9. On the eighth day they held an assembly, for they had dedicated the altar for seven days and celebrated the festival for seven more days.
10. On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people home. They left happy and contented because of the good the Lord had done for David, Solomon, and his people Israel.
11. After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple and the royal palace, and accomplished all his plans for the Lord’s temple and his royal palace,
12. the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have answered your prayer and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made.
13. When I close up the sky so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, or send a plague among my people,
14. if my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
15. Now I will be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place.
16. Now I have chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home; I will be constantly present there.
17. You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations.
18. Then I will establish your dynasty, just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor ruling over Israel.’
19. “But if you people ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, and decide to serve and worship other gods,
20. then I will remove you from my land I have given you, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, and I will make you an object of mockery and ridicule among all the nations.