1 Kings 8:37

THE MESSAGE

When disasters strike, famine or catastrophe, crop failure or disease, locust or beetle, or when an enemy attacks their defenses—calamity of any sort—any prayer that's prayed from anyone at all among your people Israel, hearts penetrated by the disaster, hands and arms thrown out to this Temple for help, Listen from your home in heaven. Forgive and go to work on us. Give what each deserves, for you know each life from the inside (you're the only one with such "inside knowledge"!) so that they'll live before you in lifelong reverent and believing obedience on this land you gave our ancestors.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
When there is famine in the land,when there is pestilence,when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper,when their enemy besieges themin the land and its cities,when there is any plague or illness,

Hebrew Names Version
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting [or] mildew, arbeh [or] caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be;

King James Version
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;

English Standard Version
"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 the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

New Century Version
"At times the land will become so dry that no food will grow, or a great sickness will spread among the people. Sometimes all the crops will be destroyed by locusts or grasshoppers. Your people will be attacked in their cities by their enemy or will become sick.

New English Translation
"The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight and disease, or a locust invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

Amplified Bible
"If there is famine in the land, or if there is pestilence (plague), blight, mildew, migratory locusts, or grasshoppers, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever affliction or plague, whatever sickness [there is],

New American Standard Bible
"If there is a famine in the land, if there is a plague, if there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, if their enemy harasses them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

Geneva Bible (1587)
When there shalbe famine in the land, when there shalbe pestilence, when there shall be blasting, mildewe, grashopper or caterpiller, when their enemie shall besiege them in the cities of their lande, or any plague, or any sickenesse,

Legacy Standard Bible
"If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is scorching wind or mildew, locust or grasshopper, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

Contemporary English Version
Sometimes the crops may dry up or rot or be eaten by locusts or grasshoppers, and your people will be starving. Sometimes enemies may surround their towns, or your people will become sick with deadly diseases.

Complete Jewish Bible
"If there is famine in the land, or blight, windstorm, mildew, locusts or shearer-worms; or if their enemy comes to the land and besieges them in any of their cities — no matter what kind of plague or sickness it is;

Darby Translation
If there be famine in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blight, mildew, locust, caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their gates; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be:

Easy-to-Read Version
"The land might become very dry and no food will grow on it. Or maybe a great sickness will spread among the people. Maybe all the food that is growing will be destroyed by insects. Or your people might be attacked in some of their cities by their enemies. Or many of your people might get sick.

George Lamsa Translation
And when there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or when there are caterpillars; or when their enemy besieges them in one of their cities; whatsoever sickness, or whatsoever plague may be;

Good News Translation
"When there is famine in the land or an epidemic or the crops are destroyed by scorching winds or swarms of locusts, or when your people are attacked by their enemies, or when there is disease or sickness among them,

Lexham English Bible
If there should be in the land famine or disease, if there should be blight or mildew or locust or caterpillars, if it happens that his enemy lays siege against him in the land of his gates, if any plague or any disease,

Literal Translation
When there is famine in the land; when there is pestilence, blasting, mildew, locusts; when there is the stripping locust; when its enemy has distressed it in the land in its gates; any plague, any sickness,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Whan a derth, or pestilence, or drouth, or burnynge, or greshopper or catirpiller, is in their londe, or whan his enemye layeth sege to his portes in the londe, or whan eny other plage or disease happeneth,

American Standard Version
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;

Bible in Basic English
If there is no food in the land, or if there is disease, or if the fruits of the earth are damaged through heat or water, locust or worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers; whatever trouble, whatever disease there may be:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If there be in the lande dearth, or pestilence, drouth, blasting, grashopper, or caterpiller: or if their enemie besiege the in the lande of their cities, or whatsoeuer plague or sickenesse chaunce,

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;

King James Version (1611)
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller: if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities, whatsoeuer plague, whatsoeuer sicknes there be;

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If there should be famine, if there should be death, because there should be blasting, locust, or if there be mildew, and if their enemy oppress them in any one of their cities, with regard to every calamity, every trouble,

English Revised Version
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting [or] mildew, locust [or] caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;

Berean Standard Bible
When famine or pestilence comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If hungur risith in the lond, ether pestilence is, ether corrupt eyr is, ether rust, ether locuste, ether myldew, and his enemy turmentith hym, and bisegith the yatis, al wounde, al sikenesse, al cursyng,

Young's Literal Translation
`Famine -- when it is in the land; pestilence -- when it is; blasting, mildew, locust; caterpillar -- when it is; when its enemy hath distressed it in the land [in] its gates, any plague, any sickness, --

Update Bible Version
If there is in the land famine, if there is pestilence, if there is blasting [or] mildew, locust [or] caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the gates of their land; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;

Webster's Bible Translation
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];

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

New King James Version
"When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;

New Living Translation
"If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people's enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is—

New Life Bible
"If there is no food in the land, if there is a bad sickness, if there are diseases or locusts or grasshoppers that kill the plants, if the armies of those who hate Your people gather around their cities, or whatever trouble or sickness there is,

New Revised Standard
"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;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
When there shall be, famine, in the land, when there shall be, pestilence, when there shall be, blasting, mildew locust, caterpillar, when their enemy shall besiege them in one of their own gates, - whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness;

Douay-Rheims Bible
If a famine arise in the land, or a pestilence, or corrupt air, or blasting, or locust, or mildew; if their enemy afflict them, besieging the gates, whatsoever plague, whatsoever infirmity,

Revised Standard Version
"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;

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

Contextual Overview

²²Before the entire congregation of Israel, Solomon took a position before the Altar, spread his hands out before heaven, and prayed, O God , God of Israel, there is no God like you in the skies above or on the earth below who unswervingly keeps covenant with his servants and relentlessly loves them as they sincerely live in obedience to your way. You kept your word to David my father, your personal word. You did exactly what you promised—every detail. The proof is before us today! Keep it up, God , O God of Israel! Continue to keep the promises you made to David my father when you said, "You'll always have a descendant to represent my rule on Israel's throne, on the condition that your sons are as careful to live obediently in my presence as you have." ²⁶ O God of Israel, let this all happen; confirm and establish it! ²⁷Can it be that God will actually move into our neighborhood? Why, the cosmos itself isn't large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I've built. Even so, I'm bold to ask: Pay attention to these my prayers, both intercessory and personal, O God , my God. Listen to my prayers, energetic and devout, that I'm setting before you right now. Keep your eyes open to this Temple night and day, this place of which you said, "My Name will be honored there," and listen to the prayers that I pray at this place. Listen from your home in heaven and when you hear, forgive. When someone hurts a neighbor and promises to make things right, and then comes and repeats the promise before your Altar in this Temple, listen from heaven and act accordingly: Judge your servants, making the offender pay for his offense and setting the offended free of any charges. ³³When your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they've sinned against you, but then turn to you and acknowledge your rule in prayers desperate and devout in this Temple, Listen from your home in heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, return them to the land you gave their ancestors. ³⁵When the skies shrivel up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, but then they pray at this place, acknowledging your rule and quitting their sins because you have scourged them, Listen from your home in heaven, forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Then start over with them: Train them to live right and well; send rain on the land you gave your people as an inheritance. ³⁷When disasters strike, famine or catastrophe, crop failure or disease, locust or beetle, or when an enemy attacks their defenses—calamity of any sort—any prayer that's prayed from anyone at all among your people Israel, hearts penetrated by the disaster, hands and arms thrown out to this Temple for help, Listen from your home in heaven. Forgive and go to work on us. Give what each deserves, for you know each life from the inside (you're the only one with such "inside knowledge"!) so that they'll live before you in lifelong reverent and believing obedience on this land you gave our ancestors. ⁴¹And don't forget the foreigner who is not a member of your people Israel but has come from a far country because of your reputation. People are going to be attracted here by your great reputation, your wonder-working power, who come to pray at this Temple. Listen from your home in heaven. Honor the prayers of the foreigner so that people all over the world will know who you are and what you're like and will live in reverent obedience before you, just as your own people Israel do; so they'll know that you personally make this Temple that I've built what it is. ⁴⁴When your people go to war against their enemies at the time and place you send them and they pray to God toward the city you chose and this Temple I've built to honor your Name, Listen from heaven to what they pray and ask for, and do what's right for them. When they sin against you—and they certainly will; there's no one without sin!—and in anger you turn them over to the enemy and they are taken captive to the enemy's land, whether far or near, but repent in the country of their captivity and pray with changed hearts in their exile, "We've sinned; we've done wrong; we've been most wicked," and turn back to you heart and soul in the land of the enemy who conquered them, and pray to you toward their homeland, the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you chose, and this Temple I have built to the honor of your Name, Listen from your home in heaven to their prayers desperate and devout and do what is best for them. Forgive your people who have sinned against you; forgive their gross rebellions and move their captors to treat them with compassion. They are, after all, your people and your precious inheritance whom you rescued from the heart of that iron-smelting furnace, Egypt! ⁵²O be alert and attentive to the needy prayers of me, your servant, and your dear people Israel; listen every time they cry out to you! You handpicked them from all the peoples on earth to be your very own people, as you announced through your servant Moses when you, O God , in your masterful rule, delivered our ancestors from Egypt.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

in the land famine: Leviticus 26:16, Leviticus 26:25, Leviticus 26:26-46, Deuteronomy 28:21, Deuteronomy 28:22, Deuteronomy 28:25, Deuteronomy 28:38-42, Deuteronomy 28:52-61, 2 Kings 6:25-29, 1 Chronicles 21:12, 2 Chronicles 6:28-31, 2 Chronicles 20:9, Psalms 105:34, Psalms 105:35, Jeremiah 32:2, Jeremiah 39:1-3, Ezekiel 14:21, Joel 1:4-7, Joel 2:25, Joel 2:26

cities: or, jurisdiction

Reciprocal: Exodus 10:14 - the locusts 2 Chronicles 12:6 - humbled Ezekiel 14:19 - if I Amos 4:9 - with Haggai 2:17 - with blasting Mark 5:29 - plague Luke 7:21 - plagues

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Ver. 37 If there be in the land famine,.... Through want of rain, or any other cause, as there had been a three years' famine in the time of David, and it is supposed it might be again, though Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey:

if there be pestilence; as there had been, for David's numbering the people:

blasting; or blights, occasioned by the east wind:

mildew; a kind of clammy dew, which falling on plants, corn, c. corrupts and destroys them, see Amos 4:9,

locust, or

if there be caterpillar creatures very pernicious to the fruits of the earth, and cause a scarcity of them, see Joel 1:4,

if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; so that they cannot go out to gather the increase of the earth, or till their land:

whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; whatever stroke from the hand of God, or what judgment or calamity soever befalls.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the land of their cities - literally, “in the land of their gates.” Hence, the marginal translation “jurisdiction,” because judgments were pronounced in the town gates Deuteronomy 16:18. Another reading gives “in one of their cities.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 8:37. If there be in the land famine - pestilence — The FOURTH case includes several kinds of evils:

1. Famine; a scarcity or total want of bread, necessarily springing from the preceding cause, drought.

2. Pestilence; any general and contagious disease.

3. Blasting; any thing by which the crops are injured, so that the ear is never matured; but instead of wholesome grain, there is a black offensive dust.

4. Mildew; any thing that vitiates or corrodes the texture of the stalk, destroys the flowers and blossoms, or causes the young shaped fruits to fall off their stems.

5. Locust, a well known curse in the East, a species of grasshopper that multiplies by millions, and covers the face of the earth for many miles square, destroying every green thing; leaving neither herb nor grass upon the earth, nor leaf nor bark upon the trees.

6. Caterpillar; the locust in its young or nympha state. The former refers to locusts brought by winds from other countries and settling on the land; the latter, to the young locusts bred in the land.

7. An enemy, having attacked their defenced cities, the keys and barriers of the land.

8. Any other kind of plague; that which affects the surface of the body; blotch, blain, leprosy, ophthalmia, c.

9. Sickness whatever impaired the strength, or affected the intestines, disturbing or destroying their natural functions.

All such cases were to be brought before the Lord, the persons having a deep sense of the wickedness which induced God thus to afflict, or permit them to be afflicted: for only those who knew the plague of their own hearts, (1 Kings 8:38), the deep-rooted moral corruption of their nature, and the destructive nature and sinfulness of sin, were likely to pray in such a manner as to induce God to hear and forgive.