1 Kings 8:39

39 then hear in heaven your dwelling place, forgive, act, and render to all whose hearts you know—according to all their ways, for only you know what is in every human heart—

1 Kings 8:39 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 8:39

Then hear thou in heaven thy dwellingplace
Which was more properly so than this Solomon had built, and the Lord had taken possession of:

and forgive;
remove the calamity and distress, be it what it may:

and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart
thou knowest:
that his prayer is cordial and sincere, his confession and repentance genuine, and that he is truly sensible of his sin, and sorry for it, and is pure in his intentions and resolutions, through divine grace, to depart from it for the future:

(for thou, [even] thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of
men;)
he knows all men, the hearts of them all, what is in them, what comes out of them, and is according to them; omniscience belongs only to God; it is his prerogative to know the heart and search the reins, see ( Jeremiah 17:9 Jeremiah 17:10 ) .

1 Kings 8:39 In-Context

37 "If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in any of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;
38 whatever prayer, whatever plea there is from any individual or from all your people Israel, all knowing the afflictions of their own hearts so that they stretch out their hands toward this house;
39 then hear in heaven your dwelling place, forgive, act, and render to all whose hearts you know—according to all their ways, for only you know what is in every human heart—
40 so that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors.
41 "Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.