What Does 1 Kings 8:35 Mean?
When heaven is held shut, and there is no rain, because they have missed the mark against you; if they pray toward this place, and extend their hands to your name, and turn from their falling short, when you bend them low.
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
When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:THE KEY
The confession names God’s nature, and the turn from the missing is shaped by the One they address.
THE MEANING
When life feels closed, the verse names the condition and the rupture together: there is no rain, and the missing is not hidden. The prayer faces the place, acknowledges God’s nature, and turns away from the miss. Affliction remains part of the sentence; the verse holds distress and a return toward God together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that relief is only a matter of waiting for conditions to change: the verse also names a rupture and a turn away from it.
THE ROOT
וְהוֹדוּ
vehodu
GROWS FROM
ידה
acknowledge, praise, give thanks
“extend their hands” in this verse is vehodu. The verb translated “confess” comes from ידה (yadah: acknowledge, praise, give thanks), so the act reaches beyond admitting a fault. Paired with שֵׁם (shem: name as nature), it makes their prayer an acknowledgment of God’s character, not only a request for rain.
ALSO GROWS
todah: thanksgiving, praise, acknowledgment
תּוֹדָה
This noun from the same root shows confession and thanksgiving sharing the language of recognition.
Yehudah: Judah; a name linked to praise and thanksgiving
יְהוּדָה
Leah connects this name with praise in Genesis 29:35, showing how the root can carry acknowledgment into a name.
יָשׁוּבוּן
yashuvun
GROWS FROM
שוב
turn, return
The root שׁוּב (shuv: turn, return) casts the response as a return from the miss. Beside the confession of God’s nature, the verse presents repair as reorientation toward the One addressed.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun names the return as a movement, echoing the verse’s turn away from the miss.
meshubah: turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch names a departure from the direction of return, clarifying what the verse’s turn leaves behind.
חָטְאוּ
chat'u
GROWS FROM
חטא
miss, fail to reach the mark
“missed the mark” in this verse is chat'u. The root חטא (chata: miss) makes the rupture concrete as a failure to reach the mark. Beside שׁוּב (shuv: turn, return), the verse describes a miss that can be turned away from.
ALSO GROWS
chet: missing, offense
חֵטְא
This noun preserves the root’s sense of a miss rather than flattening it into a general label.
chatta't: missing, offense; also an offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
The offering sense keeps the root’s image of a miss present in the language of response.
THE PATTERN
When a condition exposes a miss, the path of repair passes through turning back toward God.
If my people, upon whom my name is called, bend themselves low, and pray, and seek my face, and turn back from their harmful ways, then I will hear from the heavens, and I will release their falling short, and heal their land.Come, and let us turn back to the LORD, for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck, and he will bind us up.Turn around, then, and turn back, so that your shortcomings may be wiped away, and the times of breathing again may come from the face of the LORD.THE THREAD
Turn back, Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled in your crookedness.The word “return” is שׁוּב (shuv: turn, return), the same Hebrew root behind “turn” in this verse. Hosea names the fall plainly and answers it with a return toward God.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us