Word study

Petition

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: petition, petitions, petitioned, petitioning. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “petition” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • תְּחִנָּה techinnâhfavour, supplication for favourtranslated this way 11 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H8467Noun  ·  Translated: petition 11, plea 8, pleas 2, mercy 1

    1 Kings 8:38 then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make— each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—

    2 Chronicles 33:13 And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition. So He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

    Full study and all 24 verses →
  • שְׁאֵלָה sheêlâhrequest, thing asked fortranslated this way 7 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H7596Noun  ·  Translated: petition 7, request 4, the one 1

    1 Samuel 1:17 “Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.”

    Esther 5:6 And as they drank their wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • תַּחֲנוּן tachănûnsupplication for favourtranslated this way 4 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H8469Noun  ·  Translated: mercy 5, petitions 3, plea 2

    Daniel 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

    Daniel 9:17 So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary.

    Full study and all 18 verses →
  • בְּעָא beâask, seektranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H1156Verb  ·  Translated: asked 2, petitions 2

    Daniel 6:7 All the royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers, and governors have agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce a decree that for thirty days anyone who petitions any god or man except you, O king, will be thrown into the den of lions.

    Daniel 6:11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel petitioning and imploring his God.

    Full study and all 11 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • δέησις déēsissupplication, prayertranslated this way 4 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s G1162Noun  ·  Translated: prayers 6, prayer 5, pray 2, petition 2

    Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.

    Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

What the Bible says about petition: passages by topic →

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.