1 Kings 8:37

1Ki 8:37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, [or] if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness [there be];

Ver. 37. If blasting mildew, &c.] These, the very heathens acknowledged to be God’s judgments upon a land, and therefore had their feasts called Rubigalia and Floralia, to prevent them. {a}

Whatsoever sickness there be.] Physicians reckon up two thousand, and more.

{a} Plin., lib. xviii,

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki 8:37. If there be in the land famine — Which arose sometimes from other causes besides want of rain. If their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities — In their gates, whereby they should be so straitened, that none could go in or out. Whatsoever plague — The word נגע, negang, here rendered plague, properly signifies some extraordinary stroke by the hand of God. Whatsoever sickness there be — For Solomon believed whatever calamity befel other people, might light on Israel.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:37-40 Solomon prayed concerning various disasters caused by individual or corporate sin (Lev 26:16, 19-26; Deut 28:21-22, 38-40, 42, 58-61). Solomon again asked that if God’s people confessed and truly repented, God would deal justly so that all might live in reverence before him (Deut 8:6; 2 Chr 7:14; Prov 1:7; 9:10; 15:33).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, in the land of their gates.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 37. If there be in the land famine - pestilence] The FOURTH case includes several kinds of evils:

1. Famine; a scarcity or total want of bread, necessarily springing from the preceding cause, drought.

2. Pestilence; any general and contagious disease.

3. Blasting; any thing by which the crops are injured, so that the ear is never matured; but instead of wholesome grain, there is a black offensive dust.

4. Mildew; any thing that vitiates or corrodes the texture of the stalk, destroys the flowers and blossoms, or causes the young shaped fruits to fall off their stems.

5. Locust, a well known curse in the East, a species of grasshopper that multiplies by millions, and covers the face of the earth for many miles square, destroying every green thing; leaving neither herb nor grass upon the earth, nor leaf nor bark upon the trees.

6. Caterpillar; the locust in its young or nympha state. The former refers to locusts brought by winds from other countries and settling on the land; the latter, to the young locusts bred in the land.

7. An enemy, having attacked their defenced cities, the keys and barriers of the land.

8. Any other kind of plague; that which affects the surface of the body; blotch, blain, leprosy, ophthalmia, c.

9. Sickness whatever impaired the strength, or affected the intestines, disturbing or destroying their natural functions.

All such cases were to be brought before the Lord, the persons having a deep sense of the wickedness which induced God thus to afflict, or permit them to be afflicted: for only those who knew the plague of their own hearts, (1Kg 8:38), the deep-rooted moral corruption of their nature, and the destructive nature and sinfulness of sin, were likely to pray in such a manner as to induce God to hear and forgive.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(37-40) If there be pestilence.—He then passes on to the various plagues threatened in the Law—famine, pestilence, blasting of the corn, mildew on the fruit, locust and caterpillar (see Lev_26:25-26; Deu_28:22-24; Deu_28:38-42), the distress of siege, so terribly depicted (Deu_28:52-57), and so often terribly fulfilled (not least in the last great siege of Jerusalem), and adds, to sum up all, “whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be.” Through any, or all of these, he pictures each man as brought to “know the plague of his own heart”—that is, as startled into a consciousness of sin, and recognition of it as the true “plague,” the cause of all outward plagues, and so drawn to prayer of penitence and of godly fear.

Thou only, knowest the hearts . . . of men. The emphasis laid on this knowledge of the heart (as in Psa_11:4; Psa_139:2-4; Jer_17:9-10) as the special attribute of Deity, though, of course, belonging to all vital religion, yet marks especially the leading thought of the Psalms and the Proverbs, which always realise the presence of God, not so much in the outer spheres of Nature and history, as in the soul of man itself. It carries with it, as here, the conviction that, under the general dealings of God’s righteousness with man, there lies an individuality of judgment, making them to each exactly what his spiritual condition needs. The plague, for example, which cuts off one man unrepentant in his sins, may be to another a merciful “deliverance out of the miseries of this sinful world.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. If there be in the land famine] In this verse the king gathers together various judgements which God had threatened on His people if they sinned. For famine cf. Lev_26:20; Deu_11:17 : for blasting and mildew, Deu_28:22; for locust, Deu_28:38. The particular insect rendered ‘caterpillar’ in this verse is not mentioned in the Pentateuch, but we know from Joe_2:25, that some other kind, or stage of development, of locust is meant by it. In Deu_28:42 we have mention of an insect, also rendered ‘locust,’ which has a different name in the original from that spoken of in 1Ki_8:38 of the same chapter. The siege by an enemy is threatened in Deu_28:52.

in the land of their cities] The Hebrew word translated ‘cities’ usually signifies ‘gates,’ and it is so rendered Deu_28:52 ‘He shall besiege thee in all thy gates.’ But in ‘gates’ the ‘cities,’ which alone possessed them, are implied. The LXX. and other versions have ‘in one of their cities.’ The Vulg. has ‘gates.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through want of rain, or any other cause, as there had been a three years' famine in the time of David, and it is supposed it might be again, though Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey:

if there be pestilence; as there had been, for David's numbering the people:

blasting; or blights, occasioned by the east wind:

mildew; a kind of clammy dew, which falling on plants, corn, &c. corrupts and destroys them, see Amo 4:9,

locust, or

if there be caterpillar; creatures very pernicious to the fruits of the earth, and cause a scarcity of them, see Joe 1:4,

if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; so that they cannot go out to gather the increase of the earth, or till their land:

whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; whatever stroke from the hand of God, or what judgment or calamity soever befalls.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

In the land of their cities - literally, “in the land of their gates.” Hence, the marginal translation “jurisdiction,” because judgments were pronounced in the town gates Deu 16:18. Another reading gives “in one of their cities.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Mildew. Hebrew also, "a bruchus," or a young locust. Protestants, "caterpillar."

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Caterpillar, i.e. the plague of locusts, or caterpillars, infesting a land by their great numbers, and venomous or noxious qualities; of which see Exo 10:4,5; Deu 28:42; Psa 105:34,35.

Whatsoever plague; that chiefly signifies an extraordinary judgment sent from God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

37. Blasting — Destruction of grain by a pernicious east wind. Com.

Gen_41:6. Deu_28:22; Amo_4:9.

Mildew — ירקון, yellowness. A disease of grain, produced in the East by a hot, poisonous wind which turns the ears yellow.

Locust — A destructive insect, swarms of which frequently devastate Palestine and neighbouring lands. See on Exo_10:4. Says an Eastern traveller: “With the burning south winds there come from the interior of Arabia and from the most southern parts of Persia clouds of locusts, whose ravages to these countries are as grievous, and nearly as sudden, as those of the heaviest hail in Europe. We witnessed them twice. It is difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain; the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun was considerably weakened. In a moment the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects, and in two days they had nearly devoured all the leaves of the plants.” — Olivier.

Caterpillar — The word חסיל, chasil, from חסל, to strip off, or devour, can hardly designate the caterpillar, though, besides here and the parallel passage in 2Ch_6:28, it is so rendered in Psa_78:46; Isa_34:4; Joe_1:4; Joe_2:25. In Deu_28:38 the ravages of the locusts are represented by the verb חסל, and it is therefore better to understand by the word chasil a kind of locust, specially noted for stripping off and devouring the very last vestige of vegetation, even after other destructive insects had gone before it. Compare Joe_1:4.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If there be in the land famine Heb. Famine should there be, etc. The word is emphatic by position. Famine is denounced, Lev_26:20, 26 Deu_28:33, if there be pestilence Leviticus Jer_14:12 Jer_24:10 Amo_4:10 Eze_6:12, etc., blasting same word (Gen_41:6 Amo_4:9 Deu_28:22) , mildew lit. paleness, clwrothv, locust, or if there be caterpillar It is uncertain whether lysij; lit., devourer, here rendered "caterpillar," is not an adjective and an appellation of the locust = devouring locust. Deu_28:38 (hBraj Wnlsa "the locust shall consume it") certainly favours this view. But the Chronicles and the Verss. distinguish it here (by the introduction of "and" between the two words) as a separate plague. It is also similarly distinguished, Joe_1:4 Psa_78:46. Gesen. considers it to be a species of locust); if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities Heb. his gates, but "the land of his gates" hardly yields sense. It is noteworthy that the LXX (with most of the Verss.) reads ejn mia twn polewn aujtou. Thenius, consequently, to bring the Hebrew text into harmony, would substitute wyry tjab for wyr rab. Another suggested emendation is wyr rab, "in the land, even in their gates." But it is doubtful whether any alteration is really required. "The land of their gates" (cf. "land of their captivity," 2Ch_6:37 Jer_30:10, etc.) may perhaps be interpreted the land where their gates (i.e., fortified cities) are. The marg. "Jurisdiction the gate being the place of judgment (Pro_22:22 2Sa_15:2) is altogether out of the question); whatsoever plague, whatsoever Heb. every plague, etc. wickness there be.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

blight or mildew

These are agricultural terms that refer to the death of crops from either too little or too much rain, respectively.

locusts or caterpillars

A "locust" is a type of grasshopper that causes destruction by eating crops. The word "caterpillar" refers to an early growth stage of the locust.

prayers and requests are made by a person or by all your people Israel

This can be stated in active form. AT: "a person, or all your people Israel, prays and makes a request" (See: Active or Passive)

prayers and requests

The words "prayer" and "request" mean basically the same thing and emphasize that the person is sincere as he makes his request. See how you translated similar words in 1 Kings 8:28. AT: "requests" (See: Doublet)

knowing the plague in his own heart

Possible meanings are 1) The person's sin is spoken of as if it were a plague. AT: "knowing the sin in his own heart" or 2) The "plague" is a metonym for the sins that the disasters are a punishment for. AT: "knowing in his heart that the plague is the result of his own sin" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)

translationWords

famine

adversary

gate

plague

pray

heart

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rot. When the wheat does not grow up on the stalk to make an ear.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.