2 Chronicles - The Old Testament

¹ When Solomon had finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Yahweh filled the Temple.

² The priests could not enter the Temple of Yahweh, because the glory of Yahweh filled the Temple of Yahweh.

³ When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and the glory of Yahweh resting on the Temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising Yahweh with 'For he is good, for his faithful love lasts for ever!'

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before Yahweh.

⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and thus the king and all the people dedicated the Temple of God.

⁶ The priests stood in their places, as did the Levites with Yahweh's musical instruments which King David had provided, to render 'Give thanks to Yahweh, for his faithful love lasts for ever!' whenever David offered praise to their accompaniment. Opposite them, the priests blew trumpets, while all Israel stood.

⁷ Solomon also consecrated the middle part of the court in front of the Temple of Yahweh; for that was where he presented the burnt offerings and the fatty parts of the communion sacrifices, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering, the oblation and the fatty parts.

⁸ And then Solomon and with him all Israel from the Pass of Hamath to the Torrent of Egypt -- a very great assembly -- celebrated the feast for seven days.

⁹ On the eighth day they held the assembly, for they had devoted seven days to the dedication of the altar and seven days to the feast.

¹⁰ On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon dismissed the people to their homes, rejoicing and happy of heart over the goodness which Yahweh had shown to David, to Solomon and to his people Israel.

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the Temple of Yahweh and the royal palace, and he successfully concluded everything that he was of a mind to do in the Temple of Yahweh and in his own palace.

¹² Then Yahweh appeared to Solomon in the night and said, 'I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

¹³ If I shut the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the country, or if I send pestilence among my people,

¹⁴ if my people who bear my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, then I will listen from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their country.

¹⁵ Now and for the future my eyes are open and my ears attentive to prayer offered in this place,

¹⁶ for now I have chosen and consecrated this Temple, for my name to be there for ever; my eyes and my heart will constantly be there.

¹⁷ And if, for your part, you walk before me as your father David did, and do everything that I have commanded you to do, and keep my laws and my ordinances,

¹⁸ I shall make your royal throne secure, as I covenanted with your father David when I said: You will never lack for a male to rule in Israel.

¹⁹ But if you turn away and forsake my laws and commandments which I have laid down for you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰ then I shall uproot them from the country which I have given them, and shall disown this Temple which I have consecrated for my name and make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.

²¹ And at this once-exalted Temple, everyone who passes by will be appalled, and will say, "Why has Yahweh treated this country and this Temple like this?"

²² And the answer will be, "Because they deserted Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshipped and served them; that is why he has brought all these disasters on them." '