1 Kings 8:45 (DBY)

Passage

then hear thou in the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right.

Nearby Context

1 Kings 8:43 hear thou in the heavens thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; in order that all peoples of the earth may know thy name, [and] that they may fear thee as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.

1 Kings 8:44 If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray to Jehovah toward the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;

1 Kings 8:45 then hear thou in the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right.

1 Kings 8:46 If they have sinned against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, and they have carried them away captives unto the enemy's land, far or near;

1 Kings 8:47 and if they shall take it to heart in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done iniquity, we have dealt perversely;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hear", "thou", "heavens", "prayer", "supplication", "maintain", and "right". 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 have sinned against thee for...", 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.