1 Kings 8:41-43

8:41 “Foreigners, who do not belong to your people Israel, will come from a distant land because of your reputation. ¹  8:42 When they hear about your great reputation ²  and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds, ³  they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple. 8:43 Then listen from your heavenly dwelling place and answer all the prayers of the foreigners. ⁴  Then all the nations of the earth will acknowledge your reputation, ⁵  obey ⁶  you like your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I built belongs to you. ⁷ 

1 Kings 8:2

8:2 All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival ⁸  in the month Ethanim ⁹  (the seventh month).

1 Kings 6:32-33

6:32 On the two doors made of olive wood he carved ¹⁰  cherubs, palm trees, and flowers in bloom, and he plated them with gold. ¹¹  He plated the cherubs and the palm trees with hammered gold. ¹²  6:33 In the same way he made doorposts of olive wood for the entrance to the main hall, only with four-sided pillars. ¹³ 

Psalms 68:29

68:29 as you come out of your temple in Jerusalem! ¹⁴ 

Kings bring tribute to you.

Isaiah 56:3-8

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of ¹⁵  the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly ¹⁶  exclude me from his people.’

The eunuch should not say,

‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

56:4 For this is what the Lord says:

“For the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths

and choose what pleases me

and are faithful to ¹⁷  my covenant,

56:5 I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ¹⁸ 

that will be better than sons and daughters.

I will set up a permanent monument ¹⁹  for them that will remain.

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of ²⁰  the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to ²¹  my covenant –

56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me. ²² 

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.” ²³ 

56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,

the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:

“I will still gather them up.” ²⁴ 

John 12:20

Seekers

12:20 Now some Greeks ²⁵  were among those who had gone up to worship at the feast.

[8:41]  ¹ tn Heb “your name.” In the OT the word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor. The “name” of the Lord sometimes designates the Lord himself, being indistinguishable from the proper name.

[8:42]  ² tn Heb “your great name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in the previous verse.

[8:42]  ³ tn Heb “and your strong hand and your outstretched arm.”

[8:43]  ⁴ tn Heb “and do all which the foreigner calls to [i.e., “requests of”] you.”

[8:43]  ⁵ tn Heb “your name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in v. 41.

[8:43]  ⁶ tn Heb “fear.”

[8:43]  ⁷ tn Heb “that your name is called over this house which I built.” The Hebrew idiom “to call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28.

[8:2]  ⁸ sn The festival. This was the Feast of Tabernacles, see Lev 23:34.

[8:2]  ⁹ sn The month Ethanim. This would be September-October in modern reckoning.

[6:32]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “carved carvings of.”

[6:32]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he plated [with] gold” (the precise object is not stated).

[6:32]  ¹² tn Heb “and he hammered out the gold on the cherubs and the palm trees.”

[6:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “and so he did at the entrance of the main hall, doorposts of olive wood, from a fourth.”

[68:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Be strong, O God, [you] who have acted for us, from your temple in Jerusalem.”

[56:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”

[56:3]  ¹⁶ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[56:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and take hold of” (so KJV); NASB “hold fast.”

[56:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a hand and a name.” For other examples where יָד (yad) refers to a monument, see HALOT 388 s.v.

[56:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “name” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[56:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

[56:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

[56:7]  ²² tn Heb “in the house of my prayer.”

[56:7]  ²³ tn Heb “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

[56:8]  ²⁴ tn The meaning of the statement is unclear. The text reads literally, “Still I will gather upon him to his gathered ones.” Perhaps the preposition -לְ (lamed) before “gathered ones” introduces the object of the verb, as in Jer 49:5. The third masculine singular suffix on both עָלָיו (’alayv) and נִקְבָּצָיו (niqbatsayv) probably refers to “Israel.” In this case one can translate literally, “Still I will gather to him his gathered ones.”

[12:20]  ²⁵ sn These Greeks (῞Ελληνές τινες, {ellhne" tine") who had come up to worship at the feast were probably “God-fearers” rather than proselytes in the strict sense. Had they been true proselytes, they would probably not have been referred to as Greeks any longer. Many came to worship at the major Jewish festivals without being proselytes to Judaism, for example, the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:27, who could not have been a proselyte if he were physically a eunuch.