 1 When Solomon stopped praying, the fire came down from Heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the house. 2 The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. 3 When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord on the house, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the Lord saying, For He is good, for His mercy endures forever. 4 The king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. 5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. And the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6 The priests waited on their offices, and the Levites with instruments of music of the Lord that David the king had made to praise the Lord, because His mercy endures forever, when David praised by their ministry. And the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood. 7 Solomon made the middle of the court before the house of the Lord holy. For there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, and the food offerings, and the fat. 8 At the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt. 9 In the eighth day they made a solemn assembly. For they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. 10 On the twenty third day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel His people. 11 So Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house and all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house. He did all with success. 12 The Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up the heavens and there is no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send a plague among my people. 14 If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my presence+ 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 will be open to the prayer of this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there forever. 17 If you will walk before me as David your father walked and do according to all that I have commanded you and observe my statutes and my judgments, 18 then I will make the throne of your kingdom sure as I covenanted with David your father saying, There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel. 19 But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land that I have given them. And this house that I have sanctified for my name, I will cast out of my sight and I will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. 21 This house that is high shall be a wonder to everyone who passes by it so that they will shudder and say, Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house? 22 It will be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt and took hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore He has brought all this evil on them.
|