2 Chronicles 7:12

7:12 the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have answered ¹  your prayer and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made. ² 

2 Chronicles 7:16

7:16 Now I have chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home; ³  I will be constantly present there. ⁴ 

2 Chronicles 7:20

7:20 then I will remove you ⁵  from my land I have given you, ⁶  I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, ⁷  and I will make you ⁸  an object of mockery and ridicule ⁹  among all the nations.

¹ tn Heb “I have heard.”

² tn Heb “temple of sacrifice.” This means the Lord designated the temple as the place for making sacrifices, and this has been clarified in the translation.

³ tn Heb “for my name to be there perpetually [or perhaps, “forever”].”

⁴ tn Heb “and my eyes and my heart will be there all the days.”

⁵ tn Heb “them.” The switch from the second to the third person pronoun is rhetorically effective, for it mirrors God’s rejection of his people – he has stopped addressing them as “you” and begun addressing them as “them.” However, the switch is awkward and confusing in English, so the translation maintains the direct address style.

⁶ tn Heb “them.” See the note on “you” earlier in this verse.

⁷ tc Instead of “I will throw away,” the parallel text in 1 Kgs 9:7 has “I will send away.” The two verbs sound very similar in Hebrew, so the discrepancy is likely due to an oral transmissional error.

⁸ tn Heb “him,” which appears in context to refer to Israel (i.e., “you” in direct address). Many translations understand the direct object of the verb “make” to be the temple (NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “it”).

⁹ tn Heb “and I will make him [i.e., Israel] a proverb and a taunt,” that is, a proverbial example of destruction and an object of reproach.