1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from the sky and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house.
2 The priests were unable to go into the house of the LORD, for the LORD's glory had filled the LORD's house.
3 All the children of Israel watched the fire come down and the LORD's glory upon the house, and they knelt with their faces to the ground on the pavement, worshiped, and gave thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love lasts forever."
4 The king and all the people then offered sacrifice before the LORD.
5 King Solomon sacrificed twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. In this way the king and all the people dedicated God's house.
6 The priests were standing at their stations, and the Levites with the LORD's musical instruments, which King David had made for thanking the LORD, "for his steadfast love lasts forever," when David praised by their hand. Across from them the priests were sounding trumpets, and all Israel was standing.
7 Solomon consecrated the middle part of the court in front of the house of the LORD, because there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, for the bronze altar he had made was not able to hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat.
8 So at that time Solomon kept the feast for seven days, and with him all Israel, a very large assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt.
9 On the eighth day they held a solemn gathering; they had observed the altar's dedication for seven days and the feast for seven days.
10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he dismissed the people to their tents, rejoicing and glad at heart over the good the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.
11 So Solomon completed the house of the LORD and the king's palace; everything Solomon had set his heart on doing in the house of the LORD and in his own house he carried out with success.
12 The LORD appeared to Solomon at night and told him, "I have heard your prayer and chosen this place for myself to be a house of sacrifice.
13 When I close the sky so there is no rain, or order the locust to eat up the land, or send plague among my people,
14 if my people, over whom my name is called, humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn back from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
15 From now on my eyes will be open and my ears will attend to the prayer offered in this place.
16 For I have now chosen this house and made it holy, so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there always.
17 As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and judgments,
18 I will make the throne of your kingdom secure, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, 'You will never be without a man to rule over Israel.'
19 But if you turn back and abandon my statutes and commandments that I have set in front of you, and go off and serve other gods and bow down to them,
20 I will pull them up by the roots from my land that I gave them, and this house that I made holy for my name I will throw away from my presence; I will make it a proverb and an object of mockery among all peoples.
21 And as for this house, which was exalted, all who pass by will be astonished and say, 'Why has the LORD treated this land and this house this way?'
22 And people will answer, 'Because they abandoned the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and clung to other gods, bowing down to them and serving them. That is why he has brought all this evil upon them.'"