1 Kings 8:40 (DBY)

Passage

that they may fear thee all the days that they live upon the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

Nearby Context

1 Kings 8:38 what prayer, what supplication soever be made by any man, of all thy people Israel, when they shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house;

1 Kings 8:39 then hear thou in the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and do, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men),

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

1 Kings 8:41 And as to the stranger also, who 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 mighty hand, and of thy stretched-out arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "fear", "thee", "days", "live", "upon", "land", "thou", and "gavest". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "fear" and "thee", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 39's "then hear thou in the heavens the..." into verse 41's "And as to the stranger also who...", so "fear" and "thee" 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 "fear" and "thee" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.