[1] When Solomon had ended 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] And the priests could not enter the house of the
LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. [3] When all
the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD
upon the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the earth on the
pavement, and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is
good, for his steadfast love endures for ever." [4] Then the king and all
the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. [5] King Solomon offered as a
sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep.
So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. [6] The priests
stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to
the LORD which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD--for his
steadfast love endures for ever--whenever David offered praises by their
ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets; and all Israel stood.
[7] And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the
house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of
the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not
hold the burnt offering and the cereal offering and the fat. [8] At that
time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very
great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt. [9]
And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly; for they had 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 to their
homes, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to
David and to Solomon and to Israel his people. [11] Thus Solomon finished
the house of the LORD and the king's house; all that Solomon had planned to
do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully
accomplished. [12] Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said
to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as
a house of sacrifice. [13] When I shut up the heavens so that there is no
rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my
people, [14] if my people who are called by my name 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 that is made in this
place. [16] For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name
may be there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
[17] And as for you, if you walk before me, as David your father walked,
doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes
and my ordinances, [18] then I will establish your royal throne, as I
covenanted with David your father, saying, `There shall not fail you a man
to rule Israel.' [19] "But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my
commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and
worship them, [20] then I will pluck you up from the land which I have
given you; and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will
cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all
peoples. [21] And at this house, which is exalted, every one passing by
will be astonished, and say, `Why has the LORD done thus to this land and
to this house?" [22] Then they will say, `Because they forsook the LORD the
God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid
hold on other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore he has
brought all this evil upon them'"