1 Kings 8:44 (DRB)

Passage

If thy people go out to war against their enemies, by what way soever thou shalt send them, they shall pray to thee towards the way of the city, which thou hast chosen, and towards the house, which I have built to thy name:

Nearby Context

1 Kings 8:42 And thy stretched out arm) so when he shall come, and shall pray in this place,

1 Kings 8:43 Then hear thou in heaven, in the firmament of thy dwelling place, and do all those things, for which that stranger shall call upon thee: that all the people of the earth may learn to fear thy name, as do thy people Israel, and may prove that thy name is called upon on this house, which I have built.

1 Kings 8:44 If thy people go out to war against their enemies, by what way soever thou shalt send them, they shall pray to thee towards the way of the city, which thou hast chosen, and towards the house, which I have built to thy name:

1 Kings 8:45 And then hear thou in heaven their prayers, and their supplications, and do judgment for them.

1 Kings 8:46 But if they sin against thee, (for there is no man who sinneth not) and thou being angry, deliver them up to their enemies, so that they be led away captives into the land of their enemies, far or near;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "people", "against", "enemies", "soever", "thou", "shalt", "send", and "shall". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "people" and "against", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 43's "Then hear thou in heaven in the..." into verse 45's "And then hear thou in heaven their...", so "people" and "against" 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 "people" and "against" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.