What Does 1 Kings 8:28 Mean?
Yet turn your face toward the prayer of your servant, and toward his plea, O LORD my God, to hear and respond to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:THE KEY
The verse pictures divine regard as turning toward the plea, where both prayer and cry are heard.
THE MEANING
Your prayer stands before God as both language and cry; the verse gives each a place in what is brought forward. It asks for divine regard that turns toward the plea and for hearing open to response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The cry is too raw to count as prayer; here the cry is named alongside the prayer within the same appeal.
THE ROOT
וּפָנִיתָ
ufanita
GROWS FROM
פנה
panah
turn, face toward
“turn your face” in this verse is ufanita. The word rendered respect carries the image of turning toward. The verse echoes that image with “before thee,” placing the plea before God’s face as it asks for attention.
ALSO GROWS
panim: face; presence
פָּנִים
This related word gives the verse’s turning a personal direction: regard means facing toward the one who pleads.
lefanekha: before you; in your presence
לְפָנֶיךָ
This phrase appears later in the verse, echoing the request to turn toward the prayer with the image of standing before God.
תְּחִנָּתוֹ
teḥinnato
GROWS FROM
חנן
chanan
show favor, be gracious
The word rendered supplication belongs to the favor and graciousness family. That gives the plea a particular texture: it is both a request and an appeal for favor.
ALSO GROWS
chen: favor
חֵן
This branch shows the favor-language carried within the word for supplication.
chanun: gracious; one who shows favor
חַנּוּן
This related form connects the plea to the quality of gracious regard it seeks.
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
hear, listen
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmoa. The request is for more than sound to reach the ear: it asks for attentive hearing open to response. Both the cry and the prayer are gathered into that listening.
ALSO GROWS
shema: hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This familiar form shows how hearing can carry an answering response, matching the request made here.
shemuah: a report; something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the root’s connection between hearing and what is received.
THE PATTERN
Godward appeal brings both formed prayer and raw cry before the one asked to hear and respond.
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Likewise the breath also takes hold alongside our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought; but the breath itself approaches on our behalf with groans too deep for speech.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my alignment. In the narrow place you widen me. Bend toward me, and hear and respond to my prayer.The word rendered “supplication” here and “have mercy” there belongs to חנן (chanan, show favor or be gracious). Both verses place a plea for favor alongside a request to hear.
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