1 Kings 8:35

8:35 “The time will come when ¹  the skies are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people ²  sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you, ³  and turn away from their sin because you punish ⁴  them,

1 Kings 8:49-53

8:49 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help ⁵  and vindicate them. ⁶  8:50 Forgive all the rebellious acts of your sinful people and cause their captors to have mercy on them. ⁷  8:51 After all, ⁸  they are your people and your special possession ⁹  whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. ¹⁰ 

8:52 “May you be attentive ¹¹  to your servant’s and your people Israel’s requests for help and may you respond to all their prayers to you. ¹²  8:53 After all, ¹³  you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession, ¹⁴  just as you, O sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

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¹ 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 tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew text has “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (’anah, “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 (tÿ’annem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (“to afflict”).

⁵ tn Heb “their prayer and their request for help.”

⁶ tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”

⁷ tn Heb “and forgive your people who have sinned against you, [forgive] all their rebellious acts by which they rebelled against you, and grant them mercy before their captors so they will show them mercy.”

⁸ tn Or “for.”

⁹ tn Heb “inheritance.”

¹⁰ tn 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.

¹¹ tn Heb “May your eyes be open.”

¹² tn Heb “to listen to them in all their calling out to you.”

¹³ tn Or “For.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “your inheritance.”