pray / prayer

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.

complete verse (Psalm 109:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 109:4:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “Instead of my love they accuse me,
    but I am a person of prayer.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “I love them and have prayed for them.
    But they oppose me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “Even-though I make-friends-together with them, they oppose me;
    but I pray for them.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “I love them, but they accuse me,
    but I pray for them to God.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Ambayo wananirudishia kwa upendo wangu ni kunishitaki,
    hata hivyo mimi nawaombea.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “I show them that I want to be their friends and I pray for them,
    but instead of being kind to me, they say that
    I have done evil things.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 109:4 - 109:5

Although his enemies attack him for no reason at all, the psalmist loves them and prays for them (verse 4). In verse 4a accuse translates the verb satan (the synonymous verb translated “contend” in 35.1 may also mean to accuse in a trial). Ordinarily, in English the verb “accuse” is transitive, that is, the one accused must be mentioned, and something like “they accuse me of doing evil things” (or the like) must be said. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “they attack me,” which is better than Good News Translation “They oppose me.”

Verse 4b in Hebrew is strange; it seems to say simply “and I a prayer.” New English Bible emends the text to get “though I have done nothing unseemly”; New Jerusalem Bible translates the Masoretic text “and I must stand judgment” (with the footnote “Or ‘but I am all prayer’ ”). The majority render the text as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation do; Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the Masoretic text means “while I did but pray.” New International Version “but I am a man of prayer” does not fit in the context.

The psalmist protests that he is completely innocent and has given his enemies no reason for their hatred (verse 5); for similar language see 35.12; 38.20. Instead of abstract nouns, verbal phrases may be better in translating this verse:

• I do good things for them,
but they pay me back with bad things;
I love them, but they hate me.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .