For hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, see the comments on verses 30 and 32.

The verb forgive may require an object in certain languages. It is the people of Israel who need forgiveness and for this reason Good News Translation says “forgive them.” But since Solomon, who is praying, is a member of this group, it may be more natural to say “forgive us.” But this will have implications for third person references in other parts of this prayer.

Act: See the comments on this verb in verse 32. Good News Translation translates this verb here as “help them.”

Render to each whose heart thou knowest, according to all his ways: The sense is that God knows the motives behind the behavior or deeds of each person, so Solomon prays that God will consider the motives and reward each person according to what each person has done. Moffatt says “dealing with every man as he has lived, O thou who knowest his heart.”

For thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men: Revised Standard Version uses parentheses here (similarly New Revised Standard Version and New Jerusalem Bible with dashes) because these words interrupt the flow of the argument in which Solomon asks God to forgive the people (verse 39a) so that they may revere God (verse 40). In other languages translators may decide to render these parenthetical words as a separate sentence. The pronoun thou is emphatic in Hebrew and this should be reflected in translation where possible. The children of men is a Hebrew idiom meaning “people” or “human beings.” The reference is not to children and a literal translation of the expression is ill-advised. International Children’s Bible translates the whole parenthetical comment as “Only you know what people are really thinking.”

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 .