StrongerBible

mishalah

מִשְׁאָלָה

HebrewH4862“petition, request, ...”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Psa 20:5(6)Psa 37:4
Word studyResearch-grademish-ah-LAHnoun

What mishalah means

a petition: a specific thing asked of God, which he grants

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This rare word appears only twice in the whole Bible, both times in the Psalms and both times in the plural. In each place it names the specific things a person asks of God, and in each place God is the one who fulfills or gives them. It is not a vague mood but a set of concrete requests.

The two homes of the word feel different. In Psalm 20, a prayer for the king as he goes to battle, these are the king's requests, voiced in worship alongside his sacrifices. In Psalm 37 the same word describes the requests of the heart of anyone who has learned to delight in God. What the king asks in the royal prayer, the ordinary faithful person is here invited to ask too.

The word belongs to a family of Hebrew terms for asking. It is close to the more common שְׁאֵלָה, the ordinary word for a request (the word behind Hannah's asked-for son and Esther's plea to the king), and it overlaps with the broad word for prayer, תְּפִלָּה, and with בַּקָּשָׁה, a request made to someone in authority. The Greek Old Testament rendered it with αἴτημα, "a thing asked."

The one place readers feel a pull is Psalm 37:4. The oldest translations all chose a strong word for prayer here, but many modern Bibles read "the desires of your heart," which can sound like a promise that God will hand over whatever a person wants. The word itself is steadier than that: it means the things one actually asks of God, and Psalm 37 sets them within the life of a heart that already delights in him.

Psa 20:5(6)Psa 37:4

Disputed

Whether the noun denotes a request formally asked of God in prayer, or a quieter inner longing of the heart that God then grants, especially at Psalm 37:4.

  • majorityA petition formally asked of God, matching the strong prayer vocabulary every ancient version chose (Greek aitema, Latin petitiones).; Kraus, Psalms 1-59 (Continental Commentary), 1988, on Ps 20:6; Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC 19), 1983; Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (TOTC), 1973; Dahood, Psalms I (Anchor Bible 16), 1966
  • minorityAn inner desire or longing of the heart, which God grants or reshapes, read out of the wisdom setting of Psalm 37.; Gunkel, Die Psalmen (HKAT), 1926; Alter, The Book of Psalms, 2007; deClaisse-Walford, Jacobson & Tanner, The Book of Psalms (NICOT), 2014; VanGemeren, Psalms (Expositor's Bible Commentary)

What scholars say about mishalah

מִשְׁאָלָה is a mem-preformative feminine abstract noun from the common root שׁאל ("to ask, request, inquire"), on the pattern paralleled exactly by Arabic masʾala and by the East-Semitic cognate Akkadian maš'altu; the initial hireq under mem is conditioned by the guttural aleph. It occurs only twice, both plural and both in the Psalter (Ps 20:6 MT [Eng 20:5]; Ps 37:4), and is absent from Ben Sira, Qumran, and inscriptions (DCH). The lexica are unusually uniform: BDB "request, petition" (noting fulfillment by מלא at Ps 20:6 and by נתן at Ps 37:4 with Yahweh as subject), HALOT "Bitte, Wunsch" cross-referencing the by-form שְׁאֵלָה, Gesenius 18th "Bitte, Wunsch, Verlangen," DCH "request, petition, desire," and Stahli in TDOT/ThWAT treating it as a poetic synonym of שְׁאֵלָה, das Erbetene, weighted toward covenantal petition; TWOT (Hamilton) stresses the concrete thing asked of God. The ancient versions are unanimous in choosing strong prayer vocabulary (LXX aitemata, Vulgate petitiones in both Gallican and iuxta Hebraeos, Peshitta sheʾlat, Targum baʿuta), which is the decisive text-critical datum against a soft "desire." The interpretive disagreement is contextual, not lexical: Gunkel read Wunsche and Kraus Bitten at Ps 20:6, and at Ps 37:4 a petition camp (Dahood, Craigie, Kidner, Goldingay) opposes an inner-longing camp (Gunkel, Alter, Weiser, Tanner, VanGemeren), with Kidner insisting on lexical consistency across both verses and Hossfeld-Zenger reading Ps 37:4 as democratizing to every righteous person the petition the king brings in Ps 20.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 982, s.v. מִשְׁאָלָהlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. מִשְׁאָלָהlexicon
  • Clines (ed.), Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 5, 2001, s.v. מִשְׁאָלָהlexicon
  • Gesenius, Hebraisches und Aramaisches Handworterbuch, 18th ed. (Meyer/Donner), 1987-2013, s.v.lexicon
  • Stahli, "שׁאל," in Theologisches Worterbuch zum Alten Testament (TDOT/ThWAT)theological-dictionary
  • Hamilton, TWOT #2303, s.v. שׁאלtheological-dictionary
  • Kraus, Psalms 1-59 (Continental Commentary), Fortress, 1988commentary
  • Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (Word Biblical Commentary 19), 1983commentary
  • Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (Tyndale OT Commentaries), 1973commentary
  • Dahood, Psalms I: 1-50 (Anchor Bible 16), 1966commentary
  • Gunkel, Die Psalmen (HKAT), 1926commentary
  • Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary, 2007commentary
  • Hossfeld & Zenger, Psalms 2 (Hermeneia), 2011commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מִשְׁאָלָה

f p construct

מִשְׁאֲלֹת

Psa 37:4

f p construct

מִשְׁאֲלוֹתֶיךָ

Psa 20:5