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 vv37, 38, 41, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50 Hebrew, in the land of their gates.
Hebrew, in the land of their gates.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv36–50 1Ki 8:36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive…
1Ki 8:36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
Ver. 36. That thou teach them the good way.] By causing them to hear thy word, or thy rod, and setting it home upon their hearts. See Psa 94:12. {See Trapp on "Psa 94:12"}
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 vv36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 That thou teach them; that their sin being pardoned,…
That thou teach them; that their sin being pardoned, and thou being reconciled unto them, mayest vouchsafe to teach them. Or rather, as our translators render the very same words, 2Ch 6:27, when thou shalt teach, or hast taught them; not only by thy word, for that was done before; but by their afflictions, which is one of God’s schools; and especially, by thy Spirit, enlightening their minds, and inclining their hearts, that they may learn and profit both by the word and by their afflictions. And this is here fitly added, to show that he could not expect, and did not desire, from God the pardon of their sins, but upon God’s terms, to wit, upon their true repentance.
The good way, i.e. the way or will of God; or the way of their duty, as the following words explain it, which is most rightly called the good way here, and 1Sa 12:23, because it is both just and holy, and therefore good in itself; and good, that is, both delightful and profitable to those that walk in it. The meaning is, When thou hast effectually taught them, and they have thoroughly learned how to please and serve thee acceptably, and to walk before thee in the way which thou hast prescribed them.
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Give rain. The order of Solomon’s prayer is very observable: first and chiefly he prays for their repentance and forgiveness, which is the chief blessing, and the only solid foundation of all other mercies; and then he prays for the temporal mercy; thereby teaching us what to mind and desire principally in our prayers; which also Christ hath taught us in his perfect pattern and form of prayer; wherein there is but one petition for outward, and all the rest are for spiritual blessings.
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 vv36–50 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin…
Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel,.... By removing the judgment of drought upon them:
that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk; the way of worship and duty prescribed by the Lord which was good in itself, and good for them, good things being enjoyed by them that walk therein; and this the Lord sometimes teaches by afflictions, as well as by his word; but whenever he does it, it is by his Spirit, and then afflictions are blessings, Psa 104:19 where the same phrase is differently rendered:
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and give rain upon the land which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance; as he did at the prayer of Elijah, Jam 5:18.
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 vv36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 48, 49 Good way - The way, of their duty, which…
Good way - The way, of their duty, which is good in itself; and both delightful and profitable, to those that walk in it. Give rain - The order of Solomon's prayer is very observable; first and chiefly, he prays for their repentance and forgiveness, which is the chief blessing, and the only solid foundation of all other mercies: and then he prays for temporal mercies; thereby teaching us what to desire principally in our prayers; which also Christ hath taught us in his perfect prayer; wherein there is but one petition for outward, and all the rest are for spiritual blessings.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv37, 41, 44, 46, 50 Verse 37. If there be in the land famine…
Verse 37. If there be in the land famine - pestilence] The FOURTH case includes several kinds of evils:
1. Famine; a scarcity or total want of bread, necessarily springing from the preceding cause, drought.
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2. Pestilence; any general and contagious disease.
3. Blasting; any thing by which the crops are injured, so that the ear is never matured; but instead of wholesome grain, there is a black offensive dust.
4. Mildew; any thing that vitiates or corrodes the texture of the stalk, destroys the flowers and blossoms, or causes the young shaped fruits to fall off their stems.
5. Locust, a well known curse in the East, a species of grasshopper that multiplies by millions, and covers the face of the earth for many miles square, destroying every green thing; leaving neither herb nor grass upon the earth, nor leaf nor bark upon the trees.
6. Caterpillar; the locust in its young or nympha state. The former refers to locusts brought by winds from other countries and settling on the land; the latter, to the young locusts bred in the land.
7. An enemy, having attacked their defenced cities, the keys and barriers of the land.
8. Any other kind of plague; that which affects the surface of the body; blotch, blain, leprosy, ophthalmia, c.
9. Sickness whatever impaired the strength, or affected the intestines, disturbing or destroying their natural functions.
All such cases were to be brought before the Lord, the persons having a deep sense of the wickedness which induced God thus to afflict, or permit them to be afflicted: for only those who knew the plague of their own hearts, (1Kg 8:38), the deep-rooted moral corruption of their nature, and the destructive nature and sinfulness of sin, were likely to pray in such a manner as to induce God to hear and forgive.
