1 Kings 8:46

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

If they sin: The second clause of this verse, as it is here translated, renders this supposition entirely nugatory; for if there be no man that sinneth not, it is useless to say, if they sin, but this objection is removed by rendering the original, "If they shall sin against thee (for there is no man that, lo yechetai, may not sin") i.e., there is no man impeccable or infallible; none that is not liable to transgress.

there is no man: 2 Chronicles 6:36, Job 14:4, Job 15:14-16, Psalms 19:12, Psalms 130:3, Psalms 143:2, Proverbs 20:9, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Isaiah 53:6, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:19, Galatians 3:22, James 3:2, 1 John 1:8-10

unto the land: Leviticus 26:34-39, Deuteronomy 4:26, Deuteronomy 4:27, Deuteronomy 28:36, Deuteronomy 28:64-68, Deuteronomy 29:28, 2 Kings 17:6, 2 Kings 17:18, 2 Kings 17:23, 2 Kings 25:21, Daniel 9:7-14, Luke 21:24

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:43 - and they Deuteronomy 4:30 - all these Job 9:2 - how Isaiah 26:15 - thou hadst Isaiah 43:5 - I will Jeremiah 24:7 - for they Lamentations 1:8 - hath Romans 7:15 - what Galatians 3:11 - that Philippians 3:9 - not

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If they sin against thee,.... The same persons when they were gone forth to battle, not observing the divine commands as they should:

for there is no man that sinneth not; such are the depravity of human nature, the treachery of the heart, and the temptations of Satan, of which Solomon had early notice, and was afterwards still more confirmed in the truth of, Ecclesiastes 7:20

and thou be angry with them; for their sins, and resent their conduct:

so as to deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto the land of the enemy, far or near; as into Assyria or Babylon, whither they were carried.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 8:46. If they sin against thee — This SEVENTH case must refer to some general defection from truth, to some species of false worship, idolatry, or corruption of the truth and ordinances of the Most High; as for it they are here stated to be delivered into the hands of their enemies and carried away captive, which was the general punishment for idolatry, and what is called, 1 Kings 8:47, acting perversely and committing wickedness.

In 1 Kings 8:46 we read, If they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not. On this verse we may observe that the second clause, as it is here translated, renders the supposition in the first clause entirely nugatory; for if there be no man that sinneth not, it is useless to say, IF they sin; but this contradiction is taken away by reference to the original, כי יחטאו לך ki yechetu lach, which should be translated IF they shall sin against thee, or should they sin against thee; כי אין אדם לא יחטא ki ein Adam asher lo yecheta, for there is no man that MAY not sin; i.e., there is no man impeccable, none infallible, none that is not liable to transgress. This is the true meaning of the phrase in various parts of the Bible, and so our translators have understood the original: for even in the thirty-first verse of this chapter they have translated יחטא yecheta, IF a man TRESPASS; which certainly implies he might or might not do it; and in this way they have translated the same word, IF a soul SIN, in Leviticus 5:1; Leviticus 6:2; 1 Samuel 2:25; 2 Chronicles 6:22, and in several other places. The truth is, the Hebrew has no mood to express words in the permissive or optative way, but to express this sense it uses the future tense of the conjugation kal.

This text has been a wonderful strong hold for all who believe that there is no redemption from sin in this life, that no man can live without committing sin, and that we cannot be entirely freed from it till we die.

1. The text speaks no such doctrine: it only speaks of the possibility of every man sinning, and this must be true of a state of probation.

2. There is not another text in the Divine records that is more to the purpose than this.

3. The doctrine is flatly in opposition to the design of the Gospel; for Jesus came to save his people from their sins, and to destroy the works of the devil.

4. It is a dangerous and destructive doctrine,; and should be blotted out of every Christian's creed. There are too many who are seeking to excuse their crimes by all means in their power; and we need not embody their excuses in a creed, to complete their deception, by stating that their sins are unavoidable.