Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 6:32
And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Solomon addresses God during the temple dedication, describing a specific prayer scenario that extends beyond the covenant community.
The words — הַנּוֹכְרִי (ha.nokhri) translates literally to "the foreigner," and מֵעַמְּךָ (me.'am.mekha) means "not of your people," both marking a non-Israelite identity.
The thread — This motif runs through 1 Kings 8:41, where Solomon repeats the same prayer, and Isaiah 56:3, which addresses the assumption that God excludes non-Israelites.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge that God’s reputation draws outsiders to pray toward His chosen place, and it demands that believers expect God to hear those who seek Him from afar.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house;
Cross-references
- Isaiah 56:3 Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”
- 1 Kings 8:41 And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name—
- Matthew 8:10 When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
- Zechariah 14:16 Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
- John 12:20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.
- Acts 10:1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was called the Italian Regiment.
- Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- Exodus 3:19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless a mighty hand compels him.
- Exodus 12:48 If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.
- Joshua 9:9 “Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt,