pray / prayer

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The Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “pray” (or “prayer”) in English is often translated as “talking with God” (Central Pame, Tzeltal, Chol, Chimborazo Highland Quichua, Shipibo-Conibo, Kaqchikel, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Copainalá Zoque, Central Tarahumara).

Other solutions include:

  • “to beg” or “to ask,” (full expression: “to ask with one’s heart coming out,” which leaves out selfish praying, for asking with the heart out leaves no place for self to hide) (Tzotzil)
  • “to cause God to know” (Huichol)
  • “to raise up one’s words to God” (implying an element of worship, as well as communication) (Miskito, Lacandon) (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Shilluk: “speak to God” (source: Nida 1964, p. 237)
  • Mairasi: “talk together with Great Above One (=God)” (source: Enggavoter, 2004)
  • San Blas Kuna: “call to one’s Father” (source: Claudio and Marvel Iglesias in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 85ff. )
  • Ik: waan: “beg.” Terrill Schrock (in Wycliffe Bible Translators 2016, p. 93) explains (click or tap here to read more):

    What do begging and praying have to do with each other? Do you beg when you pray? Do I?

    “The Ik word for ‘visitor’ is waanam, which means ‘begging person.’ Do you beg when you go visiting? The Ik do. Maybe you don’t beg, but maybe when you visit someone, you are looking for something. Maybe it’s just a listening ear.

    When the Ik hear that [my wife] Amber and I are planning trip to this or that place for a certain amount of time, the letters and lists start coming. As the days dwindle before our departure, the little stack of guests grows. ‘Please, sir, remember me for the allowing: shoes, jacket (rainproof), watch, box, trousers, pens, and money for the children. Thank you, sir, for your assistance.’

    “A few people come by just to greet us or spend bit of time with us. Another precious few will occasionally confide in us about their problems without asking for anything more than a listening ear. I love that.

    “The other day I was in our spare bedroom praying my list of requests to God — a nice list covering most areas of my life, certainly all the points of anxiety. Then it hit me: Does God want my list, or does he want my relationship?

    “I decided to try something. Instead of reading off my list of requests to God, I just talk to him about my issues without any expectation of how he should respond. I make it more about our relationship than my list, because if our personhood is like God’s personhood, then maybe God prefers our confidence and time to our lists, letters, and enumerations.”

In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning (click or tap here to read more):

  • For Acts 1:14, 20:36, 21:5: kola ttieru-yawur nehla — “hold the waist and hug the neck.” (“This is the more general term for prayer and often refers to worship in prayer as opposed to petition. The Luang people spend the majority of their prayers worshiping rather than petitioning, which explains why this term often is used generically for prayer.”)
  • For Acts 28:9: sumbiani — “pray.” (“This term is also used generically for ‘prayer’. When praying is referred to several times in close proximity, it serves as a variation for kola ttieru-yawur nehla, in keeping with Luang discourse style. It is also used when a prayer is made up of many requests.”)
  • For Acts 8:15, 12:5: polu-waka — “call-ask.” (“This is a term for petition that is used especially when the need is very intense.”)

Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.

Translation commentary on Job 16:16 - 16:17

Verse 16 gives two descriptions of Job’s face, in the form of consequences he has suffered, and verse 17 states two concessive clauses, meaning that the results in verse 16 are true in spite of the condition in verse 17.

My face is red with weeping: the verb translated is red is found only here and seems to mean “is inflamed.” It is obvious that the use of red to describe a person’s face is not appropriate everywhere. It may be better to speak of the face as “swollen,” “tear stained,” or some similar description. In some languages people say, for example, “My cheeks are hot from crying” or “My face is washed by my tears.” With weeping is the cause of Job’s inflamed face.

And on my eyelids is deep darkness: eyelids stands here as a part for the whole and refers to Job’s entire eyes. Deep darkness may perhaps be understood as “the shadow of death,” which is used in 3.5, but the meaning in this verse is “darkened, very dark” or, as Good News Translation graphically says, “circled with shadows.” These are not shadows of objects cast on Job, but the darkening of the skin around the eyes. Bible en français courant translates this line “My eyes are completely red and circled by shadows from much crying.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “My face has swollen from crying and my vision has become blurred.” We may also say, for example, “I have cried until my eyes are red and I can hardly see” or “I have shed so many tears my eyes are red and swollen with dark circles.”

Although there is no violence in my hands: here Job denies that he has been violent. Zophar advised Job in 11.14 to get rid of the iniquity in his hands. Violence is probably used here to symbolize evil. The line may be rendered, for example, “although I have done nothing wrong,” “and in spite of this I am not guilty of wrong,” or “but I have committed no crime.” My hands is a part for the whole. Job claims that he is innocent, using an expression meaning that he has done no wrong act, has committed no crime, has been violent against no one.

And my prayer is pure: in Isaiah 1.15, when the hands are not clean, prayer is unacceptable to God. In 31.7 Job says his hands are clean. Pure in relation to prayer refers to respecting and honoring God. This line may also be expressed, for example, “and in my prayers I have shown honor to God” or “and my prayers to God have shown him reverence.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .