Yahweh appeared to Solomon again

11 Solomon’s workers finished building the temple and Solomon’s palace. And Solomon finished doing everything else that he had planned to do. 12 Then Yahweh appeared to him one night in a dream and said to him,

“I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this temple to be the place where my people will offer sacrifices to me.

13 “When I prevent any rain from falling, or when I command locusts to eat all the crops, or when I send a plague among my people, 14 if the people who belong to me humble themselves and pray, and request me to help them, and if they turn away from their sinful behavior, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive them for having sinned and I will cause them to prosper again. 15 I [SYN] will see them and I [SYN] will hear them when they pray to me in this place. 16 I have chosen and have ◄set apart/dedicated► this temple in order that people may worship [MTY] me there forever. I will always watch over [MTY] it and protect [IDM] it.

17 “And as for you, if you obey me as David your father did, and if you do all that I command you to do, and obey all my laws and decrees, 18 I will make sure that your descendants will always be kings, which is what I promised to David your father, saying, ‘Some of your descendants will always be the kings of Israel.’

19 “But if you Israelis turn away from me and disobey the decrees and commands that I have given to you, and you start to worship other gods, 20 I will cause you to be expelled from this land that I have given to you, and I will abandon this temple that I have set apart to be the place where people should worship me. I will cause it to be despised and ridiculed by people of all nations. 21 Although this temple is now greatly respected, when that happens, all the people who pass by will be appalled, and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done terrible things like this to this country and to this temple?’ 22 And others will reply, ‘It happened because they rejected Yahweh, the God to whom their ancestors belonged, the one who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they have been worshiping other gods and trying to please them. And that is why Yahweh has caused them to experience all these disasters.’ ”