1 Kings 8:35

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven, ²³and said: "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth below, keeping Your covenant of loving devotion with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. ²⁴You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day. ²⁵Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: 'You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk before Me as you have done.' ²⁶And now, O God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant, my father David. ²⁷But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built. ²⁸Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You today. ²⁹May Your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, 'My Name shall be there,' so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place. ³⁰Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive. ³¹When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

heaven: 1 Kings 17:1, Leviticus 26:19, Deuteronomy 11:17, Deuteronomy 28:12, Deuteronomy 28:23, Deuteronomy 28:24, 2 Samuel 24:13, Jeremiah 14:1-7, Ezekiel 14:13, Malachi 3:10, Luke 4:25, Revelation 11:6

if they pray: 1 Kings 8:33, 2 Chronicles 6:24, 2 Chronicles 6:26, Romans 10:9, Romans 15:9

confess: 1 Kings 8:29, 1 Kings 8:30, Joel 1:13-20, Joel 2:15-17

and turn: 1 Kings 8:33, Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 1:16, Isaiah 9:13, Ezekiel 18:30-32, Hosea 14:1

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 6:27 - when thou hast 2 Chronicles 7:16 - my name Job 12:15 - Behold Psalms 5:7 - I worship Amos 4:7 - I have Haggai 1:10 - General Zechariah 14:17 - even

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When heaven is shut up,.... As it may be said to be when the air is quite serene, and not a cloud in it:

and there is no rain; in its season, neither the former nor the latter, as it was in the times of Elijah:

because they have sinned against thee; want of rain was threatened in case of sin, and was always the effect of it, Leviticus 26:19,

if they pray towards this place; in any part of the country where they were; for it sometimes rained on one city, and not on another, Amos 4:7

and confess thy name; own his power and his providence, and the justness of his dealings with them:

and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them; their affliction being made useful, to bring them to a sense of their sin, and to repentance for it, and reformation from it; or, "when thou hearest" or "answerest them" g; so the Targum, receives their prayer; thus the goodness of God leads to repentance.

g כי תענם "cum exaudieris eos", Vatablus.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 35. When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain — The THIRD case. When, because of their sin, and their ceasing to walk in the good way in which they should have walked, God refuses to send the early and latter rain, so that the appointed weeks of harvest come in vain, as there is no crop: then, if they pray and confess their sin, hear thou in heaven, &c.