1 Kings 8:25-29

25 "Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him, saying, '¹You 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 ²which You have spoken to Your servant, my father David.

27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, ³heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much * less this house which I have built!

28 "Yet have regard to the ⁴prayer 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 ⁵that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward ⁶the place of which You have said, 'My name shall be there,' to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

1 Kings 8:25-29 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.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 2:4
• 2. 2 Samuel 7:25
• 3. 2 Chronicles 2:6; Psalms 139:7-16; Isaiah 66:1; Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 7:49
• 4. Philippians 4:6
• 5. 2 Chronicles 7:15; Nehemiah 1:6
• 6. Deuteronomy 12:11

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "spoken to"
• [b]. Lit "There shall not be cut off to you a man from before Me"
• [c]. Lit "heaven of heavens"