God’s Promise and Warning

1 aNow it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and bthe king’s house, and call 1that Solomon desired to do,

2 that athe Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

3 The Lord said to him, “aI have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built bby putting My name there forever, and cMy eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

4 “As for you, aif you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances,

5 then aI will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I 1promised to your father David, saying, ‘2You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

6 “aBut if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

7 athen I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and bthe house which I have consecrated for My name, I will 1cast out of My sight. So cIsrael will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

8 “And this house will become 1aa heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘bWhy has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’

9 “And they will say, ‘aBecause they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’ ”