Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 8:33
When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
33. When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy ] Such an event is contemplated in the language of Leviticus (Lev 26:17) and Deuteronomy (Deu 28:25) as well as the restoration and delivery of the people on their repentance (see Lev 26:40-42).
because they have sinned against thee ] From what follows it seems as if idolatry, to which the people were so prone, were noted as the special sin. They have turned away from God, and so are to turn to Him again. The penalty constantly threatened for serving strange gods was that they should be made to serve strangers in a land which was not theirs. Cf. Deu 28:47 seqq.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Ki 8:33-34
When Thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy.
Thy people England
I. The conditions of national unity. When any one desires to understand what is meant by a nation, he had better look unto Gods people Israel first of all, for they fulfilled the two great conditions of national unity. The first is faith in God, and no nation has ever risen to greatness, and no nation, having arisen, has ever maintained its greatness except so far as it believed in–and publicly as a nation, and privately by individuals–acknowledged Almighty God. There is this analogy between the individual and the nation, that an individual is not able to say I, with any intelligence of what I means, except in God; and an individual is not able to say I will, with any force in the will, except in God. It is in the Unseen and Eternal that we realise ourselves. The other condition of national unity with Israel was vocation. Therefore the prophets were perpetually telling the people that their fathers had been called and blessed not for their own sake–and there is no man ever blessed for his own sake, but for the sake of the man that is next him–that their fathers had not been called and blessed for their own sake, but for the sake of the world. They were the receptors of a Revelation, and received the touch of truth to pass it down from hand to hand, and every man to blow it brighter as it went from patriarch to prophet, from prophet to psalmist, from psalmist to martyr, till the day came when the nation could be sent out, each man a torch-bearer, unto the ends of the earth, carrying the light of eternal truth.
II. A message of righteousness. What was the message they were to carry to the world? The message they were to carry to the world was righteousness. As the Greek was raised up of God to give us the sense of beauty, so was the Jew raised up to give us what is far better than beauty, the sense of righteousness; and to write the ten words of Moses upon the conscience of the individual and the conscience of the nation. Comes then the question: Is there any nation to-day that has, as it were, succeeded to a great and world-wide mission, and a mission of the same practical and ethical nature as that which God gave to His people Israel? Is there any nation that has been secluded in its island home, and guarded round from other people so that the invader could not touch it; is there any nation that within its own home, being men of mixed blood, has gradually been welded together by common human sympathy and common faith in God; is there any nation that has gradually been led into a fuller sense of the truth of God; into political, and religious, and social liberty; is there any nation whose ordered and beneficent freedom is the admiration of every people, of its enemies and friends alike? Finally, is there any nation whose members have gone unto the ends of the earth, and wherever they have gone have been able to teach, to govern, to give justice unto the nations placed under their charge? There is only one nation of whom these things can be said; only one nation with whose history you can draw out this analogy to Israel, and that is the English people. Ought we not to ask ourselves whether as a nation–and having had this great favour of the Eternal–whether, as a nation we have borne ourselves like the servant of God? In one–in perhaps the most tender and beautiful passage in all the Old Testament, Isa 53:1-12.
there is a description of God s servant, which is supposed by some to be the Messiah, by some to be Gods people Israel; but the mark of Him is not only that He is the means of great blessing to the world, but His humility, His tenderness, His sympathy, His lowliness. Have we been, as a nation, courteous to foreign nations, as we go by individuals through their midst? Have we, in our Literature and in our tress, always done justice to foreign peoples, and never blown our trumpet, our brazen trumpet, loudly in their faces? Is our character such–the character which we have earned through centuries such–that a foreigner will at once appreciate the goodness that is in us?
III. The sin of materialism. The other sin which we always realise in a national crisis is the sin of Materialism, which also greatly beset Israel. While Israel was a handful of farmers, Israel was more or less spiritual. When Israel became rich and increased in goods, you have only to read the prophets to note how the race for wealth entered, and the power of the rich and the suffering of the poor made an unhappy and miserable nation. We have grown rich, and I am told–though you know better about these things than I do–that we were never richer than at the present day. Rich in goods? I pray you to define goods; and when we define goods, how are they defined? I think it is the money in the savings bank, which is very good so far as it represents thrift and intelligence; and the railways which we have made, which represent enterprise and the development of the country; these things and many other things. But these in themselves are not the goods of a nation. No, not exports and imports, and population and money–these are not the goods of a nation. The goods of a nation are its intelligence; the goods of a nation are its integrity; the goods of a nation are its charity; the goods of a nation are its high and just spirit before God. Wherefore be not too lifted up, but let us remember this, that if our nation ever decay, it will not be from any power from without, or any unfaithfulness on the part of our God. It will be because some men have too much money, and some other people-have too little; and the west end of a city is one place, and the east end is another, and the west and the east they come not together. (J. Watson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 33. When thy people Israel be smitten down, c.] The SECOND case. When their enemies make inroads upon them, and defeat them in battle, and lead them into captivity, because God, being displeased with their transgressions, has delivered them up then if they shall turn again, confess the name of God, which they had in effect denied, by either neglecting his worship, or becoming idolatrous; and pray and make supplication; then, says Solomon, hear thou in heaven-and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And confess thy name; give glory to thy name, by acknowledging their sins, and thy justice; and by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone for their deliverance.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
When thy people Israel shall be smitten down before the enemy,…. Beaten and routed, many slain, and others carried captive; which had been their case, and might be again, and was, though now a time of peace:
because they have sinned against thee; which always was the reason of their being given up into the hands of their enemies:
and shall turn again to thee; to thy worship, as the Targum, having fallen into idolatry, which was generally the case when they fell before their enemies:
and confess thy name; own him to be the true God, acknowledge his justice in their punishment, confess their sin, repent of it, and give him glory:
and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house; not the captives, unless it should be rendered, as it may, “toward this house” f; but those that escaped, or their brethren that went not out to battle, who should pray for them here.
