When Solomon had finished the house of the LORD and the royal palace, successfully carrying out all that was in his heart to do for the house of the LORD and for his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. For I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My Name may be there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.’ But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' And others will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.'"
Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do, the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple you have built by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples. And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’”
Significance
These are parallel accounts of God's second appearance to Solomon after the temple dedication. Both texts contain the conditional covenant promise and warning, but the Chronicler uniquely adds the famous 2 Chronicles 7:14 formula: "if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land." This verse, absent from 1 Kings 9, becomes the Chronicler's programmatic statement of repentance theology, providing the post-exilic community a template for national restoration through collective humility and prayer. The Chronicler also uniquely frames this nighttime appearance as God's direct answer to the dedication prayer—"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice" (2 Chr 7:12).
Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s)
Redemptive-Historical Progression — The second theophany of 1 Kings 9:1-9, with its conditional Davidic promise and warning of uprooting and a ruined temple, is re-presented by the Chronicler with God's added answer to the dedication prayer (2 Chr 7:13-15, crowned by the 7:14 humble-pray-seek-turn formula), advancing the earlier account into a standing charter of repentance and healing for the post-exilic people — a charter whose hearing, forgiving God is fully met in Christ.
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