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Selected Verse: 1 Kings 8:37 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
1Ki 8:37 |
King James |
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
In the land of their cities - literally, "in the land of their gates." Hence, the marginal translation "jurisdiction," because judgments were pronounced in the town gates Deu 16:18. Another reading gives "in one of their cities." |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
If there be in the land famine - pestilence - The Fourth case includes several kinds of evils:
1. Famine; a scarcity or total want of bread, necessarily springing from the preceding cause, drought.
2. Pestilence; any general and contagious disease.
3. Blasting; any thing by which the crops are injured, so that the ear is never matured; but instead of wholesome grain, there is a black offensive dust.
4. Mildew; any thing that vitiates or corrodes the texture of the stalk, destroys the flowers and blossoms, or causes the young shaped fruits to fall off their stems.
5. Locust, a well known curse in the East, a species of grasshopper that multiplies by millions, and covers the face of the earth for many miles square, destroying every green thing; leaving neither herb nor grass upon the earth, nor leaf nor bark upon the trees.
6. Caterpillar; the locust in its young or nympha state. The former refers to locusts brought by winds from other countries and settling on the land; the latter, to the young locusts bred in the land.
7. An enemy, having attacked their defenced cities, the keys and barriers of the land.
8. Any other kind of plague; that which affects the surface of the body; blotch, blain, leprosy, ophthalmia, etc.
9. Sickness; whatever impaired the strength, or affected the intestines, disturbing or destroying their natural functions.
All such cases were to be brought before the Lord, the persons having a deep sense of the wickedness which induced God thus to afflict, or permit them to be afflicted: for only those who knew the plague of their own hearts, (Kg1 8:38), the deep-rooted moral corruption of their nature, and the destructive nature and sinfulness of sin, were likely to pray in such a manner as to induce God to hear and forgive. |
18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.
38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: