1 Kings 8:37

37 When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

1 Kings 8:37 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 37 If there be in the land famine
Through want of rain, or any other cause, as there had been a three years' famine in the time of David, and it is supposed it might be again, though Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey:

if there be pestilence;
as there had been, for David's numbering the people:

blasting;
or blights, occasioned by the east wind:

mildew;
a kind of clammy dew, which falling on plants, corn corrupts and destroys them, see ( Amos 4:9 ) ,

locust,
or

if there be caterpillar;
creatures very pernicious to the fruits of the earth, and cause a scarcity of them, see ( Joel 1:4 ) ,

if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities;
so that they cannot go out to gather the increase of the earth, or till their land:

whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
whatever stroke from the hand of God, or what judgment or calamity soever befalls.

1 Kings 8:37 In-Context

35 When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,

36 then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

37 When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

38 then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—

39 be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and act, and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of all men—