When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,
Solomon having made a general surrender of this house to God, which God had signified his acceptance of by taking possession, next follows Solomon's prayer, in which he makes a more particular declaration of the uses of that surrender, with all humility and reverence, desiring that God would agree thereto.
Commenting on 1 Kings 8:22-53
If thy people go out to battle against their enemy,.... In a foreign country, threatening to invade them, or having trespassed on their borders, or some way or other infringed on their liberties and privileges, and so given them just occasion to go to war with them: whithersoever thou shalt send them; this case supposes their asking counsel of God, or having a direction and...
HIS PRAYER. (1Ki. 8:22-61) Solomon stood before the altar--This position was in the court of the people, on a brazen scaffold erected for the occasion (Ch2 6:13), fronting the altar of burnt offering, and surrounded by a mighty concourse of people.
Commenting on 1 Kings 8:22-61