1 Kings 8:38

38 Whatever prayer and supplication shall be [made] by any man, [or] by all thy people Israel, who shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands towards 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, and of thy people Israel, that thou mayest teach them the good way in which they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

37 If there shall be in the land famine, if there shall be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, [or] if there shall be caterpillar; if their enemy shall besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness [there shall be];

38 Whatever prayer and supplication shall be [made] by any man, [or] by all thy people Israel, who shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands towards this house:

39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, [even] 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.