Analysis of Solomon's Temple Dedication

Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house, and

all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord,

and in his own house he prosperously affected.

And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him,

"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself

for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven

that there be no rain, or if I command the locust

to devour the land, or if I send pestilence

among my people, if my people, which are called by my

name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my

face and turn from their wicked ways,

then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their

sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes

shall be open and my ears attent to the prayer

that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and

sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever,

and my eyes and my heart shall be there

perpetually.

And as for you, if you will walk before me

as David your father walked, and do according to all that

I have commanded you, and shall observe my

statutes and my judgments, then will I establish the

throne of my kingdom according to as I have

covenanted with David your father, saying, 'There shall

not fail you as a man to be ruler in

Israel.' But if you turn away and forsake my

statutes and my commandments, which I have set

before you, and shall go and serve other gods and

worship them, then will I pluck them up from the roots

out of my land which I have given them.

And this house, which I have sanctified for my name,

will I cast out of my sight and will make it to

be a proverb and a byword among

nations. And this house, which is high, shall be an

astonishment to every one that passes by it, so

that he shall say, 'Why has the Lord done thus

to this land and to this house?' And it shall be

answered, because they forsook the Lord God of their

fathers, which brought them forth out of the land

of Egypt and

laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and

served them. Therefore has he brought all this evil

upon them.'"

And it came