Give to every man according to his ways According to his repentance or impenitency. As if he had said, I pray with the greater hope and confidence, because I do not desire that thou wouldst deliver such as are insensible of their sins and of thy judgments, but only those that are truly brought to know the plague of their own hearts in the manner before explained. Whose heart thou knowest Thou art acquainted not only with the plague of their hearts, their several wants and burdens, (these he knows, but he will know them from us,) but with the desire and intent of the heart, the sincerity or hypocrisy of it; thou knowest who are truly penitent, and who are not, and therefore the granting my request will be no dishonour to thy government, nor injury to thy holy nature. That they may fear thee all their days That when thou hast first smitten them, and then so eminently delivered them, and that in answer to their prayers, they may hereby be taught to fear thee, to stand in awe of thy justice, and to adore thy goodness.
Related Commentaries of 1 Kings 8:39
1 Kings 8:39-40
39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.