PETITION

pe-tish'-un: Used in English Versions of the Bible only as a noun, usually as representing the Hebrew she'elah (Psalms 20:5, mish'alah), from the common verb [~sha'al, "to ask." The noun, consequently, has no technical meaning, and may be used indifferently in the active (Esther 7:2) or passive (1 Samuel 1:27) sense, or for a petition addressed to either God (1 Samuel 1:17) or man (1 Kings 2:16), while in Judges 8:24; Job 6:8; Psalms 106:15, it is rendered simply "request." Otherwise "petition" represents the Aramaic ba`u (Daniel 6:7,13), the Greek aitema (1 John 5:15), and deesis (1 Macc 7:37, the Revised Version (British and American) "supplication"), and the Latin oratio (2 Esdras 8:24).ru with the Pteria of Herodotus i.76 (identified with Bog-haz-keui, the great Hittite capital in Cappadocia, in ancient times called Hattu).

Burton Scott Easton

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.