1 Kings 8:33

33 If thy people Israel shall fly before their enemies (because they will sin against thee) and doing penance, and confessing to thy name, shall come and pray, and make supplications to thee in this house:

1 Kings 8:33 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 8:33

When thy people Israel shall be smitten down before the enemy,
&c.] Beaten and routed, many slain, and others carried captive; which had been their case, and might be again, and was, though now a time of peace:

because they have sinned against thee;
which always was the reason of their being given up into the hands of their enemies:

and shall turn again to thee;
to thy worship, as the Targum, having fallen into idolatry, which was generally the case when they fell before their enemies:

and confess thy name;
own him to be the true God, acknowledge his justice in their punishment, confess their sin, repent of it, and give him glory:

and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house;
not the captives, unless it should be rendered, as it may, "toward this house" {f}; but those that escaped, or their brethren that went not out to battle, who should pray for them here.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 So Pool and Patrick.

1 Kings 8:33 In-Context

31 If any man trespass against his neighbour, and have an oath upon him, wherewith he is bound, and come, because of the oath, before thy altar, to thy house,

32 Then hear thou in heaven: and do and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, and bringing his way upon his own head, and justifying the just, and rewarding him according to his justice.

33 If thy people Israel shall fly before their enemies (because they will sin against thee) and doing penance, and confessing to thy name, shall come and pray, and make supplications to thee in this house:

34 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them back to the land which thou gavest to their fathers.

35 If heaven shall be shut up, and there shall be no rain, because of their sins, and they, praying in this place, shall do penance to thy name, and shall be converted from their sins, by occasion of their afflictions: