Reference: Knee, Kneel
Hastings
The knees are often referred to in Scripture as the place where weakness of the body, from whatever cause, readily manifests itself: e.g. from terror (Job 4:4; Da 5:8), or fasting (Ps 109:24). The reference in De 28:35 seems to be to 'joint leprosy,' in which, after the toes and fingers, the joints of the larger limbs are attacked (Driver, Deut. in loc.). The laying of children on the knees of father or grandfather seems to have involved recognition of them as legitimate members of the family (Ge 30:8; 50:23). In many passages of Scripture kneeling is spoken of as the attitude assumed in prayer (1Ki 8:54; Ps 95:8; Da 6:10; Ac 20:36 etc.). To 'bow the knee' is equivalent to 'worship' (1Ki 19:18; Isa 45:23; Ro 14:11 etc.). To fall upon the knees before a superior is an act at once of reverence and of entreaty (2Ki 1:13; Mt 17:14; Lu 5:8 etc.). In the court of an Eastern judge the writer has often seen men prostrate themselves, and then make their plea, resting upon their knees.
W. Ewing.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Rachel said, I have had a great fight with my sister, and I have overcome her: and she gave the child the name Naphtali.
And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: and the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, came to birth on Joseph's knees.
The Lord will send a skin disease, attacking your knees and your legs, bursting out from your feet to the top of your head, so that nothing will make you well.
Then Solomon, after making all these prayers and requests for grace to the Lord, got up from his knees before the altar of the Lord, where his hands had been stretched out in prayer to heaven;
But I will keep safe seven thousand in Israel, all those whose knees have not been bent to Baal, and whose mouths have given him no kisses.
Then he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men; and the third captain of fifty went up, and falling on his knees before Elijah, requesting mercy of him, said, O man of God, let my life and the life of these your fifty servants be of value to you.
He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your words, and you have given strength to bent knees.
Let not your hearts be hard, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the waste land;
My knees are feeble for need of food; there is no fat on my bones.
By myself have I taken an oath, a true word has gone from my mouth, and will not be changed, that to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give honour.
Then all the king's wise men came in: but they were not able to make out the writing or give the sense of it to the king.
And Daniel, on hearing that the writing had been signed, went into his house; (now he had windows in his room on the roof opening in the direction of Jerusalem;) and three times a day he went down on his knees in prayer and praise before his God, as he had done before.
And when they came to the people, a man went down on his knees to him, saying,
But Simon, when he saw it, went down at the knees of Jesus and said, Go away from me, O Lord, for I am a sinner.
And having said these words, he went down on his knees in prayer with them all.
For it is said in the holy Writings, By my life, says the Lord, to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give worship to God.