Poole on 1 Kings 8:33-40: Solomon's Dedicatory Prayer, Part 3

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Verse 33:[1]  (Lev. 26:17; Deut. 28:25) When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and (Lev. 26:39, 40; Neh. 1:9) shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house (or, toward this house[2])…

[If thy people Israel flee, ‎בְּהִנָּגֵף [3]]  When it fall (Munster, Tigurinus), be smitten (Pagnine), or, routed (Syriac, Arabic), or with a wound (I would prefer, with halting [Piscator]) impaired (Junius and Tremellius).  That is, they have given their backs to a pursuing enemy (Vatablus).

[And repenting]  Hebrew:  and they turn again,[4] understanding, the others; that is the rest of the people who remained in the City (Vatablus).

[Confessing thy name, ‎וְהוֹדוּ]  And they confess (Pagnine, Vatablus), that is, they give glory and praise to thee, namely, by acknowledging their sins (Vatablus, similarly Junius).

And confess thy name; give glory to thy name, by acknowledging their sins, and thy justice; and by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone for their deliverance.

[And they pray…in this house]  Question:  How would they, cast out of their own country by enemies, pray in the Temple, and ask, that it might be allowed to them to return to their fatherland?  Response:  It is not treated here of captives (of which he speaks in verse 46), but of those that, having been driven from their own seats, not indeed into another land, but to other lots, when they might still be able to approach the Temple (Sanchez out of Tostatus).  He treats, either, of those that a defeat enter the Temple; or, of those that, having been taken away into captivity, turn toward the Temple (Martyr); or, of those that, after the battle of their brethren proved unsuccessful, remained as a remnant in the land of Canaan (Kimchi in Martyr).  They note here the order of deliverance:  First they consider their sins, and are converted to God, they honor His name, and then they pray and are heard (Martyr).

Verse 34:[5]  Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.

Bring them again, from the land into which they are supposed to be carried by their enemies, into Canaan.  Question:  If they were banished into a strange land, how could they pray in this house, as they are said to do, verse 33?[6]  Answer:  1.  That may be rendered to or towards this house, as it is expressed, 1 Kings 8:29, 30.[7] The Hebrew preposition ב/beth, in, being oft put for אֶל/el, to, or towards.  2.  This may be understood of divers persons; and so the sense is this:  When the people of Israel be defeated in battle, and many of their brethren be taken prisoners, and carried into captivity; if then their brethren remaining in the land, shall heartily pray for their captive brethren, they shall be delivered.

Verse 35:[8]  (Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:23) When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them…

[If heaven be shut up]  Restrained from raining (Piscator, similarly Vatablus).  This language of the heavens closing and opening is common (Martyr).

[Heaven]  That is, the lowest, that is, the atmosphere (Piscator, thus Vatablus).  Compare these things and what follows with Deuteronomy 28 (Grotius).

Heaven; the lower heaven, in which the clouds are; as Deuteronomy 11:17; Psalm 147:8.  Is shut up; the heaven is compared to a great storehouse in God’s keeping, out of which nothing can be had so long as it is close shut up.

[And they be converted because of their affliction]  Where it appears that it should be read, because of thine affliction; that is, wherewith thou hast afflicted them (Piscator).  ‎כִּ֥י תַעֲנֵֽם׃,[9] because thou hast hearkened to them (Vatablus).  So that thou mightest receive their prayer (Jonathan).  Hearkening to them, thou shalt also hear them (Syriac, Arabic).  [For thus they connect these words with the following verse, and take עָנָה in the sense of hearkening, or, of answering.]  Others thus:  Since (or, when [Pagnine], seeing that [Tigurinus], because [Munster]) thou hast afflicted them (Montanus, Piscator out of the Septuagint).  The word תַעֲנֵם here is not Qal future/imperfect, but Hiphil[10] (Piscator).  Because thou hast testified against them (Junius and Tremellius), that is, with drought sent in, as it happened in 2 Samuel 21 (Junius).  Because thou hast addressed them, understanding, by the prophets; that is, after they will have been converted at the voice of the prophets through whom thou wilt have convict them (certain interpreters in Malvenda).

If they turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them; do not reject their prayers, because they are forced from them by their afflictions, as thou mayest justly do.

Verse 36:[11]  Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou (Ps. 25:4; 27:11; 94:12; 143:8) teach them (1 Sam. 12:23) the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

[And show to them the good way, ‎כִּ֥י תוֹרֵ֛ם אֶת־הַדֶּ֥רֶךְ הַטּוֹבָ֖ה]  Because thou shalt teach (or, when thou hast taught [Junius and Tremellius]) them the good way (Montanus, similarly Jonathan, Septuagint).  Teaching to them the good way (Munster, Syriac).  Human instruction is certainly not sufficient, not the will of God written in books or poured into the ears; unless a divine prompting be added, which so shines in our minds, that it appears good, and delights us (Martyr).

That thou teach them; that their sin being pardoned, and thou being reconciled unto them, mayest vouchsafe to teach them.  Or rather, as our translators render the very same words, 2 Chronicles 6:27, when thou shalt teach, or hast taught them; not only by thy word, for that was done before; but by their afflictions, which is one of God’s schools; and especially, by thy Spirit, enlightening their minds, and inclining their hearts, that they may learn and profit both by the word and by their afflictions.  And this is here fitly added, to show that he could not expect, and did not desire, from God the pardon of their sins, but upon God’s terms, to wit, upon their true repentance.  The good way, that is, the way or will of God; or the way of their duty, as the following words explain it, which is most rightly called the good way here, and 1 Samuel 12:23, because it is both just and holy, and therefore good in itself; and good, that is, both delightful and profitable to those that walk in it.  The meaning is, When thou hast effectually taught them, and they have thoroughly learned how to please and serve thee acceptably, and to walk before thee in the way which thou hast prescribed them.  Give rain.  The order of Solomon’s prayer is very observable:  first and chiefly he prays for their repentance and forgiveness, which is the chief blessing, and the only solid foundation of all other mercies; and then he prays for the temporal mercy; thereby teaching us what to mind and desire principally in our prayers; which also Christ hath taught us in his perfect pattern and form of prayer; wherein there is but one petition for outward, and all the rest are for spiritual blessings.

Verse 37:[12]  (Lev. 26:16, 25, 26; Deut. 28:21, 22, 27, 38, 42, 52; 2 Chron. 20:9) If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities (or, jurisdiction[13]); whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be…

[Tainted air, ‎שִׁדָּפוֹן [14]]  Blasting of crops (Montanus, Hebrews in Vatablus), namely, with the East wind, Genesis 41:27;[15] drought (Pagnine, Piscator).  Burning wind (Munster); blight (Junius and Tremellius); corruption of air (Jonathan); thrashing of hail (Syriac).

[Mildew (thus Pagnine), ‎יֵרָקוֹן [16]]  Blight, that is, on the crops.  Elsewhere it signifies jaundice/paleness, which they call the royal disease,[17] Jeremiah 30:6[18] (Piscator).  Golden blight (Syriac, Arabic, Tigurinus).  This is a putrefying of the humor occurring in crops; by which defect the ears become withered, and crushable into a fetid powder.  You have these two words conjoined, Deuteronomy 28:22;[19] Amos 4:9;[20] Haggai 2:17[21] (Vatablus).

[Or locust, ‎חָסִיל]  Wingless locust (Pagnine, Munster, Montanus, etc.).

Caterpillar, that is, the plague of locusts, or caterpillars, infesting a land by their great numbers, and venomous or noxious qualities; of which see Exodus 10:4, 5; Deuteronomy 28:42; Psalm 105:34, 35.

[And his enemy afflict him, besieging his gates, ‎כִּ֧י יָֽצַר־ל֛וֹ אֹיְב֖וֹ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ שְׁעָרָ֑יו [22]]  When his enemy besieges (hems in [Montanus]) him in the land of his gates (Munster, Pagnine, Tigurinus, Montanus), in the land of his cities (Jonathan), in the land of his dominion (Junius and Tremellius, similarly Castalio, Tigurinus Notes), because jurisdictions were formerly exercised in the gates.  A Synecdoche (Malvenda) [or Hypallage,[23] in the land of his gates, for in his gates; that is, in the cities of the land].

Whatsoever plague; that chiefly signifies an extraordinary judgment sent from God.

Verse 38:[24]  What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house…

[All devotatio/cursing (some incorrectly read devoratio/devouring) and imprecation, ‎כָּל־תְּפִלָּ֣ה כָל־תְּחִנָּ֗ה]  All prayer, all supplication (Pagnine, Montanus, etc.).

[Which shall happen to every man of thy people Israel,אֲשֶׁ֤ר תִֽהְיֶה֙ לְכָל־הָ֣אָדָ֔ם לְכֹ֖ל עַמְּךָ֣ יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל]  Which will have been made, or undertaken, by any one, or by thy whole people Israel (Pagnine, Munster, Tigurinus, Syriac, Junius and Tremellius).  The former is to be understood of anyone’s private and personal prayer; the latter, of prayer public and general, publicly undertaken by the whole people (Vatablus):  whether they be other men, or thy people, etc. (Strigelius); which will have been to every man, to all thy people Israel (Montanus).  The latter is taken appositively, and an explication of the former (Mariana).

[If a man shall know the plague of his own heart (similarly Pagnine, Montanus, Munster, Osiander)]  When any man shall feel the sorrow of his own heart, or, for the sorrow which one man feels in himself (Vatablus).  Others:  the plague, or affliction, in his own heart (Mariana, Tigurinus), that is, the evil that he endures, or causes (Mariana).  Some take it of his sins, or the afflictions of his soul, or the complaint of conscience; that is to say, When men, with these things attended to, shall have prayed, hear them (Martyr).  He that would have his prayer to be regarded, should first consider the plague of his heart, and study to heal it (Sanchez).  If anyone shall have felt the sharp pain of his soul (Lapide, similarly Vatablus in Tigurinus Notes):  the Septuagint has the touch of his heart, understanding, the scourges with which God smites them, so that by this touch their hearts might repent (Menochius):  if he be seriously affected in his heart by that plague, and acknowledge the divine rebuke; for in this way some are hardened under the divine strokes, so that they do not feel their own ills (Osiander).  Others thus:  the plague of his heart; that is, who, pressed with a secret infirmity or necessity (which only he who suffers it knows [certain interpreters in Martyr), shall have cried unto thee, the Searcher of hearts[25] (Munster):  the plague of his heart; that is, the force of which he shall have felt in his heart (Piscator).  When each, with the affliction of his own heart perceived (Syriac).  And each shall have confessed their evil which lies in their heart (Arabic).

The plague of his own heart, that is, either, 1.  His sin, which may be called the plague of his heart, in opposition to the other plagues here mentioned, which afflict only the body, or outward man; so the sense is, Who by their afflictions are brought to a true and serious sense of their worse and inward plague of their sins, which are most fitly called the plague of the heart, because that is both the principal seat of sin, and the fountain from whence all actual sins flow, Matthew 15:19.  Or rather, 2.  His affliction; for so this is explained in the parallel place, 2 Chronicles 6:29, (which is the more considerable, because that book was written after this, to explain what was dark or doubtful, and to supply what was lacking in this,) when every one shall know his own sore, and his own grief; which is not unfitly called the plague of his heart, because it was that plague which his heart was most afflicted with, which pained him at the very heart, as the phrase is, Jeremiah 4:19; compare Psalm 55:4; which caused him most vexation or grief, which is a passion of the heart:  and so the sense is, Who shall know, that is, be duly and deeply sensible of his affliction, and the hand of God in it; and his sin as the cause of it; for words of knowledge in Scripture do very frequently note such a kind of knowledge as affects and changeth the heart, and reforms the whole course of a man’s life; for which cause, men of ungodly lives are frequently said in Scripture not to know God,[26] or Christ,[27] or his word,[28] etc.   And therefore no man knows his sore in a Scripture sense but he who bears the rod,[29] who turneth unto him that smiteth him, and sincerely seeketh to the Lord[30] for relief.

Verse 39:[31]  Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, [1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; Ps. 11:4; Jer. 17:10; Acts 1:24] knowest the hearts of all the children of men)…

[According to all his ways, just as thou shalt have seen his heart,‎כְּכָל־דְּרָכָ֔יו אֲשֶׁ֥ר תֵּדַ֖ע אֶת־לְבָב֑וֹ]  According to all his ways, whose heart thou shalt know (Montanus), or, whose heart shall have been revealed before thee (Jonathan), whose heart those hast known (Pagnine), who alone knowest his heart (Munster), just as thou shalt have known his heart (Piscator, similarly the Septuagint, Syriac, Tigurinus, Vulgate), so that אֲשֶׁר/who/which is in the place of כַּאֲשֶׁר, just as (Piscator).  For God does not so much regard the hands or words, as the heart (Sanchez).  According to the manner of his way, of those things that he deserves, and of those things that he undertakes in his heart (Arabic).  Ways here are counsels, intentions, and deeds (Piscator).  He does not ask simply, that He would deliver them, but that He would act toward them, as He saw them affected (Mariana).

[Thou alone knowest the heart]  And so thou rightly knowest, what is appropriate to render to each one.  Therefore, they do not rightly, who invoke saints and angels, when they do not at all understand our hearts and wishes (Mariana).

According to his ways; according to his repentance or impenitency.  I pray with more hope and confidence, because I do not desire that thou wouldst deliver such as are insensible of thy judgments, and their sin; but only those who truly know the plague of their own heart, in manner before explained.  Whose heart thou knowest:  thou knowest who are truly penitent, and who are not; and therefore the granting of my request will be no dishonour to thy government, nor injury to thy holy nature.

Verse 40:[32]  (Ps. 130:4) That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

[That they may fear thee, etc.]  He sets forth the end, because of which he asks these things of God, which end God also wants for Himself, when He sends these scourges (Martyr).

That they may fear thee; that when thou hast first smitten them, and then so eminently delivered them, and that in answer to their prayer, they may hereby be taught to fear thee, and thy justice, and thy goodness.

[1] Hebrew: ‎בְּֽהִנָּגֵ֞ף עַמְּךָ֧ יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל לִפְנֵ֥י אוֹיֵ֖ב אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֶחֶטְאוּ־לָ֑ךְ וְשָׁ֤בוּ אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ וְהוֹד֣וּ אֶת־שְׁמֶ֔ךָ וְהִֽתְפַּֽלְל֧וּ וְהִֽתְחַנְּנ֛וּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ בַּבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּֽה׃

[2] Hebrew:  ‎בַּבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּֽה׃.

[3] נָגַף signifies to smite.

[4] Hebrew:  ‎וְשָׁבוּ.

[5] Hebrew:  ‎וְאַתָּה֙ תִּשְׁמַ֣ע הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְסָ֣לַחְתָּ֔ לְחַטַּ֖את עַמְּךָ֣ יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַהֲשֵֽׁבֹתָם֙ אֶל־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תָּ לַאֲבוֹתָֽם׃ ס

[6] 1 Kings 8:33:  “When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house (‎בַּבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּֽה׃)…”

[7] 1 Kings 8:29, 30:  “That thine eyes may be open toward this house (‎אֶל־הַבַּ֤יִת הַזֶּה֙) night and day, even toward the place (‎אֶל־הַ֙מָּק֔וֹם) of which thou hast said, My name shall be there:  that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place (‎אֶל־הַמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּֽה׃).  And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place (‎אֶל־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה):  and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place:  and when thou hearest, forgive.”

[8] Hebrew: ‎בְּהֵעָצֵ֥ר שָׁמַ֛יִם וְלֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה מָטָ֖ר כִּ֣י יֶחֶטְאוּ־לָ֑ךְ וְהִֽתְפַּֽלְל֞וּ אֶל־הַמָּק֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ וְהוֹד֣וּ אֶת־שְׁמֶ֔ךָ וּמֵחַטָּאתָ֥ם יְשׁוּב֖וּן כִּ֥י תַעֲנֵֽם׃

[9] עָנָה can signify to answer, or to afflict.

[10] The Hiphil frequently conveys a causative sense, whereas the Qal, a simple active.

[11] Hebrew: ‎וְאַתָּ֣ה׀ תִּשְׁמַ֣ע הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וְסָ֙לַחְתָּ֜ לְחַטַּ֤את עֲבָדֶ֙יךָ֙ וְעַמְּךָ֣ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל כִּ֥י תוֹרֵ֛ם אֶת־הַדֶּ֥רֶךְ הַטּוֹבָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֵֽלְכוּ־בָ֑הּ וְנָתַתָּ֤ה מָטָר֙ עַל־אַרְצְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁר־נָתַ֥תָּה לְעַמְּךָ֖ לְנַחֲלָֽה׃ ס

[12] Hebrew: ‎רָעָ֞ב כִּֽי־יִהְיֶ֣ה בָאָ֗רֶץ דֶּ֣בֶר כִּֽי־יִ֠הְיֶה שִׁדָּפ֙וֹן יֵרָק֜וֹן אַרְבֶּ֤ה חָסִיל֙ כִּ֣י יִהְיֶ֔ה כִּ֧י יָֽצַר־ל֛וֹ אֹיְב֖וֹ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ שְׁעָרָ֑יו כָּל־נֶ֖גַע כָּֽל־מַחֲלָֽה׃

[13] Hebrew:  ‎שְׁעָרָיו.

[14] 1 Kings 8:37a:  “If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting (‎שִׁדָּפוֹן), mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller…”  שְׁדַף signifies to scorch or blight.

[15] Genesis 41:27:  “And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind (‎שְׁדֻפ֖וֹת הַקָּדִ֑ים) shall be seven years of famine.”

[16] יֵרָקוֹן, mildew or paleness, is related to the verbal root ירק, to grow green.

[17] Jaundice was called the royal disease, either because of the cost of the treatment, or because of the golden color of the skin.

[18] Jeremiah 30:6:  “Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness (‎לְיֵרָקוֹן)?”

[19] Deuteronomy 28:22:  “The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning (‎וּבַשִּׁדָּפ֖וֹן וּבַיֵּרָק֑וֹן), and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.”

[20] Amos 4:9:  “I have smitten you with blasting and mildew (‎בּשִּׁדָּפ֣וֹן וּבַיֵּרָקוֹן֒):  when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them:  yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.”

[21] Haggai 2:17:  “I smote you with blasting and with mildew (‎בַּשִּׁדָּפ֤וֹן וּבַיֵּֽרָקוֹן֙) and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.”

[22] צָרַר, to bind or narrow, in the Hiphil signifies to make narrow, or to cause distress.

[23] That is, an interchange of the syntactical relationship of two terms.

[24] Hebrew: ‎כָּל־תְּפִלָּ֣ה כָל־תְּחִנָּ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר תִֽהְיֶה֙ לְכָל־הָ֣אָדָ֔ם לְכֹ֖ל עַמְּךָ֣ יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֵדְע֗וּן אִ֚ישׁ נֶ֣גַע לְבָב֔וֹ וּפָרַ֥שׂ כַּפָּ֖יו אֶל־הַבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּֽה׃

[25] See 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Kings 8:39; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Psalm 139:1, 2, 23; Jeremiah 17:10; Romans 8:27.

[26] Isaiah 1:3; Hosea 4:1, 6; Titus 1:16; 1 John 2:3, 4; 4:7, 8.

[27] John 8:19; 16:3; 1 John 3:6.

[28] Hosea 4:6; John 5:38; 8:43, 47.

[29] Micah 6:9; 7:9.

[30] Isaiah 9:13.

[31] Hebrew: ‎וְ֠אַתָּה תִּשְׁמַ֙ע הַשָּׁמַ֜יִם מְכ֤וֹן שִׁבְתֶּ֙ךָ֙ וְסָלַחְתָּ֣ וְעָשִׂ֔יתָ וְנָתַתָּ֤ לָאִישׁ֙ כְּכָל־דְּרָכָ֔יו אֲשֶׁ֥ר תֵּדַ֖ע אֶת־לְבָב֑וֹ כִּֽי־אַתָּ֤ה יָדַ֙עְתָּ֙ לְבַדְּךָ֔ אֶת־לְבַ֖ב כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י הָאָדָֽם׃

[32] Hebrew:  ‎לְמַ֙עַן֙ יִֽרָא֔וּךָ כָּל־הַ֙יָּמִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־הֵ֥ם חַיִּ֖ים עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הָאֲדָמָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תָּה לַאֲבֹתֵֽינוּ׃