1 Kings 8:30

8:30 Respond to the request of your servant and your people Israel for this place. ¹  Hear from inside your heavenly dwelling place ²  and respond favorably. ³ 

1 Kings 8:39

8:39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin, ⁴  and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of his motives. ⁵  (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.) ⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”

² tn Heb “and you, hear inside your dwelling place, inside heaven.” The precise nuance of the preposition אֶל (’el), used here with the verb “hear,” is unclear. One expects the preposition “from,” which appears in the parallel text in 2 Chr 6:21. The nuance “inside; among” is attested for אֶל (see Gen 23:19; 1 Sam 10:22; Jer 4:3), but in each case a verb of motion is employed with the preposition, unlike 1 Kgs 8:30. The translation above (“from inside”) is based on the demands of the immediate context rather than attested usage elsewhere.

³ tn Heb “hear and forgive.”

⁴ tn The words “their sin” are added for clarification.

⁵ tn Heb “and act and give to each one according to all his ways because you know his heart.” In the Hebrew text vv. 37-39a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided up for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Heb “Indeed you know, you alone, the heart of all the sons of mankind.”