Whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all thy people Israel: For whatever see the comments on the previous verse. Regarding the nouns prayer and supplication, see the comments on verse 28.

Any man is not intended to exclude women and may thus be translated “any individual” (New Jerusalem Bible, New Revised Standard Version), “any person,” or “anyone.”

The Septuagint does not have the words or by all thy people Israel, and this shorter text is followed by New Jerusalem Bible, De Vries, and Gray. New American Bible includes the words “of your entire people Israel” within square brackets to indicate doubt that they belong to the earliest form of the Hebrew text. However, the majority of modern translations follow the Masoretic Text here, and that is also the recommendation of this Handbook. But having said that, just what does the Masoretic Text mean? The text may be understood as referring to two subjects as in Revised Standard Version (also New Revised Standard Version): any man and all thy people Israel. Or it may refer to “any person among all Your people Israel” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly Good News Translation). The difference is not really significant as long as by all thy people Israel is understood in terms of individual prayer and not collective or group prayer.

Each knowing the affliction of his own heart: Affliction renders the same Hebrew noun translated “plague” in verse 37. The precise meaning of this clause is not clear. The sense appears to be that each person will recognize that his own suffering is the result of God’s punishment of his sin.

Other interpreters, however, have suggested that the meaning of the Hebrew noun for affliction in this context is related to the use of the verb from the same root in 1 Sam 10.26, where it is said that God “touched” the hearts of the men of valor. In this case heart means “conscience,” and the whole clause means something like “because God will through his touching awaken the consciousness of sin.” Compare New American Bible: “if then any one [of your entire people Israel] has remorse of conscience.”

Stretching out his hands toward this house: Hands is literally “palms” as in verse 22. The stretching out of the palms toward the Temple was a gesture showing that the person doing this understood that the source of his help was God who was thought to live in the Temple.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .