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1 Kings 8:35

in 1 Kings 8

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,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them:

KJV

When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:

This verse in 1 Kings 8

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

When the skies are shut and there is no rain

on 1 Kings 8:35-36

The third petition, “When the skies are shut and there is no rain”, names ahead of time the drought Elijah announces at 17:1. Solomon asks God to forgive “so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk”, so the drought serves as teaching.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Heaven - The lower heaven in which the clouds are. Shut up - Heaven is compared to a great store-house in God's keeping, out of which nothing can be had, so long as it is close shut up.
When heaven is shut up,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain - The Third case. When, because of their sin, and their ceasing to walk in the good way in which they should have walked, God refuses to send the early and latter rain, so that the appointed weeks of harvest come in vain, as there is no crop: then, if they pray and confess their sin, hear thou in heaven, etc.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • בְּהֵעָצֵ֥רwhen are shut up

    beheatzerH6113 →47 times

  • שָׁמַ֛יִם[the] heavens

    shamayimH8064 →421 times

  • וְלֹא־and not

    velo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • יִהְיֶ֥הit will be

    yihyehH1961 →3559 times

  • מָטָ֖רrain

    matarH4306 →38 times

  • כִּ֣יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • יֶחֶטְאוּ־they will sin

    yechetu-H2398 →238 times

  • לָ֑ךְto you

    lakh

  • וְהִֽתְפַּֽלְל֞וּand they will pray

    vehitpaluH6419 →84 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הַמָּק֤וֹםthe place

    hamakomH4725 →401 times

  • הַזֶּה֙<the> this

    hazehH2088 →1180 times

  • וְהוֹד֣וּand they will praise

    vehoduH3034 →

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • שְׁמֶ֔ךָname your

    shemekhaH8034 →864 times

  • וּמֵחַטָּאתָ֥םand from sin their

    umechatatamH2403 →295 times

  • יְשׁוּב֖וּןthey will turn back !

    yeshuvunH7725 →1056 times

  • כִּ֥יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • תַעֲנֵֽם׃you will afflict them

    taanemH6031 →82 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Luke 4:25

    But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all…

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 17:1

      Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in…

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • James 5:17

      Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

  • Through

    1 Kings 8:33

    When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading with You in this temple,

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 28:25

      The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Leviticus 26:19

    I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 28:23

      The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 11:17

    or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon…

    it leads to

    • 2 Chronicles 6:26

      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…

    • Deuteronomy 6:15

      For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face…

    • Amos 4:7

      “I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.

    • Deuteronomy 4:26

      I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it,…

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Kings

The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, Sir Edward John Poynter, 1890. Public domain.
The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, Sir Edward John Poynter, 1890. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.