1 Kings 8:22-23

Solomon Prays for Israel

8:22 Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward the sky. ¹  8:23 He prayed: ²  “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You maintain covenantal loyalty ³  to your servants who obey you with sincerity. ⁴ 

1 Kings 8:27-30

8:27 “God does not really live on the earth! ⁵  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built! 8:28 But respond favorably to ⁶  your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer ⁷  the desperate prayer ⁸  your servant is presenting to you ⁹  today. 8:29 Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. ¹⁰  May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place. ¹¹  8:30 Respond to the request of your servant and your people Israel for this place. ¹²  Hear from inside your heavenly dwelling place ¹³  and respond favorably. ¹⁴ 

[8:22]  ¹ tn Or “heaven.”

[8:23]  ² tn Heb “said.”

[8:23]  ³ tn Heb “one who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[8:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “who walk before you with all their heart.”

[8:27]  ⁵ 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.

[8:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “turn to.”

[8:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “by listening to.”

[8:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “the loud cry and the prayer.”

[8:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “praying before you.”

[8:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so your eyes might be open toward this house night and day, toward the place about which you said, ‘My name will be there.’”

[8:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “by listening to the prayer which your servant is praying concerning this place.”

[8:30]  ¹² tn Heb “listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”

[8:30]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hear and forgive.”