1 Kings 8:37

Prayer Suffering

³⁵ When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,

³⁶ then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,

³⁸ then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—

³⁹ be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and act, and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of all men—

Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,
KJV: If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
WEB: “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,
ASV: If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting [or] mildew, locust [or] caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
DARBY: If there be famine in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blight, mildew, locust, caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their gates; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be:
BLB: When famine is in the land, if there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, [or] if there is grasshopper; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities—whatever plague or whatever sickness—

ÅB: Når det kommer hungersnød i landet, når det kommer pest, når det kommer brann og rust på kornet, gresshopper og gnagere[^2], når deres fiender trenger inn i deres land og kringsetter deres byer, når det kommer noen plage eller noen sykdom -
OTB: Hvis det er hungersnød i landet, hvis det er pest, eller rust eller mugg, gresshopper eller sirisser, hvis deres fiende beleirer dem i landet deres byer, hvilken som helst plage, hvilken som helst sykdom det er,
B1930: Når det kommer hungersnød i landet, når det kommer pest, når det kommer brand og rust på kornet, gresshopper og gnagere, når deres fiender trenger inn i deres land og kringsetter deres byer, når det kommer nogen plage eller nogen sykdom - / < et slags gresshopper.>

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Deuteronomy 28:21–22
The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess.
Read in context
Leviticus 26:16
then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
Read in context
Deuteronomy 28:38–42
You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.
Read in context
2 Chronicles 20:9
‘If disaster comes upon us—whether sword or judgment, plague or famine—we will stand before this temple and before You, for Your Name is in this temple. We will cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear us and save us.’
Read in context
Jeremiah 32:2
At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.
Read in context
Jeremiah 39:1–3
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to the city.
Read in context
Joel 1:4–7
What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
Read in context
2 Chronicles 6:28–31
When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,
Read in context