1 Kings 8:44

44 "When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way You shall send them, and ¹they pray to the LORD toward the city which You have chosen and 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 will hear of Your great name and Your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm ); when he comes and prays toward this house,

43 hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order 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.

44 "When 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 the house which I have built for Your name,

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

46 "When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin ) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

Cross References

• 1. 2 Chronicles 14:11

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "his"
• [b]. Lit in "the way of"