Word study

Prayer

3 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

In brief

The Hebrew tefillah is the general word for prayer and stands in the titles of several psalms. In Greek, proseuchē and its verb proseuchomai are the usual words for prayer addressed to God, while deēsis is a request or petition for a particular need. English "prayer" covers both.

Written and reviewed by our editorial team.

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: prayer, prayers. 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 “prayer” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • תְּפִלָּה tephillâhprayertranslated this way 75 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H8605Noun  ·  Translated: prayer 66, prayers 6, prayer offered 1, prayers offered 1

    2 Samuel 7:27 For You, O LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant when You said, ‘I will build a house for you.’ Therefore Your servant has found the courage to offer this prayer to You.

    1 Kings 8:28 Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You today.

    Full study and all 69 verses →
  • עָתַר âtharpray, supplicafetranslated this way 5 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H6279Verb  ·  Translated: pray 6, prayed 3, answered their prayers 2

    Genesis 25:21 Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

    2 Samuel 21:14 And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • פָּלַל pâlalintervene, interposetranslated this way 2 times of its 84 uses · Strong’s H6419Verb  ·  Translated: pray 31, prayed 25, praying 10, prays 5

    2 Kings 19:20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.

    2 Chronicles 32:20 In response, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out to heaven in prayer,

    Full study and all 82 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • προσευχή proseuchḗprayer, a place for prayertranslated this way 32 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s G4335Noun  ·  Translated: prayer 20, prayers 12, praying 2, prayed earnestly 1

    Matthew 21:13 And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

    Mark 9:29 Jesus answered, “This kind cannot come out, except by prayer.”

    Full study and all 36 verses →
  • δέησις déēsissupplication, prayertranslated this way 11 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s G1162Noun  ·  Translated: prayers 6, prayer 5, pray 2, petition 2

    Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

    Romans 10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • προσεύχομαι proseúchomaiI pray, pray fortranslated this way 3 times of its 83 uses · Strong’s G4336Verb  ·  Translated: pray 46, prayed 15, praying 15, prays 3

    Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

    Philippians 1:9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

    Full study and all 78 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 prayer: 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.