Do not be like them is rendered “Do not imitate them” by a number of translations (New English Bible, New American Bible, Bible en français courant). The intent of this command is not to discourage prayer, but to remind the worshiper that God cannot be coerced into action merely because one piles up words with this purpose in mind.

Thus Do not be like them is more often translated “Don’t pray like they do,” “Don’t be like them when you pray,” “Don’t use the kinds of prayers they do,” or “Don’t talk to God in that way.”

The last half of this verse (for your Father knows what you need before you ask him) is rendered similarly in most all translations.

For comments on Father, see 5.16; “God your Father” is possible.

What you need may be “the things that it is necessary to have,” “the things you should have but don’t have them now,” or “the things you need him to give you.”

The first occurrence in this Gospel of the verb translated ask is 5.42; though the verb may be used of prayer, its use is not confined to prayer. Ask him is elliptical, that is, it is a shortened form of “ask him for it” or “ask him to give it to you.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .