Meaning
Petition pe-tish'-un: Used in English Versions of the Bible only as a noun, usually as representing the Hebrew she'elah (Ps 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 (Es 7:2) or passive (1Sa 1:27) sense, or for a petition addressed to either God (1Sa 1:17) or man (1Ki 2:16), while in Jdg 8:24, Job 6:8, Psa 106:15, it is rendered simply "request." Otherwise "petition" represents the Aramaic ba`u (Dan 6:7, Dan 6:13), the Greek aitema (1Joh 5:15), and deesis (Macc 7:37, the Revised Version (British and American) "supplication"), and the Latin oratio (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
