The Lord speaks to Solomon
11 Solomon had finished building the Lord's temple and the king's palace. He had done everything that he wanted to do for the temple and his palace. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night. He said to Solomon, ‘I have heard your prayer. I have chosen this place as my temple where people can offer sacrifices to me.
13 Sometimes I may stop the rain falling from the sky. I may send locusts to destroy your crops. Or I may send a bad disease to hurt my people. 14 If that happens, my people who belong to me should be humble and they should pray to me. They should turn away from their sins and try to please me. Then I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sins and I will make their land successful again. 15 Now I will watch over this place. I will answer the prayers that people offer to me here. 16 I have chosen this temple to be my special home. People will worship me there for ever. I will always be there to watch over it.
17 But you must all continue to serve me well, as your father David did. Do everything that I have commanded you to do. Obey my rules and my laws. 18 If you do that, I will always cause one of your descendants to rule as king. That is what I promised to your father David when I said, “There will always be someone from your family to rule over Israel.”
19 But if any of you turn away from me, I will punish your people. I will do that if you do not obey the laws and rules that I have given to you. I will do it if you choose to serve and to worship other gods. 20 I will remove the people from the land that I have given to them. I will turn away from this temple that I have made a special place for my people to worship me. People from all the other nations will insult them and they will laugh at them. 21 This beautiful temple will became a heap of stones. Everyone who sees it will be very surprised. They will laugh about it! They will ask, “Why has the Lord destroyed this land and this temple?” 22 People will answer, “He has done it because they have turned away from the Lord, the God of their ancestors. He brought their ancestors out of Egypt. But now they have chosen to worship other gods and to serve them. That is why the Lord has caused this trouble to happen to them.” ’
