1   When Solomon had finished this prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the whole-offering and the sacrifices, while the glory of the Lord filled the house. 2   The priests were unable to enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled it. 3   All the Israelites were watching as the fire came down with the glory of the Lord on the

The reign of Solomon house, and where they stood on the paved court they bowed low to the ground and worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord, because ‘that ^note is good, for his love endures for ever.’

4   Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. 5   King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep; in this way the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6   The priests stood at their appointed posts; so too the Levites with their musical instruments for the Lord's service, which King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord— ‘for his love endures for ever’—whenever he rendered praise with their help; opposite them, the priests sounded their trumpets; and all the Israelites were standing there.

7    ^noteThen Solomon consecrated the centre of the court which lay in front ^note of the house of the Lord; there he offered the whole-offerings and the fat portions of the shared-offerings, because the bronze altar which he had made could not take the whole-offering, the grain-offering, and the fat portions. 8   So Solomon and all Israel with him, a very great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Torrent of Egypt, celebrated the pilgrim-feast at that time for seven days. 9   On the eighth day they held a closing ceremony; for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days; the pilgrim-feast lasted seven days. 10   On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their homes, happy and glad at heart for all the prosperity granted by the Lord to David and Solomon and to his people Israel.

11   When Solomon had finished the house of the Lord and the royal palace and had successfully carried out all that he had planned for the house of the Lord and the palace, 12   the Lord appeared to him by night and said, ‘I have heard your prayer and I have chosen this place to be my place of sacrifice. 13   When I shut up the heavens and there is no rain, or command the locusts to consume the land, or send a pestilence against my people, 14   if my people whom I have named my own submit and pray to me and seek me and turn back from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. 15   Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers which are made in this place. 16   I have chosen and consecrated this house, that my Name may be there for all time and my eyes and my heart be fixed on it for ever. 17   And if you, on your part, live in my sight as your father David lived, doing all I command you, and observing my statutes and my judgements, 18   then I will establish your royal throne, as I promised by a covenant granted to your father David when I said, “You shall never want for a man to rule over Israel.” 19   But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and

The reign of Solomon if you go and serve other gods and prostrate yourselves before them, then I will uproot you ^note from my land which I gave you, 20    ^note I will reject this house which I have consecrated in honour of my name, and make it a byword and an object-lesson among all peoples. 21   And this house will become a ruin; ^note every passer-by will be appalled at the sight of it, and they will ask, “Why has the Lord so treated this land and this house?” 22   The answer will be, “Because they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and clung to other gods, prostrating themselves before them and serving them; that is why the Lord has brought this great evil on them.”’

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