1Once Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And Yahweh’s glory filled the temple.
2The priests could not enter Yahweh’s temple because Yahweh’s glory filled it.
3All the people of Israel watched as the fire came down and Yahweh’s glory rested on the temple. They bowed down with their faces to the pavement, worshiped, and thanked Yahweh, saying, “For he is good; his faithful love endures forever.”
4Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before Yahweh.
5King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated God’s house.
6The priests stood in their appointed places. The Levites also stood with the musical instruments for Yahweh, which King David had made to thank Yahweh, when David praised through their leadership, saying, “For his faithful love endures forever.” The priests blew trumpets in front of them, and all Israel stood.
7Furthermore, Solomon made the middle part of the courtyard in front of Yahweh’s temple holy. There he offered the burnt offerings and the fat from the peace offerings because the bronze altar Solomon had made was not large enough to hold all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fat.
8So Solomon and all Israel celebrated the festival for seven days. It was a very large assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt.
9On the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly, because they had observed the dedication of the altar for seven days and the festival for seven days.
10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people home, joyful and glad in their hearts for the good things Yahweh had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.
11So Solomon finished Yahweh’s temple and the royal palace, successfully completing everything he had planned to build for Yahweh’s temple and his own palace.
12Yahweh appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house where sacrifices are to be made.
13“If I close up the sky so there is no rain, or if I command locusts to eat the land, or if I send a plague among my people;
14if my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer made in this place.
16I have chosen and made this house holy, so that my name will be here forever. My eyes and my heart will always be here.
17As for you, if you live your life as your father David did, and obey all my commands, and follow my laws and rules,
18then I will make your kingdom secure, just as I promised your father David. I told him, 'There will always be one of your descendants to rule in Israel.'
19But if you turn away and abandon my laws and commands that I have given you, and go and worship and serve other gods,
20then I will uproot you from my land that I have given you. This house, which I have made holy for my name, I will remove from my sight. I will make it an example and a byword among all nations.
21This house, which is so grand, will astonish everyone who passes by it, and they will say, 'Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house?'
22They will answer, 'Because they abandoned Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods, worshiped them, and served them. That is why he has brought all this disaster upon them.'