11 The Lord's temple and Solomon’s palace were now finished. In fact, everything Solomon had planned to do was completed.
12 Some time later, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said:
I heard your prayer, and I have chosen this temple as the place where sacrifices will be offered to me.
13 Suppose I hold back the rain or send locusts7.13 locusts: See the note at 6.28. to eat the crops or make my people suffer with deadly diseases. 14 If my own people will humbly pray and turn back to me and stop sinning, then I will answer them from heaven. I will forgive them and make their land fertile once again. 15 I will hear the prayers made in this temple, 16 because it belongs to me, and this is where I will be worshiped forever. I will never stop watching over it.
17 Your father David obeyed me, and now, Solomon, you must do the same. Obey my laws and teachings, 18 1 K 2.4.and I will keep my solemn promise to him that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.
19 But if you or any of the people of Israel disobey my laws or start worshiping foreign gods, 20 I will pull you out of this land I gave you. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshiped, so that people everywhere will think it is only a joke and will make fun of it. 21 This temple is now magnificent. But when these things happen, everyone who walks by it will be shocked and will ask, "Why did the Lord do such a terrible thing to his people and to this temple?" 22 Then they will answer, "It was because the people of Israel rejected the Lord their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods."