1 Kings 8:22-53

The Prayer of Dedication

22 Then ¹Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and ²spread out his hands toward heaven.

23 He said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, ³there is no God like You in heaven above * or on earth beneath *, ⁴keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart,

24 who have kept with Your servant, my father David, that which You have promised him; indeed, You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand as it is this day.

25 "Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him, saying, '⁵You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way to walk before Me as you have walked.'

26 "Now therefore, O God of Israel, let Your word, I pray, be confirmed ⁶which You have spoken to Your servant, my father David.

27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, ⁷heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much * less this house which I have built!

28 "Yet have regard to the ⁸prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today;

29 ⁹that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward ¹⁰the place of which You have said, 'My name shall be there,' to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

30 "¹¹Listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, ¹²when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven Your dwelling place; hear and ¹³forgive.

31 "¹⁴If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house,

32 then hear in heaven and act and judge Your servants, ¹⁵condemning the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

33 "¹⁶When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, ¹⁷if they turn to You again and confess Your name and pray and make supplication to You in this house,

34 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers.

35 "¹⁸When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them,

36 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel, ¹⁹indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And ²⁰send rain on Your land, which You have given Your people for an inheritance.

37 "²¹If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

38 whatever * prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading his hands toward this house;

39 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, ²²whose heart You know, for ²³You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men,

40 that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

41 "Also concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your name's sake

42 (for they will hear of Your great name ²⁴and 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 ²⁵that 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 ²⁶they 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 ²⁷there 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 ²⁸to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

47 ²⁹if they take thought in the land where * they have been taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of those who have taken them captive, saying, '³⁰We have sinned and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly ';

48 ³¹if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and ³²pray to You toward their land which You have given to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name;

49 then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause,

50 and forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You, and ³³make them objects of compassion before those who have taken them captive, that they may have compassion on them

51 (³⁴for they are Your people and Your inheritance which You have brought forth from Egypt, ³⁵from the midst of the iron furnace ),

52 ³⁶that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and to the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You.

53 "For You have separated them from all the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, ³⁷as You spoke through Moses Your servant, when You brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O Lord GOD."

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1 Kings 8:22-53 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 37

1. 1 Kings 8:54; 2 Chronicles 6:12
2. Exodus 9:33; Ezra 9:5
3. 1 Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 7:22
4. Deuteronomy 7:9; Nehemiah 1:5; Nehemiah 9:32; Daniel 9:4
5. 1 Kings 2:4
6. 2 Samuel 7:25
7. 2 Chronicles 2:6; Psalms 139:7-16; Isaiah 66:1; Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 7:49
8. Philippians 4:6
9. 2 Chronicles 7:15; Nehemiah 1:6
10. Deuteronomy 12:11
11. Nehemiah 1:6
12. Daniel 6:10
13. Exodus 34:6, 7; Psalms 85:2; Daniel 9:9; 1 John 1:9
14. Exodus 22:8-11
15. Deuteronomy 25:1
16. Leviticus 26:17, 25; Deuteronomy 28:25, 48
17. Leviticus 26:40-42
18. Leviticus 26:19; Deuteronomy 11:16, 17; 2 Samuel 24:10-13
19. 1 Samuel 12:23; Psalms 5:8; Psalms 25:4, 5; Psalms 27:11; Psalms 86:11; Psalms 119:133; Jeremiah 6:16
20. 1 Kin 18:1, 41-45; Jeremiah 14:22
21. Lev 26:16, 25, 26; Deut 28:21-23, 38-42
22. 1 Samuel 2:3; 1 Samuel 16:7
23. 1 Chronicles 28:9; Psalms 11:4; Jeremiah 17:10; John 2:24, 25; Acts 1:24
24. Exodus 13:3; Deuteronomy 3:24
25. Joshua 4:23, 24; 1 Samuel 17:46; Psalms 67:2
26. 2 Chronicles 14:11
27. Psalms 130:3, 4; Psalms 143:2; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10
28. Leviticus 26:34-39; 2 Kings 17:6, 18; 2 Kings 25:21
29. Leviticus 26:40-42; Nehemiah 9:2
30. Ezra 9:6, 7; Nehemiah 1:6; Psalms 106:6; Daniel 9:5
31. Deuteronomy 4:29; 1 Samuel 7:3, 4; Nehemiah 1:9
32. Daniel 6:10; Jonah 2:4
33. 2 Chronicles 30:9; Psalms 106:46; Acts 7:10
34. Exodus 32:11, 12; Deuteronomy 9:26-29
35. Deuteronomy 4:20; Jeremiah 11:4
36. 1 Kings 8:29
37. Exodus 19:5, 6; Deuteronomy 9:26-29

Footnotes 20

[a]. Lit "spoken to"
[b]. Lit "spoken to"
[c]. Lit "There shall not be cut off to you a man from before Me"
[d]. Lit "heaven of heavens"
[e]. Lit "smitten"
[f]. Lit "gates"
[g]. Lit "who shall know each"
[h]. Lit "plague"
[i]. Lit "palms"
[j]. Or "revere"
[k]. Lit "on the face of the land"
[l]. Or "reverence"
[m]. Lit "Your name is called upon this house which I have built"
[n]. Lit "his"
[o]. Lit in "the way of"
[p]. Lit "right" or "justice"
[q]. Lit "their captors take them captive"
[r]. Lit "return to their heart"
[s]. Lit "judgment"
[t]. Heb "YHWH," usually rendered LORD