1 Kings 8:46 (WEB)

Passage

If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

Nearby Context

1 Kings 8:44 “If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

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

1 Kings 8:46 If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

1 Kings 8:47 yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;’

1 Kings 8:48 if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "against", "doesn", "angry", "deliver", "enemy", "carry", "away", and "captive". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "against" and "doesn", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 45's "then hear in heaven their prayer and..." into verse 47's "yet if they repent in the land...", so "against" and "doesn" 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 "against" and "doesn" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.