1 Kings 3:2

3:2 Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places,¹ because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord.²

1 Kings 4:20

Solomon’s Wealth and Fame

4:20 The people of Judah and Israel were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore; they had plenty to eat and drink and were happy.

1 Kings 4:34

4:34 People from all nations came to hear Solomon’s display of wisdom;³ they came from all the kings of the earth who heard about his wisdom.

1 Kings 8:30

8:30 Respond to the request of your servant and your people Israel for this place.⁴ Hear from inside your heavenly dwelling place⁵ and respond favorably.⁶

1 Kings 8:34

8:34 then listen from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.

1 Kings 8:38

8:38 When all your people Israel pray and ask for help,⁷ as they acknowledge their pain⁸ and spread out their hands toward this temple,

1 Kings 8:51-52

8:51 After all,⁹ they are your people and your special possession¹⁰ whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace.¹¹

8:52 “May you be attentive¹² to your servant’s and your people Israel’s requests for help and may you respond to all their prayers to you.¹³

1 Kings 12:7

12:7 They said to him, “Today if you show a willingness to help these people and grant their request, they will be your servants from this time forward.”¹⁴

1 Kings 12:9

12:9 He asked them, “How do you advise me¹⁵ to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?”¹⁶

1 Kings 12:12

12:12 Jeroboam and all the people reported¹⁷ to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered when he said, “Return to me on the third day.”

1 Kings 12:23

12:23 “Say this to King Rehoboam son of Solomon of Judah, and to all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the rest of the people,

1 Kings 18:37

18:37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are the true God¹⁸ and that you are winning back their allegiance.”¹⁹

1 Kings 22:28

22:28 Micaiah said, “If you really do safely return, then the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Take note,²⁰ all you people.”

¹sn Offering sacrifices at the high places. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated.

²tn Heb “for the name of the Lord.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “to honor the Lord”). The “name” of the Lord sometimes designates the Lord himself, being indistinguishable from the proper name.

³tn Heb “the wisdom of Solomon.”

⁴tn Heb “listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel which they are praying concerning this place.”

⁵tn 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.

⁶tn Heb “hear and forgive.”

⁷tn Heb “every prayer, every request for help which will be to all the people, to all your people Israel.”

⁸tn Heb “which they know, each the pain of his heart.”

⁹tn Or “for.”

¹⁰tn Heb “inheritance.”

¹¹tn The Hebrew term כּוּר (kur, “furnace,” cf. Akkadian ku„ru) is a metaphor for the intense heat of purification. A כּוּר was not a source of heat but a crucible (“iron-smelting furnace”) in which precious metals were melted down and their impurities burned away (see I. Cornelius, NIDOTTE 2:618-19). Thus Egypt served not as a place of punishment for the Israelites, but as a place of refinement to bring Israel to a place of submission to divine sovereignty.

sn From the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. The metaphor of a furnace suggests fire and heat and is an apt image to remind the people of the suffering they endured while slaves in Egypt.

¹²tn Heb “May your eyes be open.”

¹³tn Heb “to listen to them in all their calling out to you.”

¹⁴tn Heb “If today you are a servant to these people and you serve them and answer them and speak to them good words, they will be your servants all the days.”

¹⁵tn In the Hebrew text the verb “we will respond” is plural, although it can be understood as an editorial “we.” The ancient versions have the singular here.

¹⁶tn Heb “Lighten the yoke which your father placed on us.”

¹⁷tn Heb “came.”

¹⁸tn Heb “the God.”

¹⁹tn Heb “that you are turning their heart[s] back.”

²⁰tn Heb “Listen.”