2 Chronicles 7:11-22

God's Promise and Warning

11 ¹Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned * * on doing in the house of the LORD and in his palace.

12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and ²have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

13 "³If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

14 ⁴and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

15 "⁵Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

16 "For ⁶now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever *, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually *.

17 "As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances,

18 then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, '⁷You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.'

19 "⁸But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

20 ⁹then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it ¹⁰a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

21 "As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, '¹¹Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?'

22 "And they will say, 'Because * ¹²they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore * He has brought all this adversity on them.' "

2 Chronicles 7:11-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 7

In this chapter is an account of the Lord's acceptance of the sacrifices offered at the dedication of the temple by fire, to the great surprise and encouragement of the people, 2Ch 7:1-7, and of the feast kept on that account, and the feast of tabernacles, 2Ch 7:8-12, and of the Lord's appearance to Solomon, giving an answer to his prayer, 2Ch 7:13-22.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 9:1-9
• 2. Deuteronomy 12:5, 11
• 3. 2 Chronicles 6:26-28
• 4. 2 Chronicles 6:37-39; James 4:10
• 5. 2 Chronicles 6:20, 40
• 6. 2 Chronicles 7:12
• 7. 1 Kings 2:4; 2 Chronicles 6:16
• 8. Leviticus 26:14, 33; Deuteronomy 28:15
• 9. Deuteronomy 29:28; 1 Kings 14:15
• 10. Deuteronomy 28:37
• 11. Deuteronomy 29:24-27
• 12. Judges 2:13

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "came upon the heart of Solomon to do"
• [b]. Lit "over whom My name is called"
• [c]. Lit "prayer of this place"
• [d]. Lit "There shall not be cut off to you a man"
• [e]. Ancient versions and Heb read "them"