1 Kings 8:41-53

Good News Translation

^41-42“When a foreigner who lives in a distant land hears of your fame and of the great things you have done for your people and comes to worship you and to pray at this Temple, ⁴³listen to his prayer. In heaven, where you live, hear him and do what he asks you to do, so that all the peoples of the world may know you and obey you, as your people Israel do. Then they will know that this Temple I have built is the place where you are to be worshiped.

⁴⁴“When you command your people to go into battle against their enemies and they pray to you, wherever they are, facing this city which you have chosen and this Temple which I have built for you, ⁴⁵listen to their prayers. Hear them in heaven and give them victory.

⁴⁶“When your people sin against you—and there is no one who does not sin—and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away, ⁴⁷listen to your people's prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O Lord. ⁴⁸If in that land they truly and sincerely repent and pray to you as they face toward this land which you gave to our ancestors, this city which you have chosen, and this Temple which I have built for you, ⁴⁹then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them. ⁵⁰Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness. ⁵¹They are your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt, that blazing furnace.

⁵²“Sovereign Lord, may you always look with favor on your people Israel and their king, and hear their prayer whenever they call to you for help. ⁵³You chose them from all the peoples to be your own people, as you told them through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

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1 Kings 8:41-53

New International Version

⁴¹“As for the foreigner^(A) who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name— ⁴²for they will hear^(B) of your great name and your mighty hand^(C) and your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, ⁴³then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know^(D) your name and fear^(E) you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.^(F)

⁴⁴“When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray^(G) to the Lord toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name, ⁴⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.^(H)

⁴⁶“When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin^(I)—and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive^(J) to their own lands, far away or near; ⁴⁷and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead^(K) with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’;^(L) ⁴⁸and if they turn back^(M) to you with all their heart^(N) and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray^(O) to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple^(P) I have built for your Name;^(Q) ⁴⁹then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. ⁵⁰And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy;^(R) ⁵¹for they are your people and your inheritance,^(S) whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.^(T)

⁵²“May your eyes be open^(U) to your servant’s plea and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they cry out to you.^(V) ⁵³For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance,^(W) just as you declared through your servant Moses when you, Sovereign Lord, brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

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1 Kings 8:41-53

King James Version

⁴¹Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake;

⁴²(For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;

⁴³Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.

⁴⁴If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name:

⁴⁵Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

⁴⁷Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

⁴⁸And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:

⁴⁹Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,

⁵⁰And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:

⁵¹For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

⁵²That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.

⁵³For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.

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