1 Kings 8:35

35 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 do afflict them:

1 Kings 8:35 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 8:35

When heaven is shut up
As it may be said to be when the air is quite serene, and not a cloud in it:

and there is no rain;
in its season, neither the former nor the latter, as it was in the times of Elijah:

because they have sinned against thee;
want of rain was threatened in case of sin, and was always the effect of it, ( Leviticus 26:19 Leviticus 26:20 ) ( Deuteronomy 28:23 Deuteronomy 28:24 ) ,

if they pray towards this place;
in any part of the country where they were; for it sometimes rained on one city, and not on another, ( Amos 4:7 )

and confess thy name;
own his power and his providence, and the justness of his dealings with them:

and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them;
their affliction being made useful, to bring them to a sense of their sin, and to repentance for it, and reformation from it; or, "when thou hearest" or "answerest them" ^F7; so the Targum, receives their prayer; thus the goodness of God leads to repentance.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 (Mnet yk) "cum exaudieris eos", Vatablus.

1 Kings 8:35 In-Context

33 When your people Yisra'el 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:

34 then hear you in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Yisra'el, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

35 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 do afflict them:

36 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Yisra'el, 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.

37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting [or] mildew, arbeh [or] caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be;