1 Kings 8:29-35

29 May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.

30 Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

31 “When anyone wrongs their neighbor and is required to take an oath and they come and swear the oath before your altar in this temple,

32 then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing down on their heads what they have done, and vindicating the innocent by treating them in accordance with their innocence.

33 “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and give praise to your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple,

34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.

35 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,

1 Kings 8:29-35 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 8

This chapter gives an account of the introduction of the ark into the temple, 1Ki 8:1-9 of the glory of the Lord filling it, 1Ki 8:10,11 of a speech Solomon made to the people concerning the building of the temple, and how he came to be engaged in it, 1Ki 8:12-21, of a prayer of his he put up on this occasion, requesting, that what supplications soever were made at any time, or on any account, by Israelites or strangers, might be accepted by the Lord, 1Ki 8:22-53, and of his blessing the people of Israel at the close of it, with some useful exhortations, 1Ki 8:54-61, and of the great number of sacrifices offered up by him, and the feast he made for the people, upon which he dismissed them, 1Ki 8:62-66.

Cross References

• 1. ver 52; 2 Kings 19:16; 2 Chronicles 7:15; Nehemiah 1:6; Psalms 5:1; Psalms 31:2; Psalms 102:17; Psalms 130:2; Isaiah 37:17
• 2. Psalms 28:2; Psalms 138:2; Daniel 6:10
• 3. S Deuteronomy 11:12; Deuteronomy 12:11; S 2 Samuel 7:13
• 4. ver 47; Leviticus 26:40; Nehemiah 1:6; Jeremiah 29:12; Daniel 9:4
• 5. ver 39; Psalms 34:6
• 6. S Exodus 34:7,9; Leviticus 26:40-42; Psalms 85:2
• 7. S Exodus 22:11
• 8. Deuteronomy 25:1; Ezekiel 18:20
• 9. S Leviticus 26:17; Deuteronomy 28:25
• 10. Leviticus 26:39
• 11. Isa 37:1,14,38
• 12. Leviticus 26:19; S Deuteronomy 28:24; S 2 Samuel 1:21
• 13. Jeremiah 5:25