1 Kings 8:38

38 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all thy people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house;

1 Kings 8:38 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 8:38

What prayer and supplication soever
On account of any of the above things, or any other:

be [made] by any man, or by all the people Israel;
by a private man, for such an one might go to the temple and pray by himself; see ( Luke 18:10 Luke 18:11 ) or by the public congregation:

which shall know every man the plague of his own heart;
be sensible of his sin as the cause of his distress, and own it, though ever so privately committed, which none knows but God and his own heart; and which may be only an heart sin, not actually committed; as all sin is originally in the heart, and springs from it, that is the source of all wickedness; it may respect the corruption of nature, indwelling sin, which truly deserves this name, and which every good man is led to observe, confess, and bewail, ( Psalms 51:4 Psalms 51:5 ) . In ( 2 Chronicles 6:29 ) it is,

shall know his own sore and his own grief;
what particularly affects him, and gives him pain and sorrow, as every man best knows his own affliction and trouble, and so can best represent his own case to the Lord:

and spread forth his hands towards this house;
pray with his face towards it, and his hands spread out, a prayer gesture, and what was now used by Solomon, ( 1 Kings 8:22 ) .

1 Kings 8:38 In-Context

36 then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, thy people Israel, when thou dost teach them the good way in which they should walk; and grant rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people as an inheritance.

37 "If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in any of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;

38 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all thy people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house;

39 then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and render to each whose heart thou knowest, according to all his ways (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men);

40 that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest to our fathers.