“When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you; if they turn again to you, and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house; then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.
“When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men); that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
“Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake (for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house; hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.
“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name; then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;’ if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name; then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause; and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 37, 38, 41, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50 Acknowledge thy just judgment, and praise thee.
Acknowledge thy just judgment, and praise thee.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv33–50 1Ki 8:33 When thy people Israel be smitten down…
1Ki 8:33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
Ver. 33. And confess thy name.] Submit to thy justice, and implore thy mercy.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 And confess thy name; give glory to thy name,…
And confess thy name; give glory to thy name, by acknowledging their sins, and thy justice; and by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone for their deliverance.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv33–50 When thy people Israel shall be smitten down before…
When thy people Israel shall be smitten down before the enemy,.... Beaten and routed, many slain, and others carried captive; which had been their case, and might be again, and was, though now a time of peace:
because they have sinned against thee; which always was the reason of their being given up into the hands of their enemies:
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and shall turn again to thee; to thy worship, as the Targum, having fallen into idolatry, which was generally the case when they fell before their enemies:
and confess thy name; own him to be the true God, acknowledge his justice in their punishment, confess their sin, repent of it, and give him glory:
and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house; not the captives, unless it should be rendered, as it may, "toward this house" (f); but those that escaped, or their brethren that went not out to battle, who should pray for them here.
(f) So Pool and Patrick.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 48, 49 Confess - Give glory to thy name, by acknowledging…
Confess - Give glory to thy name, by acknowledging their sins, and by justice; and by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone, for their deliverance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 37, 41, 44, 46, 50 Verse 33. When thy people Israel be smitten down,…
Verse 33. When thy people Israel be smitten down, c.] The SECOND case. When their enemies make inroads upon them, and defeat them in battle, and lead them into captivity, because God, being displeased with their transgressions, has delivered them up then if they shall turn again, confess the name of God, which they had in effect denied, by either neglecting his worship, or becoming idolatrous; and pray and make supplication; then, says Solomon, hear thou in heaven-and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 50 1Ki 8:33-34. When thy people be smitten — This…
1Ki 8:33-34. When thy people be smitten — This is the second case he puts. If the people of Israel were in general groaning under any national calamity, he desires that the prayers which they should make in or toward that house might be heard and answered. Shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name — Not only shall acknowledge thee to be God alone, renouncing all false gods; but shall give glory to thy name by acknowledging their sins and thy justice; by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone for deliverance. And make supplication to thee in this house — Trusting in thee, and expecting help from thee alone. Then hear, and bring them again, &c. — Deliver them out of the captivity into which their enemies may have carried them, and restore them to their own country.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv36, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 47, 50 Teach them ... - Rather, “when thou art teaching…
Teach them ... - Rather, “when thou art teaching them (by thy chastisement) the good way that they should walk in,” i. e. when thou art still teaching, not taking vengeance.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv34, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 47 Fathers. In the place of their captivity they might…
Fathers. In the place of their captivity they might turn, like Daniel, towards the temple. (Calmet) --- God had threatened that he would punish his people by the hand of their enemies, &c., if they transgressed, Leviticus xxvi. 17. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv37, 38, 41, 43, 44, 46 37. Blasting — Destruction of grain by a pernicious…
37. Blasting — Destruction of grain by a pernicious east wind. Com.
Gen_41:6. Deu_28:22; Amo_4:9.
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Mildew — ירקון, yellowness. A disease of grain, produced in the East by a hot, poisonous wind which turns the ears yellow.
Locust — A destructive insect, swarms of which frequently devastate Palestine and neighbouring lands. See on Exo_10:4. Says an Eastern traveller: “With the burning south winds there come from the interior of Arabia and from the most southern parts of Persia clouds of locusts, whose ravages to these countries are as grievous, and nearly as sudden, as those of the heaviest hail in Europe. We witnessed them twice. It is difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain; the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun was considerably weakened. In a moment the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects, and in two days they had nearly devoured all the leaves of the plants.” — Olivier.
Caterpillar — The word חסיל, chasil, from חסל, to strip off, or devour, can hardly designate the caterpillar, though, besides here and the parallel passage in 2Ch_6:28, it is so rendered in Psa_78:46; Isa_34:4; Joe_1:4; Joe_2:25. In Deu_28:38 the ravages of the locusts are represented by the verb חסל, and it is therefore better to understand by the word chasil a kind of locust, specially noted for stripping off and devouring the very last vestige of vegetation, even after other destructive insects had gone before it. Compare Joe_1:4.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50 33. When thy people Israel be smitten down before…
33. When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy] Such an event is contemplated in the language of Leviticus (Lev_26:17) and Deuteronomy (Deu_28:25) as well as the restoration and delivery of the people on their repentance (see Lev_26:40-42).
because they have sinned against thee] From what follows it seems as if idolatry, to which the people were so prone, were noted as the special sin. They have turned away from God, and so are to turn to Him again. The penalty constantly threatened for serving strange gods was that they should be made to serve strangers in a land which was not theirs. Cf. Deu_28:47 seqq.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 37, 41, 44, 50 (33, 34) When thy people.—From the individual, the prayer…
(33, 34) When thy people.—From the individual, the prayer turns to those which touch the whole nation. It pictures various national calamities, and in each recognises not mere evils, but chastisements of God, who desires by them to teach, and is most ready to forgive. First it naturally dwells on disaster in battle, which, in the whole history of the Exodus, of the Conquest, of the troubled age of the Judges, and of the reigns of Saul and David, is acknowledged as a sign of unfaithfulness in Israel, either through sin or through idolatry, to the covenant of God, on which the victorious possession of the promised land depended. On that history the blessing and the curse of the Law (Lev_26:17; Lev_26:32-33; Deu_28:25) form a commentary of emphatic warning, and the Psalms again and again bring the same lesson home (Psa_44:1-3; Psa_44:9-17; Psa_60:9-11; Psa_89:42-46). With characteristic seriousness, Solomon looks back from his peaceful prosperity on the stormy past, and from it learns to pray for the future.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv33–50 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the…
When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy Lev_26:7, 17 Deu_28:25. There is a constant reference to these two chapters throughout this prayer, or, if no direct reference to them, there are unmistakeable reminiscences of them, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess or praise. (Psa_54:7 Psa_106:47 Psa_122:4) thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house. The marg. towards is a mistaken attempt at avoiding the difficulty which lies on the surface of the text, viz., that persons in a foreign land could not pray in the temple. But the king obviously is speaking here, not of those taken captive, but of the nation at large ("thy people Israel") by its representatives, (cf. Joe_2:17) supplicating after its defeat. The idea of captives does not come in until the next verse. Under the term house the courts are obviously included. (Act_2:46 Luk_18:10) Into the edifice the priests alone were admitted.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v33 When Thy people Israel be smitten down before the…
1Ki_8:33-34
When Thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy.
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Thy people England
I. The conditions of national unity. When any one desires to understand what is meant by a nation, he had better look unto Gods people Israel first of all, for they fulfilled the two great conditions of national unity. The first is faith in God, and no nation has ever risen to greatness, and no nation, having arisen, has ever maintained its greatness except so far as it believed in--and publicly as a nation, and privately by individuals--acknowledged Almighty God. There is this analogy between the individual and the nation, that an individual is not able to say I, with any intelligence of what I means, except in God; and an individual is not able to say I will, with any force in the will, except in God. It is in the Unseen and Eternal that we realise ourselves. The other condition of national unity with Israel was vocation. Therefore the prophets were perpetually telling the people that their fathers had been called and blessed not for their own sake--and there is no man ever blessed for his own sake, but for the sake of the man that is next him--that their fathers had not been called and blessed for their own sake, but for the sake of the world. They were the receptors of a Revelation, and received the touch of truth to pass it down from hand to hand, and every man to blow it brighter as it went from patriarch to prophet, from prophet to psalmist, from psalmist to martyr, till the day came when the nation could be sent out, each man a torch-bearer, unto the ends of the earth, carrying the light of eternal truth.
II. A message of righteousness. What was the message they were to carry to the world? The message they were to carry to the world was righteousness. As the Greek was raised up of God to give us the sense of beauty, so was the Jew raised up to give us what is far better than beauty, the sense of righteousness; and to write the ten words of Moses upon the conscience of the individual and the conscience of the nation. Comes then the question: Is there any nation to-day that has, as it were, succeeded to a great and world-wide mission, and a mission of the same practical and ethical nature as that which God gave to His people Israel? Is there any nation that has been secluded in its island home, and guarded round from other people so that the invader could not touch it; is there any nation that within its own home, being men of mixed blood, has gradually been welded together by common human sympathy and common faith in God; is there any nation that has gradually been led into a fuller sense of the truth of God; into political, and religious, and social liberty; is there any nation whose ordered and beneficent freedom is the admiration of every people, of its enemies and friends alike? Finally, is there any nation whose members have gone unto the ends of the earth, and wherever they have gone have been able to teach, to govern, to give justice unto the nations placed under their charge? There is only one nation of whom these things can be said; only one nation with whose history you can draw out this analogy to Israel, and that is the English people. Ought we not to ask ourselves whether as a nation--and having had this great favour of the Eternal--whether, as a nation we have borne ourselves like the servant of God? In one--in perhaps the most tender and beautiful passage in all the Old Testament, Isa_53:1-12.
there is a description of God s servant, which is supposed by some to be the Messiah, by some to be Gods people Israel; but the mark of Him is not only that He is the means of great blessing to the world, but His humility, His tenderness, His sympathy, His lowliness. Have we been, as a nation, courteous to foreign nations, as we go by individuals through their midst? Have we, in our Literature and in our tress, always done justice to foreign peoples, and never blown our trumpet, our brazen trumpet, loudly in their faces? Is our character such--the character which we have earned through centuries such--that a foreigner will at once appreciate the goodness that is in us?
III. The sin of materialism. The other sin which we always realise in a national crisis is the sin of Materialism, which also greatly beset Israel. While Israel was a handful of farmers, Israel was more or less spiritual. When Israel became rich and increased in goods, you have only to read the prophets to note how the race for wealth entered, and the power of the rich and the suffering of the poor made an unhappy and miserable nation. We have grown rich, and I am told--though you know better about these things than I do--that we were never richer than at the present day. Rich in goods? I pray you to define goods; and when we define goods, how are they defined? I think it is the money in the savings bank, which is very good so far as it represents thrift and intelligence; and the railways which we have made, which represent enterprise and the development of the country; these things and many other things. But these in themselves are not the goods of a nation. No, not exports and imports, and population and money--these are not the goods of a nation. The goods of a nation are its intelligence; the goods of a nation are its integrity; the goods of a nation are its charity; the goods of a nation are its high and just spirit before God. Wherefore be not too lifted up, but let us remember this, that if our nation ever decay, it will not be from any power from without, or any unfaithfulness on the part of our God. It will be because some men have too much money, and some other people-have too little; and the west end of a city is one place, and the east end is another, and the west and the east they come not together. (J. Watson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v40 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 44, 46, 48, 49 your people Israel are defeated by an enemy
your people Israel are defeated by an enemy
This can be stated in active form. AT: "an enemy defeats your people Israel" (See: Active or Passive)
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confess your name
Possible meanings are 1) "confess that they have sinned against you" or 2) "praise you" or 3) "say that they will obey you from now on."
request forgiveness from you
The abstract noun "forgiveness" can be translated as a verb. AT: "ask you to forgive them" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
people group
Israel
adversary
sin
turn
confess
name
pray
forgive
temple
heaven
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv33, 35, 37, 41, 44, 46 8:33-34 Solomon asked concerning future situations when the people…
8:33-34 Solomon asked concerning future situations when the people of Israel sinned and God allowed the enemy to defeat them (see Lev 26:14-17; Deut 28:15, 25-26, 45, 49; Josh 7) and then the people genuinely repented. Solomon asked that God honor his covenant and forgive them (Lev 26:39-42).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.