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 vv36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 50 1Ki 8:36. That thou teach them the good way…
1Ki 8:36. That thou teach them the good way — The way of their duty, which is good in itself, and both delightful and profitable to those that walk in it. But this clause is better translated, 2Ch 6:27, (where the Hebrew words are the same with these here,) When thou hast taught them the good way wherein they should walk, namely, when their afflictions have had the desired effect to teach them better obedience. And give rain upon the land — The order of Solomon’s prayer is very observable; first and chiefly, he prays for their repentance and forgiveness, which is the chief blessing, and the only solid foundation of all other mercies; and then he prays for temporal mercies, thereby teaching us what to desire principally in our prayers; which also Christ hath taught us in his perfect prayer, wherein there is but one petition for outward, and all the rest are for spiritual blessings.
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 vv37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 47 Mildew. Hebrew also, "a bruchus," or a young locust.…
Mildew. Hebrew also, "a bruchus," or a young locust. Protestants, "caterpillar."
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 vv36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 49, 50 36. forgive the sin of thy servants and of…
36. forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel] Probably Solomon means by ‘servants’ the kings who should hereafter reign over Israel. The LXX. evidently thought this, for there we only have ‘thy servant’ meaning the king at the time being.
that thou teach them] The rendering should rather be ‘when thou teachest them,’ as at the close of the previous verse. The forgiveness is to come, when the lesson of chastisement has been given and learnt.
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 vv37, 41, 44, 50 (37-40) If there be pestilence.—He then passes on to…
(37-40) If there be pestilence.—He then passes on to the various plagues threatened in the Law—famine, pestilence, blasting of the corn, mildew on the fruit, locust and caterpillar (see Lev_26:25-26; Deu_28:22-24; Deu_28:38-42), the distress of siege, so terribly depicted (Deu_28:52-57), and so often terribly fulfilled (not least in the last great siege of Jerusalem), and adds, to sum up all, “whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be.” Through any, or all of these, he pictures each man as brought to “know the plague of his own heart”—that is, as startled into a consciousness of sin, and recognition of it as the true “plague,” the cause of all outward plagues, and so drawn to prayer of penitence and of godly fear.
Thou only, knowest the hearts . . . of men. The emphasis laid on this knowledge of the heart (as in Psa_11:4; Psa_139:2-4; Jer_17:9-10) as the special attribute of Deity, though, of course, belonging to all vital religion, yet marks especially the leading thought of the Psalms and the Proverbs, which always realise the presence of God, not so much in the outer spheres of Nature and history, as in the soul of man itself. It carries with it, as here, the conviction that, under the general dealings of God’s righteousness with man, there lies an individuality of judgment, making them to each exactly what his spiritual condition needs. The plague, for example, which cuts off one man unrepentant in his sins, may be to another a merciful “deliverance out of the miseries of this sinful world.”
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 vv36–50 Then hear thou in heaven see on ver. 32,…
Then hear thou in heaven see on ver. 32, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel that thou teach them rather, because thou art teaching them, etc. The thought is, "Forgive, because they have learned the lessen Thy discipline of drought was meant to teach;" because the chastisement has fulfilled its purpose the good way 1Sa_12:23 wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
The fourth petition refers to the various plagues mentioned in the law, (Le 26 De 28) as the punishment of apostasy or infidelity.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — 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 vv37, 39, 41, 44, 46, 48, 49 blight or mildew
blight or mildew
These are agricultural terms that refer to the death of crops from either too little or too much rain, respectively.
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locusts or caterpillars
A "locust" is a type of grasshopper that causes destruction by eating crops. The word "caterpillar" refers to an early growth stage of the locust.
prayers and requests are made by a person or by all your people Israel
This can be stated in active form. AT: "a person, or all your people Israel, prays and makes a request" (See: Active or Passive)
prayers and requests
The words "prayer" and "request" mean basically the same thing and emphasize that the person is sincere as he makes his request. See how you translated similar words in 1 Kings 8:28. AT: "requests" (See: Doublet)
knowing the plague in his own heart
Possible meanings are 1) The person's sin is spoken of as if it were a plague. AT: "knowing the sin in his own heart" or 2) The "plague" is a metonym for the sins that the disasters are a punishment for. AT: "knowing in his heart that the plague is the result of his own sin" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
translationWords
famine
adversary
gate
plague
pray
heart
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 vv37, 41, 44, 46 8:37-40 Solomon prayed concerning various disasters caused by individual…
8:37-40 Solomon prayed concerning various disasters caused by individual or corporate sin (Lev 26:16, 19-26; Deut 28:21-22, 38-40, 42, 58-61). Solomon again asked that if God’s people confessed and truly repented, God would deal justly so that all might live in reverence before him (Deut 8:6; 2 Chr 7:14; Prov 1:7; 9:10; 15:33).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.