1 Kings 8:49-59

49 then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them.

50 Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness.

51 They are your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt, that blazing furnace.

52 "Sovereign Lord, may you always look with favor on your people Israel and their king, and hear their prayer whenever they call to you for help.

53 You chose them from all the peoples to be your own people, as you told them through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt."

54 After Solomon had finished praying to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar, where he had been kneeling with uplifted hands.

55 In a loud voice he asked God's blessings on all the people assembled there. He said,

56 "Praise the Lord who has given his people peace, as he promised he would. He has kept all the generous promises he made through his servant Moses. ¹

57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us;

58 may he make us obedient to him, so that we will always live as he wants us to live, keeping all the laws and commands he gave our ancestors.

59 May the Lord our God remember at all times this prayer and these petitions I have made to him. May he always be merciful to the people of Israel and to their king, according to their daily needs.

1 Kings 8:49-59 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. 8.56Deuteronomy 12.10;Joshua 21.44, 45.