1 Kings 9:8

8 And at this house, which is high, every one who passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss; and they shall say, `Why hath the LORD done thus unto 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 ye shall at all turn from following Me, ye or your children, and will not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

7 then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them, and this house which I have hallowed for My name will I cast out of My sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people.

8 And at this house, which is high, every one who passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss; and they shall say, `Why hath the LORD done thus unto 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 Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshiped them and served them; therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.'"

10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king's house