What Does 1 Kings 8:42 Mean in the King James?
(For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray 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 stranger hears God’s שֵׁם (shem, name as nature) through the strength and reach of God’s actions, and that hearing becomes a turn toward prayer.
THE MEANING
God’s nature becomes known through a strong hand and an arm extended outward, and the stranger responds by praying toward the house. The house gives that approach a direction: distance does not prevent a person from turning toward God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that prayer belongs only to insiders: the verse places a stranger within hearing distance and facing the house in prayer.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמְעוּן
yishme'un
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, and heed; here the hearing opens into response.
“hear” in this verse is yishme'un. The stranger hears and then comes to pray, so hearing is not passive reception. The root’s sense of listening and heeding lets the verse show how a report of God’s nature becomes an act of approach.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
The stranger’s hearing moves into prayer, giving the response in this branch a visible form.
shemuah: A report, news, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
What the stranger hears carries knowledge of God’s name across distance before the stranger prays.
נְטוּיָה
netuyah
GROWS FROM
נטה
Stretch or extend; also incline or turn in a direction.
“stretched out” in this verse is netuyah. This root holds extension and inclination together: what reaches outward can also be directed. God’s arm is extended while the stranger’s prayer turns toward the house, placing divine reach and human approach alongside each other.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch, spread, or extend.
נָטָה
This is the motion pictured by the outstretched arm.
netiyyah: An inclination or a turning toward a direction.
נְטִיָּה
The root’s sense of direction echoes the stranger’s prayer toward the house.
חֲזָקָה
chazaqah
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, grow firm, prevail, or strengthen; the root can also carry the sense of taking hold.
“strong” in this verse is chazaqah. The hand’s strength is power that can act and strengthen, not a quality held at a distance. Beside the extended arm, it becomes strength that reaches outward and makes God’s nature known to the stranger.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: To be strong, grow firm, or take hold.
חָזַק
The ‘strong hand’ draws on a root of active strength and grasp.
chizzeq: To make strong or strengthen.
חִזֵּק
This branch shows strength as something that can uphold another, adding an active dimension to the hand in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Knowledge of God’s nature opens prayer and acceptance to people beyond the presumed insiders.
Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.THE THREAD
Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.The root שָׁמַע (shama, hear and listen) appears in both verses: the stranger hears of God, then Solomon asks God to hear the stranger. The movement from hearing to being heard opens into the wider knowing of God’s שֵׁם (shem, name as nature) across the earth.
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