Verse Lens · Expanded explanation

1 Kings 8:46 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 46. If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech: “If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Prayer for repentant captives in exile.”

Read It With

  • 1 Kings 8:46–53

Read 1 Kings 8:46 with 8:46–53. The selected wording supplies one opening in the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Acknowledges universal human sin and imagines the people carried captive by an enemy; grounds the appeal in Israel's separation as an inheritance through the word given by Moses.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Within “Prayer for repentant captives in exile,” 1 Kings 8:46 opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech through the wording “If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 1 Kings 8:44–45 establishes this prior movement: Imagines Israel praying toward the chosen city and temple when sent into battle; asks God to hear the soldiers' prayer and uphold their cause. 1 Kings 8:46–53 responds to the pressure, request, or claim already established; that demonstrated relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.

Read 1 Kings 8:46–53 together

Why these verses belong together: Prayer for repentant captives in exile is the complete reviewed scene, prayer, oracle, list, or regnal notice bounded at 8:46–8:53.

Verse 46. If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

Verse 47. Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

Verse 48. And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:

Verse 49. Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,

Verse 50. And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:

Verse 51. For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

Verse 52. That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.

Verse 53. For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.

Follow the Context

  1. Acknowledges universal human sin and imagines the people carried captive by an enemy
  2. Grounds the appeal in Israel's separation as an inheritance through the word given by Moses

What This Verse Is Not Saying

1 Kings 8:46 does not permit the wording “If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with…” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. The unit does not make national success a covenant entitlement, blame sufferers for disaster, erase the foreigner or captive, or turn prayer toward the temple into control of God.

What Remains True

Truthful witness may confront power without making every messenger, method, or claimed revelation morally infallible. This unit tests that truth through acknowledges universal human sin and imagines the people carried captive by an enemy; grounds the appeal in Israel's separation as an inheritance through the word given by Moses. In 1 Kings 8:46, the concrete line “If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.

How It Can Shape Life

  • The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with….” Protect dissent, test claims against text and evidence, disclose uncertainty and pressure, and never use prophetic status to bypass safety, consent, or accountable process. This response follows from the unit's own sequence: Acknowledges universal human sin and imagines the people carried captive by an enemy; grounds the appeal in Israel's separation as an inheritance through the word given by Moses.

Teach It Back

In 70–220 words, explain 1 Kings 8:46's role in 8:46–53. Paraphrase “If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with…,” identify one agent or affected person, state one material source or historical limit, and name one conclusion the context does not authorize.

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Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read 1 Kings 8:46–53 — Prayer for repentant captives in exile
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.

Exact location: 1 Kings 8:46–53, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Kings

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Hebrew wording and morphology used for lexical, grammatical, name, clause, and older-English checks; this is not a critical apparatus or historical proof.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 8:46–53

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: 1 Kings with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Only printed unit-level translation, lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and verse-numbering notes; silence is not evidence.

Exact location: NET Bible 1 Kings PDF, printed pp. 599–602, translation and translator notes for 8:46–53

Open source ↗
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