What Does 1 Kings 8:29 Mean?
That your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you have said, My name shall be there, so that you may hear and respond to the prayer which your servant makes toward this place.
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
That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.THE KEY
“My name” (shemi, שְׁמִי) echoes “there” (sham, שָׁם) through the consonants shin–mem, binding God’s nature to the place from which prayer asks to be heard.
THE MEANING
God’s attention is pictured as open toward this named place through every hour, and prayer as something directed into that attention. The house carries God’s name, God’s nature is present there, while the prayer reaches toward the one asked to hear. The verse speaks now of prayer meeting presence rather than vanishing into distance.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmoa. Here, hearing is receptive attention: the prayer is met, not merely sound carried through the air. The line places shemi (שְׁמִי, shemi, “my name”) beside sham (שָׁם, sham, “there”); both share shin–mem, and lishmoa begins with those consonants, acoustically joining the named nature, its place, and the requested hearing.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond
שְׁמַע
It shows that hearing can carry the sense of attentive response, the quality sought for this prayer.
shemuah: Report; something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
A prayer is something heard and received, not lost once it leaves the speaker.
hishmia: Announce; make heard
הִשְׁמִיעַ
The same root spans listening and making something audible, joining the prayer’s voice to God’s attention.
מָקוֹם
maqom
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand
Maqom, “place,” grows from qum, “stand” or “rise”: it suggests a place where something is established. The house is a focused place bearing the name, toward which prayer is directed.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise; stand
קוּם
It reveals the root image beneath a place: somewhere to stand.
heqim: Set up; establish
הֵקִים
It links the place to what is made to stand or held in place.
פְּתוּחוֹת
petuchot
GROWS FROM
פתח
p-t-ḥ
Open
The open eyes share their root with petach, “doorway” or “opening”: attention is pictured as openness toward the house, night and day. The verse joins that open gaze to the request to hear prayer.
ALSO GROWS
patach: Open
פָּתַח
It is the verbal action behind the eyes being open toward the house.
petaḥ: Opening; doorway
פֶּתַח
It makes the root’s image of openness concrete.
THE PATTERN
Prayer is pictured as meeting attentive presence whose gaze and hearing turn toward the one who calls.
And hear and respond to the plea of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; and hear and respond in heaven, your settling place; and when you hear, release.The eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their cry.But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the hidden. And your Father, who sees in the hidden, will give it back to you in the open.THE THREAD
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true ones who bow down bow before the Father in breath and in truth, for the Father seeks such as these to bow before him.John opens the place-language outward: the Father seeks people to bow down in breath and truth, so divine presence is not bounded by one named house. The house remains a focus for prayer, while the meeting itself reaches beyond its walls.
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