Fire from Heaven
And when Solomon finished praying, the fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.
And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD — for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
And all the sons of Israel were watching as the fire came down, with the glory of the LORD on the house; and they knelt, faces to the ground, on the pavement, and bowed down, and gave thanks to the LORD: “For he is good — for his loyal love is forever.”
Sacrifices of Dedication
And the king and all the people were sacrificing sacrifice before the LORD.
And King Solomon sacrificed the sacrifice of oxen — twenty-two thousand — and sheep, a hundred and twenty thousand; and the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
And the priests were standing at their watches, and the Levites with the instruments of the song of the LORD, which David the king had made for giving thanks to the LORD — “for his loyal love is forever” — with the praise of David in their hand; and the priests were sounding trumpets opposite them, and all Israel was standing.
And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD — for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings; for the altar of bronze that Solomon had made could not contain the burnt offering, and the grain offering, and the fat portions.
And Solomon kept the feast at that time, seven days, and all Israel with him — a very great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt.
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.
And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and good of heart over the good that the LORD had done for David, and for Solomon, and for Israel his people.
The LORD’s Response to Solomon
And Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the house of the king; and all that came upon the heart of Solomon to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house, he brought to success.
And the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.
If I shut up the heavens and there is no rain, and if I command the locust to devour the land, and if I send pestilence among my people —
and my people, over whom my name is called, humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn back from their evil ways — then I will hear from the heavens, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Now my eyes will be open, and my ears attentive, to the prayer of this place.
And now I have chosen and consecrated this house, for my name to be there forever; and my eyes and my heart will be there all the days.
And you — if you walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and keep my statutes and my judgments,
then I will raise up the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘There shall not be cut off for you a man ruling in Israel.’
But if you yourselves turn away, and abandon my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them,
then I will uproot them from my soil that I gave them; and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will throw away from my face, and I will make it a proverb and a taunt among all the peoples.
And this house, which was exalted — everyone passing by it will be appalled, and will say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this house?’
And they will say: ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods, and bowed down to them and served them — therefore he has brought on them all this evil.’”