Poole on 1 Kings 8:31, 32: Solomon's Dedicatory Prayer, Part 2

Verse 31:[1]  If any man trespass against his neighbour, and (Ex. 22:11) an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear (Heb. and he require an oath of him;[2] Lev. 5:1), and the oath come before thine altar in this house…

[If a man sin against his neighbor (similarly Pagnine, Tigurinus, Montanus, Munster, Junius and Tremellius), ‎אֵת֩ אֲשֶׁ֙ר יֶחֱטָ֥א אִישׁ֙ לְרֵעֵ֔הוּ]  When a man will have sinned, etc. (Pagnine, Montanus, Junius and Tremellius, Tigurinus).  If a man sin (Munster, Vatablus, Syriac), that is, if one denies a deposit/trust (Vatablus).  If anyone inflicts an injury upon his neighbor (Arabic).  When a man owes his neighbor (Jonathan).  That אֲשֶׁר/because/that is sometimes used in the place of אִם/if.  As in Leviticus 4:22, ‎אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָשִׂ֖יא, if a ruler, etc., compared with verses 3 and 27, where in a similar expression אִם/if is found.[3]  See also Exodus 21:13.[4]  Thus in Deuteronomy 11:27:  A blessing, ‎אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּשְׁמְע֗וּ, if ye obey, etc., compared with verse 28, where in the place of it is אִם/if[5] (Glassius’ “Grammar” 594).

If any man trespass, that is, if he be accused of a trespass.

[And he have any oath, wherewith he is bound, ‎וְנָֽשָׁא־ב֥וֹ אָלָ֖ה לְהַֽאֲלֹת֑וֹ [6]]  Who exacted from him an oath, and compels him to swear (Jonathan).  And he exact from him an oath, etc. (Syriac, Hebrews in Vatablus), so that it might be from נָשָׁה,[7] and א is in the place of ה (Hebrews in Vatablus).  And he receive upon himself an oath, wherewith he binds himself (Tigurinus).  And he convey upon him an oath, in such a way that he compels him to swear (Pagnine) (or, to adjure him [Montanus]).  They refer it to the Judge; that is, by his sentence he determines that he is going to swear (Hebrews in Vatablus).  Who will have conveyed to him (but the who creates obscurity, as if it were signified, that the offering of the oath preceded the sin, while the complete contrary is signified:  I prefer, therefore, And he convey to him (Hebrew:  he bring; that is, he bear, upon him, or, impose upon him, that is, through the judge [Piscator]) an oath of execration (Hebrew:  execration,[8] a synecdochical Metonymy of the adjunct[9] [Piscator]), by adjuring him with an execration (Junius and Tremellius).  Hebrew:  by causing him to curse himself;[10] that is, that he might swear with an execration of himself added (Piscator).

An oath be laid upon him; either by the judge, or by the party accusing him, or by the accused person himself; which was usual, when there were no witnesses.  See Exodus 22:8, 11; Numbers 5:12, 15, etc.

[And he come because of the oath before thine altar into thy house,‎וּבָ֗א אָלָ֛ה לִפְנֵ֥י מִֽזְבַּחֲךָ֖ בַּבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּֽה׃]  Some include parentheses, and thus translate it, (for the execration shall come before thine altar into this house) (Junius and Tremellius).  [Now, to some the ‎אָלָה is a verb (thus the Septuagint in Piscator, Jonathan, Syriac, Arabic):]  And he come, and swear, etc. (Jonathan, Arabic), or, and he execrate himself (Piscator).  Thus the conjunction is supplied, and the words, ‎לִפְנֵ֥י מִֽזְבַּחֲךָ֖, do not depend upon the verb, come, but upon the verb, execrate.  This syntax is favored by the Hebrew accentuation (Piscator).  [To others אָלָה is a noun:]  And the oath come before thine altar, etc. (Pagnine, similarly Montanus, Tigurinus, Castalio, Osiander).  If אָלָה be a noun, אִישׁ/man is to be understood (Piscator, thus Vatablus), so that it might be אָלָה אִיש, the man of the oath; that is, the one that is obliged to swear by the sentence of the Judge (Vatablus); for בָּא, he came, is masculine, and does not agree with the feminine אָלָה:  but, with אִישׁ/man understood, I thus render it, and he come upon whom the execration was imposed, before thine altar unto this house, or rather in this house, which is to say, which [namely, the altar] is in this house, with אֲשֶׁר/which understood (Piscator).  And he come, swearing at the altar, etc. (Strigelius).  Before the altar; to swear with the altar touched was the custom of almost all Nations.  With the altars taken into their hands, says Justinus, Of Philippic Histories 24.  In Plautus’ The Rope 5:2:

Gripus:  Touch this altar of Venus.

Labrax:  I touch it.

Gripus:  Thou art to swear by this Venus.

Cicero’s In Defense of Flaccus:  If he swear, holding the altar.  Juvenal:[11]  …holding both the altar and his pledge.[12]  And elsewhere:  …whoever, being fearless, touches the altar.[13]  Martial:[14]  The boy Hannibal had sworn this at the Libyan altars (Grotius).  The sense of the passage:  If he, having been put under oath, denied that he sinned, and by the oath (according to custom) averted suspicion of the crime from himself, thou, O God, disclose the guilty party, etc.  Thus these things are explained in 2 Chronicles 6:22 (Tirinus out of Sanchez).  [Others thus:]  If anyone inflict an injury upon his neighbor, and yet deny it by oath, and is not able to be convicted by witnesses, and so the plaintiff that suffered the loss pour out his complaints before thine altar, and implore thine help, etc., then hear thou (Osiander).

And the oath come before thine altar in this house; for here God, who was appealed to as witness, was especially present.  Hence the heathens used to swear at their altars.

Verse 32:[15]  Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, (Deut. 25:1) condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

[Thou shalt hear in heaven (thus Pagnine, Montanus), ‎הַשָּׁמַיִם]  In heaven (Mariana); from heaven (Syriac, Arabic, similarly Jonathan, Junius and Tremellius).  Hear thou, understanding, the prayer of him whose cause has been just (Vatablus).

[And thou shalt do and judge]  That is, thou shalt most certainly do judgment (Malvenda).  Do thou, that is, act, so that the guilty party might be recognized by all (Vatablus).  Do that, which he that execrated himself asked of thee; that is, punish him, if he has sworn falsely; and, contrariwise, uphold him, if he has sworn truly (Piscator).

[Condemning, ‎לְהַרְשִׁיעַ]  Verbatim:  by making wicked;[16] by showing that he had an unjust cause (Vatablus); by pronouncing, or declaring, him wicked, that is, by condemning him (Piscator, Martyr).  This passage makes plain, that words of the sort pertain to the court, since it is a matter of judgment (Martyr).

[Rendering his way]  That is, deeds; it is a Metaphor (Piscator).  A Hebraism:  rendering to him according to his evil (Vatablus).

To bring his way, that is, the just recompence of his wicked action and course.

[Justifying, ‎וּלְהַצְדִּיק]  And by absolving the just; that is, by showing that he had a just cause (Vatablus).

Justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness; to vindicate him, and to manifest his integrity.

[1] Hebrew:  ‎אֵת֩ אֲשֶׁ֙ר יֶחֱטָ֥א אִישׁ֙ לְרֵעֵ֔הוּ וְנָֽשָׁא־ב֥וֹ אָלָ֖ה לְהַֽאֲלֹת֑וֹ וּבָ֗א אָלָ֛ה לִפְנֵ֥י מִֽזְבַּחֲךָ֖ בַּבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּֽה׃

[2] Hebrew:  ‎וְנָֽשָׁא־ב֥וֹ אָלָ֖ה לְהַֽאֲלֹת֑וֹ.

[3] Leviticus 4:3:  “If the priest (‎אִ֣ם הַכֹּהֵ֧ן) that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering.”  Verse 27:  “And if any one (‎וְאִם־נֶ֧פֶשׁ אַחַ֛ת) of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty…”

[4] Exodus 21:13:  “And if a man lie not in wait (‎וַאֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א צָדָ֔ה), but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.”

[5] Deuteronomy 11:28:  “And a curse, if ye will not obey (‎אִם־לֹ֤א תִשְׁמְעוּ֙) the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.”

[6] Some manuscripts read נָשָׂא, to lift or bear. 

[7] נָשָׁא signifies to be a creditor, or to make exactions; as does נָשָׁה.

[8] אָלָה can signify an oath, or a curse.

[9] Here, the execration or curse (an adjunct of the oath), and this part of the oath is expressed in place of the whole (synecdoche).

[10] Hebrew:  ‎לְהַאֲלֹתוֹ.  The Hiphil conjugation frequently conveys a causative sense.

[11] Decimus Junius Juvenalis was a Roman poet, flourishing at the turn of the second century.

[12] Satires 14:219.

[13] Satires 13:89.

[14] Marcus Valerius Martialis was a first century Roman poet.

[15] Hebrew: ‎וְאַתָּ֣ה׀ תִּשְׁמַ֣ע הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וְעָשִׂ֙יתָ֙ וְשָׁפַטְתָּ֣ אֶת־עֲבָדֶ֔יךָ לְהַרְשִׁ֣יעַ רָשָׁ֔ע לָתֵ֥ת דַּרְכּ֖וֹ בְּרֹאשׁ֑וֹ וּלְהַצְדִּ֣יק צַדִּ֔יק לָ֥תֶת ל֖וֹ כְּצִדְקָתֽוֹ׃ ס

[16] The Hiphil conjugation frequently conveys a causative sense.