1 Kings 9:6

But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 9:6-7. If you shall at all turn from following me — Hebrew, If in turning you turn from me; that is, if you assuredly, and indeed, or, as some understand it, altogether turn from me; if you forsake my service, desert my altar, and go and serve other gods; (for that was the covenant-breaking sin;) if you or your children break off from me, and knowingly and wilfully violate my laws, this house will not save you. Then will I cut off Israel — By one judgment after another, till they become the most despicable people under the sun, though they be now the most honourable. This implies the destruction of the royal family, though it is not particularly threatened; for the king is of course undone if his kingdom be destroyed. And this house — will I cast out of my sight — I will not regard it, but will take away my presence and protection from it: it shall be abandoned and laid desolate. And Israel shall be a proverb — Their calamities and miseries shall be mentioned proverbially, to express extreme affliction and distress. And a byword among all people — Who would mock at their calamitous and deplorable state.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:1-9 God warned Solomon, now he had newly built and dedicated the temple, that he and his people might not be high-minded, but fear. After all the services we can perform, we stand upon the same terms with the Lord as before. Nothing can purchase for us liberty to sin, nor would the true believer desire such a licence. He would rather be chastened of the Lord, than be allowed to go on with ease and prosperity in sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

At all turn - Rather, "If ye shall wholly turn from following Me." (See 2 Chronicles 7:19.) The Israelites were not to be cut off, except for an entire defection.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. That—rather, "For."

the Lord appeared—This appearance was, like the former one at Gibeon, most probably made in a supernatural vision, and on the night immediately following the dedication of the temple (2Ch 7:12). The strain of it corresponds to this view, for it consists of direct answers to his solemn inaugural prayer (1Ki 9:3 is in answer to 1Ki 8:29; 1Ki 9:4, 5 is in answer to 1Ki 8:25, 26; 1Ki 9:6-9 to 1Ki 8:33-46; see also De 29:22-24).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

If ye shall at all turn from following me; or rather,

if ye shall wholly turn, & c.; if you shall wilfully and obstinately depart from God, and violate his laws, as the doubling of the word implies. Whereby he also intimates that he would not be so rigid and severe towards them, as to mark every thing that was amiss; but would bear with much, as he did in David &c., only that he would not endure a total defection from him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But if you shall at all turn from following me, you or your children,.... From my worship, as the Targum; either Solomon or his successors, or the people of Israel and their posterity; should they turn their backs on God and his worship, meaning not in a single instance, or in some small degree; but as in the original, "if in turning ye turn" (e), that is, utterly, and entirely, or wholly turn from him and his worship to other gods, as follows:

and will not keep my commandments and my statutes, which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: neglecting the will and worship of God, go into idolatrous practices, as Solomon himself did.

(e) "si avertendo aversi fueritis", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will {b} not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

(b) God declares that disobedience against him, is the cause of his displeasure, and so of all misery.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. But if you shall at all turn from following me] The insertion of ‘at all’ here is an attempt to give some force to the Hebrew construction. It is a peculiarity of that language to use the infinitive of a verb followed by a finite tense to give emphasis to an expression. But undoubtedly ‘at all’ weakens the sense here. God’s warning is against utter apostasy, going and serving other gods. Hence there is more force in R.V. If ye shall turn away from following me.

and my statutes] There is no conjunction between the two nouns here, but there is in the parallel place in 2 Chronicles and in the versions it is represented. So small a letter as ו could easily drop out.

which I have set before you] The LXX. has ‘which Moses gave before you.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - But if ye shall at all [rather altogether, or assuredly] turn from following me [The A.V. entirely misrepresents the force of the Hebraism, If to turn, ye shall turn, which must mean complete, not partial, apostasy. Cf. 2 Chronicles 7:19, and 2 Samuel 7:14, 15], ye or your children [as the promises of God are to us and our children (Acts 2:39), so are His threatenings], and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I [LXX. Μωυσῆς; Qui facit per allure, etc.] have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them [Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 13:2]: 1 Kings 9:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

1 Kings 9:4, 1 Kings 9:5 contain the special answer to 1 Kings 8:25, 1 Kings 8:26. - 1 Kings 9:6-9 refer to the prayer for the turning away of the curse, to which the Lord replies: If ye and your children turn away from me, and do not keep my commandments, but worship other gods, this house will not protect you from the curses threatened in the law, but they will be fulfilled in all their terrible force upon you and upon this temple. This threat follows the Pentateuch exactly in the words in which it is expressed; 1 Kings 9:7 being founded upon Deuteronomy 28:37, Deuteronomy 28:45, Deuteronomy 28:63, and the curse pronounced upon Israel in Deuteronomy 29:23-26 being transferred to the temple in 1 Kings 9:8, 1 Kings 9:9. - פּני מעל שׁלּח, to dismiss, i.e., to reject from before my face. "This house will be עליון," i.e., will stand high, or through its rejection will be a lofty example for all that pass by. The temple stood upon a high mountain, so that its ruins could not fail to attract the attention of all who went past. The expression עליון is selected with an implied allusion to Deuteronomy 26:19 and Deuteronomy 28:1. God there promises to make Israel עליון, high, exalted above all nations. This blessing will be turned into a curse. The temple, which was high and widely renowned, shall continue to be high, but in the opposite sense, as an example of the rejection of Israel from the presence of God.

(Note: The conjecture of Bttcher, Thenius, and Bertheau, that עליון should be altered into עיּים, has no support in Micah 3:12; Jeremiah 26:18, and Psalm 79:1, and has all the ancient versions against it; for they all contain the Masoretic text, either in a verbal translation (lxx), or in a paraphrase, as for example the Chaldee, "the house that was high shall be destroyed;" the Syriac and Arabic, "this house will be destroyed;" and the Vulgate, domus haec erit in exemplum. - In 2 Chronicles 7:21 the thought is somewhat varied by the alteration of יהיה into היה אשׁר. For it would never enter the mind of any sober critic to attribute this variation to a misinterpretation of our text. Still less can it be an unsuccessful attempt to explain or rectify our text, as Bttcher imagines, since the assertion of this critic, that עליון is only used to signify an exalted position, and never the exaltation of dignity or worth, is proved to be erroneous by Deuteronomy 26:19 and Deuteronomy 28:1.)