Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 8:50

"and forgive thy people who have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them" — 1 Kings 8:50 (ASV)

Forgive ... and give them compassion This prayer was singularly fulfilled at the captivity of Judah in Babylon, though we hear of no such thing in relation to the captivity of the “lost tribes” of Israel in Assyria. We see this in the exceptional favor of Nebuchadnezzar and of the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther to the Jews in Babylon; we see it still more in the greater boon of restoration granted them by Cyrus and Darius, and the Artaxerxes of the Book of Nehemiah. Like the whole course of the fortunes of the Jews in their subsequent dispersion, these things—however they may be accounted for—are certainly unique in history.