f So Pool and Patrick.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(33, 34) When thy people.From the individual, the prayer turns to those which touch the whole nation. It pictures various national calamities, and in each recognises not mere evils, but chastisements of God, who desires by them to teach, and is most ready to forgive. First it naturally dwells on disaster in battle, which, in the whole history of the Exodus, of the Conquest, of the troubled age of the Judges, and of the reigns of Saul and David, is acknowledged as a sign of unfaithfulness in Israel, either through sin or through idolatry, to the covenant of God, on which the victorious possession of the promised land depended. On that history the blessing and the curse of the Law (Lev. 26:17; Lev. 26:32-33; Deu. 28:25) form a commentary of emphatic warning, and the Psalms again and again bring the same lesson home (Psa. 44:1-3; Psa. 44:9-17; Psa. 60:9-11; Psa. 89:42-46). With characteristic seriousness, Solomon looks back from his peaceful prosperity on the stormy past, and from it learns to pray for the future.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Ki 8:33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
Ver. 33. And confess thy name. ] Submit to thy justice, and implore thy mercy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
When. Note how these petitions are based on the Pentateuch. Compare Lev 26:17. Deu 28:25.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Appeals to the God of Mercy
1Ki 8:33-43
Solomons prayer is evidently based on the book of Deuteronomy, and tends to confirm the old belief that, with the rest of the Pentateuch, this book came from the hand of Moses. In 2Ch 20:7-9, Jehoshaphat pleaded this prayer as though it were substantially a promise, and therefore all needy souls who find their case described here, may plead it on their own behalf.
Notice how frequently Solomon speaks of prayer, even in the land of captivity and exile, as being-directed toward the Temple, 1Ki 8:38, etc. It reminds us of the grave need of maintaining unimpaired our spiritual frontage. It has been truly said that the direction of the souls outlook is the preliminary question in religion. Whether our home looks south or north; whether it faces sunless alleys or sunny fields, is an important physical consideration with us: It is likewise of great importance that the mind or soul should face the right way. The difference between spiritual health and disease is very largely one of the way in which we front. For us, Temple, Altar, and Mercy-Seat are all summed up in Jesus Christ. Our life must be spent looking unto Him, Heb 12:2.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
smitten down: Lev 26:17, Lev 26:25, Deu 28:25, Deu 28:48, Jos 7:8, 2Ch 6:24, 2Ch 6:25, Psa 44:10
because they have: Jos 7:11, Jos 7:12, Jdg 6:1, Jdg 6:2, 2Ki 17:7-18, 2Ki 18:11, 2Ki 18:12, 2Ch 36:14-17
turn again: Lev 26:39-42, Neh 1:8, Neh 1:9, Jon 3:10
pray: Ezr 9:5-15, Neh 9:1-3, Neh 9:4, Neh 9:5, Isa 63:15-19, Isa 64:1 – Isa 66:24, Dan 9:3-19
in: or, toward, 1Ki 8:30
Reciprocal: Lev 26:40 – confess 1Ki 8:35 – if they pray 2Ch 20:9 – when evil Neh 9:28 – heardest Jer 18:8 – that nation Jer 36:7 – It may
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ki 8:33-34. When thy people be smitten This is the second case he puts. If the people of Israel were in general groaning under any national calamity, he desires that the prayers which they should make in or toward that house might be heard and answered. Shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name Not only shall acknowledge thee to be God alone, renouncing all false gods; but shall give glory to thy name by acknowledging their sins and thy justice; by accepting the punishment of their iniquity; and by trusting to thy power and goodness alone for deliverance. And make supplication to thee in this house Trusting in thee, and expecting help from thee alone. Then hear, and bring them again, &c. Deliver them out of the captivity into which their enemies may have carried them, and restore them to their own country.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and {m} confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
(m) Acknowledge your just judgment and praise you.