1 Kings 8:23

8:23 He prayed: ¹  “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You maintain covenantal loyalty ²  to your servants who obey you with sincerity. ³ 

1 Kings 8:30

8:30 Respond to the request of your servant and your people Israel for this place. ⁴  Hear from inside your heavenly dwelling place ⁵  and respond favorably. ⁶ 

1 Kings 8:35-36

8:35 “The time will come when ⁷  the skies are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people ⁸  sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you, ⁹  and turn away from their sin because you punish ¹⁰  them, 8:36 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly ¹¹  you will then teach them the right way to live ¹²  and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess. ¹³ 

1 Kings 8:39

8:39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin, ¹⁴  and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of his motives. ¹⁵  (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.) ¹⁶ 

1 Kings 8:54

8:54 When Solomon finished presenting all these prayers and requests to the Lord, he got up from before the altar of the Lord where he had kneeled and spread out his hands toward the sky. ¹⁷ 

[8:23]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[8:23]  ² tn Heb “one who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[8:23]  ³ tn Heb “who walk before you with all their heart.”

[8:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”

[8:30]  ⁵ 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.

[8:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “hear and forgive.”

[8:35]  ⁷ tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 35-36a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[8:35]  ⁸ tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:35]  ⁹ tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”

[8:35]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”). However, this reference to a divine answer is premature, since the next verse asks for God to intervene in mercy. It is better to revocalize the consonantal text as תְעַנֵּם (tÿ’annem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (“to afflict”).

[8:36]  ¹⁰ tn The translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense.

[8:36]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”

[8:36]  ¹² tn Or “for an inheritance.”

[8:39]  ¹³ tn The words “their sin” are added for clarification.

[8:39]  ¹⁴ 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.

[8:39]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Indeed you know, you alone, the heart of all the sons of mankind.”

[8:54]  ¹⁶ tn Or “toward heaven.”