For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
That God accepted Solomon's prayer appeared by the fire from heaven. But a prayer may be accepted and yet not answered in the letter of it; and therefore God appeared to him in the night, as he did once before (Ch2 1:7), and after a day of sacrifice too, as then, and gave him a peculiar answer to his prayer. We had the substance of it before, Kg1 9:2-9. I.
Commenting on 2 Chronicles 7:12-22
2Ch 7:11-22 The Lord’s answer to Solomon’s dedicatory prayer. Cf. 1Ki 9:1-9. The general contents, and the order of the thoughts in the divine answer in the two texts, agree, but in the Chronicle individual thoughts are further expounded than in the book of Kings, and expressions are here and there made clear.
Commenting on 2 Chronicles 7:11-22