1 Kings 8:42 (KJV)

Passage

(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;

Nearby Context

1 Kings 8:40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

1 Kings 8:41 Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name’s sake;

1 Kings 8:42 (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;

1 Kings 8:43 Hear 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.

1 Kings 8:44 If 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:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "hear", "great", "name", "strong", "hand", and "stretched". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "hear", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 41's "Moreover concerning a stranger that is not..." into verse 43's "Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place...", so "shall" and "hear" belong inside that flow. In 1 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "hear" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.