2 Chronicles 7:21
And 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? And 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?
After the dedication of the temple God hallowed the house to put His name there forever, with His eyes and heart there perpetually, and promised to establish Solomon's throne over Israel forever if he walked before God as David had done in integrity of heart and uprightness and kept His statutes and judgments. If Solomon remained faithful and Israel obeyed all God's commandments, that glorious temple would have stood forever in all its splendor as a perpetual sign and evidence of God's special favor, prosperity, and exalted blessings resting upon Israel for obedience, for its honored place depended on Israel's faithfulness as the chosen, peculiar people who alone preserved true worship by keeping His commandments. But if Israel turned from following God, broke the covenant, forsook His commandments, and served and worshiped other gods, God would bring calamity upon them, cut Israel out of the land He had given them, and cast out and reject the house He had set apart and hallowed for His name.
Then this high, glorious, and specially favored house, and the chosen land, would become an astonishment to everyone passing by, so that in its ruin they would ask why the Lord had done thus and brought such calamity and ruin upon the land and the house. Israel itself would become a proverb and a byword among all people. The answer to the passersby's question is that Israel abandoned the God who brought them out of Egypt and served other gods, so calamity came upon them.
That warning was fulfilled some hundreds of years after the temple was built, because Israel transgressed God's commandments and committed wicked acts while making the temple their pride and regarding it with idolatry. God suffered them to go into captivity to humble and punish them, and the temple's destruction and disgrace showed the consequences of apostasy. Before the temple was destroyed God made its fate and Israel's captivity known to a few faithful servants, and just before the destruction those righteous men with mourning and sadness removed the sacred ark containing the tables of stone and hid it in a cave from Israel because of their sins, to be no more restored to them, and that ark remains hidden and has never been disturbed since.