1 Kings 9:8

8 Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why has the LORD done thus to this land, and to this house?

1 Kings 9:8 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 9:8

And at this house which is high
The house of the most High, as some render it, and in high esteem, fame, and glory, as well as it was built on an high hill, and was itself one hundred and twenty cubits high, ( 2 Chronicles 3:4 ) , the Targum is,

``and this house which was high shall be destroyed:''

everyone that passeth by it shall be astonished;
at the ruins of the temple, and of the city of Jerusalem, which had been so magnificent:

and shall hiss;
in scorn and derision of the people of Israel, rejoicing in their ruin:

and they shall say, why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to
this house?
or suffered it to be done, to lie thus in waste and ruins; a land in which it had been said he delighted, and looked unto from one end of the year to the other, and a house he had taken up his dwelling in; surely something more than ordinary, they suggest, must be the cause of all this.

1 Kings 9:8 In-Context

6 But if you shall turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my mitzvot and my statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

7 then will I cut off Yisra'el out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Yisra'el shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

8 Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why has the LORD done thus to this land, and to this house?

9 and they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Mitzrayim, and laid hold on other gods, and worshiped them, and served them: therefore has the LORD brought all this evil on them.

10 It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Shlomo had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king's house