16. because I have chosen this temple and declared it holy so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
17. As for you, if you will walk before me just as your father David did, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my regulations and case laws,
18. then I will establish your royal throne, just as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a successor ruling in Israel.
19. But if any of you ever turn away from and abandon the regulations and commands that I have given you, and go to serve other gods and worship them,
20. then I will uproot you from my land that I gave you, and I will reject this temple that I made holy for my name. I will make it a joke, insulted by everyone.
21. Everyone who passes by this temple—so lofty now—will be shocked and will wonder, Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and temple?
22. The answer will come, Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods, worshipping and serving them. This is why God brought all this disaster on them.