1. So Solomon finished building the Lord’S Temple and his own palace. Solomon built everything that he wanted to build.
2. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon again, just as he did at Gibeon.
3. The Lord said to him, “I heard your prayer and what you asked me to do. You built this Temple, and I have made it a holy place. So I will be honored there forever. I will watch over it and think of it always.
4. You must serve me with a pure and honest heart, just as your father David did. You must obey my laws and do everything that I commanded you.
5. If you do, I will make sure that your family will always rule Israel, just as I promised your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by one of his descendants.
6-7. “But if you or your children stop following me, and don’t obey the laws and commands that I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, I will force Israel to leave the land that I have given to them. Israel will be an example to other people. Other people will make jokes about Israel. I made the Temple holy. It is the place where people honor me. But I will tear it down.
8. This Temple will be destroyed. Everyone who sees it will be amazed. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and to this temple?’
9. People will say, ‘This happened because they left the Lord their God. He brought their ancestors out of Egypt, but they decided to follow other gods. They worshiped and served those gods. That is why the Lord caused all these bad things to happen to them.’”