Add parallel Print Page Options

35 “The time will come when[a] the skies are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people[b] sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you,[c] and turn away from their sin because you punish[d] them, 36 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly[e] you will then teach them the right way to live[f] and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess.[g]

37 “The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight and disease, or a locust[h] invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land,[i] or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 8:35 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.
  2. 1 Kings 8:35 tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. 1 Kings 8:35 tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”
  4. 1 Kings 8:35 tn The Hebrew text has “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (ʿanah, “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 (teʿannem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (ʿanah, “to afflict”).
  5. 1 Kings 8:36 tn The translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense.
  6. 1 Kings 8:36 tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”
  7. 1 Kings 8:36 tn Or “for an inheritance.”
  8. 1 Kings 8:37 tn Actually two Hebrew terms appear here, both of which are usually taken as referring to locusts. Perhaps different stages of growth or different varieties are in view.
  9. 1 Kings 8:37 tn Heb “in the land, his gates.”