1 Kings 8:27

8:27 “God does not really live on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

1 Kings 8:30

8:30 Respond to the request of your servant and your people Israel for this place. ²  Hear from inside your heavenly dwelling place ³  and respond favorably. ⁴ 

[8:27]  ¹ tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which the translation above seeks to reflect.

[8:30]  ² tn Heb “listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”

[8:30]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “hear and forgive.”