1 Kings 8:44

44 If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

1 Kings 8:44 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 8:44

If thy people go out to battle against their enemy
In a foreign country, threatening to invade them, or having trespassed on their borders, or some way or other infringed on their liberties and privileges, and so given them just occasion to go to war with them:

whithersoever thou shalt send them;
this case supposes their asking counsel of God, or having a direction and commission from him by a prophet, or some other way, to engage in war with the enemy:

and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen,
and toward the house I have built for thy name:
for, notwithstanding the justness of their cause, and having a warrant from God to go to war, yet they were to pray to him for success when at a distance, even in a foreign land, and about to engage the enemy; and this they were to do, turning their faces towards the city of Jerusalem, and the temple there; declaring thereby that their dependence was upon the Lord that dwelt there, and their expectation of victory was only from him.

1 Kings 8:44 In-Context

42 (for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house;

43 hear in heaven, your dwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the eretz may know your name, to fear you, as does your people Yisra'el, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by my name.

44 If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

46 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;