2 Chronicles 7

KJV · Chapter 7/36

¹Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

²And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.

³And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

⁴Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord.

⁵And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

⁶And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of musick of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.

⁷Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord: for there he offered burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brasen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, and the meat offerings, and the fat.

⁸Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

⁹And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.

¹⁰And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

¹¹Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king’s house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, he prosperously effected.

¹²And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.

¹³If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

¹⁴If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

¹⁵Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

¹⁶For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

¹⁷And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;

¹⁸Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.

¹⁹But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

²⁰Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.

²¹And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house?

²²And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Fire comes down from heaven and consumes the offered sacrifices, confirming divine acceptance of the temple. After a great dedication celebration, God appears again to Solomon at night, promising to hear the people's prayers, but also warning of the consequences of future disobedience.

Explanation

The visible descent of fire onto the altar, consuming the sacrifices before the entire assembled people, serves as a clear and public divine confirmation that God accepted that temple as his dwelling place — a sign similar to what also happened, for example, at the dedication of the tabernacle. God's response to Solomon contains one of the most quoted passages in the entire Bible about national repentance: the promise that if the people humble themselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from their wicked ways, God will forgive their sins and restore the land. This text has been used throughout history as a general call to collective repentance in times of crisis.

Fun facts

The passage 'if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven' (2 Chronicles 7:14) is one of the most quoted verses in contexts of spiritual renewal and national repentance to this day.
The temple dedication celebration lasted fourteen days in total, combining seven days devoted specifically to consecrating the altar with another seven days for the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the largest religious celebrations ever recorded in Israel.

Verse-by-verse explanation

2 Chronicles 7:1The fire that comes down from heaven and consumes the offering is the visible confirmation that God accepted that temple, the same way it had happened before with the tabernacle in Moses’s time. It’s the kind of sign nobody there could mistake for coincidence.
2 Chronicles 7:2God’s glory fills the temple so completely that not even the priests can enter — God’s presence literally takes over the physical space of the newly dedicated building.
2 Chronicles 7:3Seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, all the people kneel with their faces to the ground, worshiping and repeating the refrain, “For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”
2 Chronicles 7:4After this moment of collective worship, the king and all the people go on to offer sacrifices before the Lord — the dedication ceremony continues in practice.
2 Chronicles 7:5Solomon sacrifices an impressive number of animals — twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred twenty thousand sheep — in this joint consecration of the temple by the king and the people.
2 Chronicles 7:6Priests and Levites take their positions in their service divisions, playing the instruments David himself had made for praising God, while all Israel remains standing.
2 Chronicles 7:7The courtyard’s bronze altar was too small to handle so many sacrifices at once, so Solomon also consecrates the middle of the courtyard to fit the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fat.
2 Chronicles 7:8The dedication feast lasts seven days, drawing people from an enormous stretch of territory — from the entrance of Hamath in the north to the river of Egypt in the south.
2 Chronicles 7:9On the eighth day a specific solemn assembly takes place, since the previous seven days had been divided between consecrating the altar and the feast itself.
2 Chronicles 7:10On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sends the people home, all of them glad for the good God had done for David, for Solomon, and for Israel.
2 Chronicles 7:11With the temple and his own palace finished, the text sums up: everything Solomon planned to do, he managed to carry out successfully.
2 Chronicles 7:12God appears to Solomon at night, confirming that He heard the dedication prayer and has chosen that temple as a house of sacrifice — the answer that opens the rest of the chapter.
2 Chronicles 7:13God lists three kinds of crisis He might send as punishment — lack of rain, a locust plague, or pestilence — the same scenarios Solomon had already named in his own prayer.
2 Chronicles 7:14This promise — if the people humble themselves, pray, and turn back, God will hear and heal the land — is God’s direct answer to Solomon’s dedication prayer in the previous chapter, addressed specifically to this temple and this people at that moment.
2 Chronicles 7:15God promises that, from now on, His eyes and ears will stay attentive specifically to the prayers made at that temple — the direct answer to Solomon’s request in the previous chapter.
2 Chronicles 7:16God confirms that He has chosen and set apart that temple so that His name may dwell there forever, with His eyes and heart turned toward that place every day.
2 Chronicles 7:17God’s promise to Solomon comes with a personal condition: follow David’s example of faithfulness, obeying everything commanded.
2 Chronicles 7:18If that condition is met, God guarantees He will establish the throne of the kingdom, keeping the old promise that a descendant of David will never fail to rule Israel.
2 Chronicles 7:19But God also warns of the opposite: if the people abandon the commandments and turn to worshiping other gods, the consequences come in the next verse.
2 Chronicles 7:20The warning is direct: if the people abandon the covenant, God will uproot them from the land and abandon this very temple He has just consecrated, to the point that it becomes a byword for anyone passing by afterward. It’s almost an advance summary of what will actually happen at the end of the book, centuries later.
2 Chronicles 7:21God foresees that the temple itself, so admired today, will become an astonishment in the future — people will pass by asking why He let that happen to the land and the house.
2 Chronicles 7:22The answer to that future question comes ready-made: it was because the people abandoned the God who brought them out of Egypt and went to serve other gods — a summary of the reason for the exile, told well before it happens.

Chapters

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