1 Kings 8:38

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

prayer: 2 Chronicles 20:5-13, Psalms 50:15, Psalms 91:15, Isaiah 37:4, Isaiah 37:15-21, Joel 2:17, Amos 7:1-6

the plague: 2 Chronicles 6:29, Job 7:11, Psalms 32:3, Psalms 32:4, Psalms 42:6, Psalms 42:9, Psalms 42:11, Psalms 73:21, Psalms 73:22, Psalms 142:3-5, Proverbs 14:10, Romans 7:24, Philippians 4:6

spread forth: 1 Kings 8:22, Isaiah 1:15

Reciprocal: Exodus 9:14 - send all Exodus 9:29 - spread Leviticus 13:6 - wash Leviticus 13:12 - cover all Leviticus 13:29 - General 2 Chronicles 6:28 - whatsoever Ezra 9:5 - spread Job 9:15 - I would Psalms 5:7 - I worship Psalms 28:2 - thy holy oracle Isaiah 37:14 - and Hezekiah went Jeremiah 8:4 - turn Lamentations 1:17 - spreadeth Daniel 6:10 - his windows Jonah 2:4 - toward

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 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. 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Know every man the plague of his own heart - i. e. perceive one’s sinfulness, or recognize one’s sufferings as divine chastisements, and sin as their cause.