1 Kings 8:45 (KJV)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

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:

1 Kings 8:45 Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

1 Kings 8:46 If 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;

1 Kings 8:47 Yet 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;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hear", "thou", "heaven", "prayer", "supplication", "maintain", and "cause". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hear" and "thou", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 44's "If thy people go out to battle..." into verse 46's "If they sin against thee for there...", so "hear" and "thou" 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 "hear" and "thou" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.