake my commandments and my statutes that I gave you, and worship and serve other gods,
20. I will uproot them from my land which I gave them, and I will cast out of my presence this temple which I have consecrated to my name. I will make it a proverb and an object of ridicule among all people.
21. And everyone who passes by this temple, so imposing now, will be amazed and ask, 'Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?'
22. And the answer will be: 'Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and held fast to other gods, worshiping and serving them. Therefore he brought all this evil upon them.'