What Does 1 Kings 8:38 Mean in the King James?
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:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “plague” grows from a root meaning “touch” or “strike”: prayer begins by recognizing what has touched the heart.
THE MEANING
Your prayer begins as you recognize what troubles your own heart and stretch your hands toward God’s house. What has touched you inwardly becomes something you can carry into supplication.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that inner affliction makes you unfit to pray gives way: the passage places recognition of the heart’s plague within the movement of supplication.
THE ROOT
נֶגַע
negaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
n-g-ʿ
to touch, reach, or strike
“plague” in this verse is negaʿ. The Hebrew word נֶגַע (negaʿ) holds the image of a stroke or affliction, growing from נָגַע (nāgaʿ), “to touch” or “strike.” The verse pictures each person recognizing what has touched the heart and bringing that knowledge into prayer.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaʿ: to touch, reach, or strike
נָגַע
This verb exposes the touch or blow held inside the word translated “plague.”
negaʿ: a stroke, affliction, or plague
נֶגַע
This is the affliction each person recognizes within their own heart.
יָדַע
yādaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
to know or perceive through encounter
“Know” here is more than possessing information: it is the encounter through which a person’s own heart-affliction becomes recognizable. The same root gives דַּעַת (daʿat), “knowledge” or “recognition,” linking inner awareness with what is carried into prayer.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: to know or perceive
יָדַע
Each person meets and recognizes the affliction within their own heart.
daʿat: knowledge or recognition
דַּעַת
This branch shows knowing as an inwardly held recognition, not mere information.
תְּחִנָּה
teḥinnāh
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
to show favor or be gracious
The word for supplication is related to חָנַן (ḥānan), “to show favor,” so the appeal carries the language of seeking favor. The recognized affliction becomes a request directed toward the house.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: favor
חֵן
This branch gives the appeal of supplication its language of favor.
ḥānan: to show favor or be gracious
חָנַן
Supplication grows from the same word family as showing favor.
THE PATTERN
Prayer takes shape when a person recognizes what is within and brings it openly before God.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:The word “know” in both passages comes from ידע (yādaʿ), knowing by encounter. Here each person recognizes the affliction within; in Psalm 139, that same inward knowing opens the heart to God’s searching.
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