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 109:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Psalm 109:7:

  • Chichewa Contempary Chichewa translation, 2002/2016:
    “When he is being judged, let him be found guilty,
    and his prayers oppose him.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
  • Newari:
    “When his judgment takes place,
    may he be pronounced guilty.
    May his prayers be counted as sins.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon:
    “When he is-judged, may-it-be that (it) will-come-out that he has sin.
    And may-it-be that his prayer be-considered a sin.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Laarim:
    “When his case is taken to court, let him be guilty,
    would you (sing.) count his prayer to be sin.” (Source: Laarim Back Translation)
  • Nyakyusa-Ngonde (back-translation into Swahili):
    “Pale mahakamani ashindwe,
    kujitetea kwake kuwe dhambi nyingine.” (Source: Nyakyusa Back Translation)
  • English:
    “And cause that when the trial ends, the judge will declare that he is guilty, and that even his prayer will be considered to be a sin.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Psalm 109:6 - 109:7

The psalmist begins the long list of misfortunes he calls down upon his enemy by praying that the man will be brought to trial before a corrupt judge. It is to be noticed that the singular “enemy” is used throughout (see introduction to this psalm); Dahood believes that the setting of the psalm is a court where the psalmist is standing trial, and that his prayer is directed against the judge and the false witnesses, who are bent on his destruction.

In verse 6a Good News Translation “corrupt judge” translates “an evil man” (New International Version); the rest of the line in Hebrew may be translated either “over him” (New Jerusalem Bible), which indicates a judge (so Kirkpatrick, Briggs, Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), or against him (Revised Standard Version), which indicates an accuser, parallel with line b (so Revised Standard Version, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). If the translator follows Good News Translation “corrupt judge,” it will be necessary in some languages to say, for example, “a judge whose eyes are closed with money.”

Verse 6b is literally “and make an accuser stand at his right,” the Hebrew word for “accuser” being satan, which King James Version translates “Satan.” Dahood does the same, taking “the Evil One” in line a to be parallel to “Satan” in line b; Dahood believes that the trial takes place after death. Most commentators believe that the Hebrew noun satan in the Old Testament refers to a nonhuman being only in 1 Chronicles 21.1; Job 1.6-12; 2.1-7; Zechariah 3.1, 2. It appears that the accuser stood at the right of the person on trial (see Zech 3.1; but see verse 31, below). Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “May his own lawyer condemn him” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Verse 7b is difficult to understand; the Masoretic text appears to mean “and let his prayer be for sin.” Some take the word translated “prayer” to mean the plea to the judge (see New American Bible “may his plea be in vain”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “may his defense result in his condemnation”); but nowhere else in the Old Testament does the Hebrew word for prayer mean anything other than prayer addressed to God. The general sense can be that the man’s protestations of innocence, in which he would invoke the name of God, would only add to his guilt, since they would obviously be false. In some languages the two requests in English beginning in Good News Translation with “May he … may even his…” must be shifted to imperatives, in which case God will have to be introduced as the primary or secondary agent who will perform the requested action; for example, “God, try him and declare him guilty, consider even his prayer a crime!” or “I ask God to try him and find him guilty, to consider even his prayer a crime.”

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 .