2 Chronicles 7
1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from the sky and burned all the offerings and sacrifices [that were on the altar], and the glorious radiance of Yahweh filled the temple.
And when Solomon had completed pouring out his prayers, fire descended from heaven, and it devoured the holocausts and the victims. And the majesty of the Lord filled the house.
2 The radiance [was extremely bright], with the result that the priests could not enter the temple of Yahweh.
Neither were the priests able to enter into the temple of the Lord, because the majesty of the Lord had filled the temple of the Lord.
3 When all the Israeli people [who were there] saw the fire coming down and the glory of Yahweh above the temple, they prostrated themselves with their faces touching the ground. They worshiped and thanked Yahweh, singing, “Yahweh is always good to us; he faithfully loves us forever.”
Moreover, all the sons of Israel saw the fire descending, and the glory of the Lord upon the house. And falling prone upon the ground, on the layer of pavement stones, they adored and praised the Lord: “For he is good. For his mercy is everlasting.”
4 Then the king and all the people who were there dedicated the temple to Yahweh by offering more sacrifices to him. King Solomon gave 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats to be sacrificed.
Then the king and all the people were immolating victims before the Lord.
And so, king Solomon slaughtered victims: twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand rams. And the king and the entire people dedicated the house of God.
6 The priests stood in their positions, and the other descendants of Levi stood in their positions holding the musical instruments [to praise] Yahweh, instruments that King David had caused to be made for praising Yahweh and thanking him. [They sang], “He faithfully loves us forever.” Facing the other descendants of Levi the priests stood, blowing their trumpets, while all the Israeli people were standing [and listening].
Then the priests and the Levites were standing in their offices, with the instruments of music for the Lord, which king David made in order to praise the Lord: “For his mercy is eternal.” And they were playing the hymns of David with their hands. And the priests were sounding out with trumpets before them, and all of Israel was standing.
7 Solomon dedicated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple. Then he gave offerings to be completely burned there along with the fat of the animals to be sacrificed to maintain fellowship with Yahweh. The priests burned them there in the courtyard because in addition to those things there were offerings of grain, with the result that there was not enough space on the bronze altar to burn all those sacrifices.
Also, Solomon sanctified the middle of the atrium in front of the temple of the Lord. For he had offered the holocausts and the fat of peace offerings in that place because the bronze altar, which he had made, had not been able to support the holocausts and the sacrifices and the fat.
8 Solomon [and the other people] celebrated the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters for seven days. There was a huge group of people who celebrated with him. Some of them came from [as far away as] Lebo-Hamath [in the far north] and the border of Egypt [in the far south].
Therefore, Solomon kept the solemnity, at that time, for seven days, and all of Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath, even to the torrent of Egypt.
9 On the eighth/next day they gathered again [to worship Yahweh]. They had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters for seven days.
And on the eighth day, he held a solemn gathering, because he had dedicated the altar over seven days, and he had celebrated the solemnity over seven days.
10 Then on the next day Solomon sent them to their homes. They were very joyful because of all the good things that Yahweh had done for David and Solomon and for all his Israeli people.
And so, on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he dismissed the people to their dwellings, joyful and glad over the good that the Lord had done for David, and for Solomon, and for his people Israel.
11 Solomon’s [workers] finished building the temple and Solomon’s palace. And Solomon finished doing everything else that he had planned to do.
And Solomon completed the house of the Lord, and the house of the king, and all that he had resolved in his heart to do for the house of the Lord, and for his own house. And he prospered.
12 Then Yahweh appeared to him one night [in a dream] and said to him, “I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this temple to be the place where my people will offer sacrifices to me.
Then the Lord appeared to him by night, and said: “I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.
13 “When I prevent any rain from falling, or when I command locusts to eat all the crops, or when I send a plague among my people,
If I close up heaven, so that no rain will fall, or if I order and instruct the locust to devour the land, or if I send a pestilence among my people,
14 if the people who belong to me humble themselves and pray, and request me to help them, and if they turn away from their sinful behavior, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive them for having sinned and I will cause them to prosper again.
and if my people, over whom my name has been invoked, being converted, will have petitioned me and sought my face, and will have done penance for their wicked ways, then I will heed them from heaven, and I will forgive their sins, and I will heal their land.
15 I [SYN] will see them and I [SYN] will hear them when they pray to me in this place.
Also, my eyes will be open, and my ears will be attentive, to the prayer of him who shall pray in this place.
16 I have chosen and have (set apart/dedicated) this temple in order that people may worship [MTY] me there forever. I will always watch over [MTY] it and protect [IDM] it.
For I have chosen and sanctified this place, so that my name may be there continually, and so that my eyes and my heart may remain there, for all days.
17 “And as for you, if you obey me as David your father did, and if you do all that I command you to do, and obey all my laws and decrees,
And as for you, if you will walk before me, just as your father David walked, and if you will act in accord with all that I have instructed you, and if you will observe my justices and judgments,
18 I will make sure that your descendants will always be kings, which is what I promised to David your father, saying, ‘Some of your descendants will always be the kings of Israel.’
I will raise up the throne of your kingdom, just as I promised to your father David, saying: ‘There shall not be taken away a man from your stock who will be ruler in Israel.’
19 “But if you Israelis turn away from me and disobey the decrees and commands that I have given to you, and you start to worship other gods,
But if you will have turned away, and will have forsaken my justices and my precepts, which I have set before you, and going astray, you serve strange gods, and you adore them,
20 I will cause you to be expelled from this land that I have given to you, and I will abandon this temple that I have set apart to be the place where people should worship me. I will cause it to be despised and ridiculed by people of all nations.
I will uproot you from my land, which I gave to you, and from this house, which I sanctified to my name, and I will cast it away from before my face, and I will deliver it to be a parable and an example for all the peoples.
21 Although this temple is now greatly respected, when that happens, all the people who pass by will be appalled, and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done terrible things like this to this country and to this temple?’
And this house will be like a proverb to all who pass by. And being astonished, they shall say: ‘Why has the Lord acted this way toward this land and toward this house?’
22 And others will reply, ‘It happened because they rejected Yahweh, the God to whom their ancestors belonged, the one who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they have been worshiping other gods and trying to please them. And that is why Yahweh has caused them to experience all these disasters.’”
And they shall respond: ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who led them away from the land of Egypt, and they took hold of foreign gods, and they adored and worshipped them. Therefore, all these evils have overwhelmed them.’”
