1 Kings 8:44 (GNV)

Passage

When thy people shall go out to battell against their enemie by the way that thou shalt sende them, and shall pray vnto the Lord towarde the way of the citie which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I haue built for thy Name,

Nearby Context

1 Kings 8:42 (When they shall heare of thy great name, and of thy mightie hande, and of thy stretched out arme) and shall come and pray in this house,

1 Kings 8:43 Heare thou in heauen thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth for vnto thee: that all the people of the earth may know thy Name, and feare thee, as do thy people Israel: and that they may know, that thy Name is called vpon in this house which I haue built.

1 Kings 8:44 When thy people shall go out to battell against their enemie by the way that thou shalt sende them, and shall pray vnto the Lord towarde the way of the citie which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I haue built for thy Name,

1 Kings 8:45 Heare thou then in heauen their prayer and their supplication, and iudge their cause.

1 Kings 8:46 If they sinne against thee, ( for there is no man that sinneth not) and thou be angry with them, and deliuer them vnto the enemies, so that they cary them away prisoners vnto the land of the enemies, either farre or neere,

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 43's "Heare thou in heauen thy dwelling place..." into verse 45's "Heare thou then in heauen their prayer...", so "people" and "shall" 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 "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.