Discovery Box1 Kings 8:46-53 
Context8:46 “The time will come when your people 1 will sin against you (for there is no one who is sinless!) and you will be angry with them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their own land, 2 whether far away or close by. 8:47 When your people 3 come to their senses 4 in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray; 5 we have done evil.’ 8:48 When they return to you with all their heart and being 6 in the land where they are held prisoner, 7 and direct their prayers to you toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, 8 8:49 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help 9 and vindicate them. 10 8:50 Forgive all the rebellious acts of your sinful people and cause their captors to have mercy on them. 11 8:51 After all, 12 they are your people and your special possession 13 whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. 14
8:52 “May you be attentive 15 to your servant’s and your people Israel’s requests for help and may you respond to all their prayers to you. 16 8:53 After all, 17 you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession, 18 just as you, O sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”
1 tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “the land of the enemy.”
3 tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Or “stop and reflect”; Heb “bring back to their heart.”
5 tn Or “done wrong.”
6 tn Or “soul.”
7 tn Heb “in the land of their enemies.”
8 tn Heb “your name.” See the note on the word “reputation” in v. 41.
9 tn Heb “their prayer and their request for help.”
10 tn Heb “and accomplish their justice.”
11 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.”
12 tn Or “for.”
13 tn Heb “inheritance.”
14 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.
15 tn Heb “May your eyes be open.”
16 tn Heb “to listen to them in all their calling out to you.”
17 tn Or “For.”
18 tn Heb “your inheritance.”
