Pray (To)

"to pray, intervene, meditate, judge." Found in both biblical and modern Hebrew, this word occurs 84 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The word is used 4 times in the intensive verbal form; the remaining 80 times are found in the reflexive or reciprocal form, in which the action generally points back to the subject. In the intensive form palal expresses the idea of "to mediate, to come between two parties," always between human beings. Thus, "if a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him…" (1Sam 2:25, rsv). "To mediate" requires "making a judgment," as in Ezek 16:52: "Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters…." In the remaining 2 references in which the intensive form is used, palal expresses "making a judgment" in Gen 48:11 and "coming between" in Psa 106:30. The first occurrence of palal in the Old Testament is in Gen 20:7, where the reflexive or reciprocal form of the verb expresses the idea of "interceding for, prayer in behalf of": "…He shall pray for thee…." Such intercessory praying is frequent in the Old Testament: Moses "prays" for the people's deliverance from the fiery serpents (Num 21:7); he "prays" for Aaron Num. (Deut.9:20); and Samuel "intercedes" continually for Israel (1Sam 12:23). Prayer is directed not only toward Yahweh but toward pagan idols as well (Isa 44:17). Sometimes prayer is made to Yahweh that He would act against an enemy: "That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard" (2Kings 19:20).

Just why this verb form is used to express the act of praying is not completely clear. Since this verb form points back to the subject, in a reflexive sense, perhaps it emphasizes the part which the person praying has in his prayers. Also, since the verb form can have a reciprocal meaning between subject and object, it may emphasize the fact that prayer is basically communication, which always has to be two-way in order to be real.

"prayer." This word, which appears 77 times in biblical Hebrew, is the most general Hebrew word for "prayer." It first appears in 1Ki 8:28: "Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication…." In the eschaton God's house will be a house of "prayer" for all peoples (Isa 56:7); it will be to this house that all nations will come to worship God. The word can mean both a non-liturgical, non-poetical "prayer" and a liturgical, poetical "prayer." In the latter special meaning tepillâ is used as a psalm title in 5 psalms and as the title of Habakkuk's prayer (Hab 3:1). In these uses tepillâ means a prayer set to music and sung in the formal worship service. In Psa 72:20 the word describes all the psalms or "prayers" of Psalms 1-72, only of which is specifically called a "prayer" (Psa 17:1).