Discovery Box1 Kings 8:35-36 
Context8:35 “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, 8:36 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly 5 you will then teach them the right way to live 6 and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess. 7
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 The translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense.
6 tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”
7 tn Or “for an inheritance.”
