1 Kings 8:37 — Meaning and Application

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:

Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

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}; {cities: or, jurisdiction}

What prayer and supplication soever be {made} by any man, {or} by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, {even} thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)