I have recently joined a Biblical Hebrew group and it is wonderful to be reminded of the technicalities of the language. Recently we have been looking at 1 Samuel and in it is an intriguing passage. It is true that the Bible contains countless instances of worship, but for me one of the most moving is Hannah’s thanksgiving prayer in 1 Samuel 2. In this passage she uses a relatively rare Hebrew word to give voice to her gratitude to God for the redemption of all those years she lived in shame, unable to conceive a child.

Hannah’s prayer

Hannah prayed:

My heart exults in Adonai! My dignity has been restored by Adonai!
I can gloat over my enemies, because of my joy at your saving me.
No one is as holy as Adonai, because there is none to compare with you, no rock like our God.
Stop your proud boasting! Don’t let arrogance come from your mouth!
For Adonai is a God of knowledge, and he appraises actions.
The bows of the mighty are broken, while the feeble are armed with strength.
The well-fed hire themselves for bread, while those who were hungry hunger no more.
The barren woman has borne seven, while the mother of many wastes away.
Adonai kills and makes alive; he brings down to the grave, and he brings up.
Adonai makes poor, and he makes rich; he humbles, and he exalts.
He raises the poor from the dust, lifts up the needy from the trash pile;
he gives them a place with leaders and assigns them seats of honour.
For the earth’s pillars belong to Adonai; on them he has placed the world.
He will guard the steps of his faithful, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.
For it is not by strength that a person prevails — those who fight Adonai will be shattered;
he will thunder against them in heaven — Adonai will judge the ends of the earth.
He will strengthen his king and enhance the power of his anointed.

An inner searching

In the original Hebrew, the verb used for Hannah’s praying is hitpalel התפלל. This is a fascinating word containing the root PLL פלל, normally meaning ‘to judge’. But attached to this verb is the reflexive prefix ‘hit’ giving hitpalel. Now a reflexive indicates something done to oneself. The strong sense here is of Hebraic praying beginning with an inner searching, a rigorous self-evaluation, that ultimately passes judgment on oneself.

There is a sense that you can only come before the Lord in prayer once you are right with him.

In using this construction to describe prayer, Hannah is being compared to Abraham in Genesis 20:17, after he had passed Sarah off as his sister. Also, this word was used of the people of Israel when they approached Moses after one of their grumbles in Numbers 11 & 21. It was also the mindset of Solomon when he had finished building the Temple (1 Kings 8:54).

It is clear from its attachment to ‘palel’ in its many appearances in the Old Testament that התפלל ‘hitpalel’ connotes prayer or praying.

Origins of the word

But what was the original meaning of this word? I have always been taught that it meant something like ‘judge yourself’.

Dobson’s Learn Biblical Hebrew explains that it is “a reflexive word, meaning that the subject acts upon himself. Prayer is a process of self-evaluation, self-judgment…”

More recently my own research discovered that this understanding is well-established with definitions from the mid-19th century focusing on it as primarily an action of the self.1 Samuel 2:8

So, I set about digging into the meaning of the root ‘palel’ and the prefix ‘hit’.

Palel is a somewhat difficult root to track down, in that it appears on its own just four times. First, we see it in Genesis 48:11 where Jacob is telling Joseph that he had not expected to see his face again – literally ‘think or assess’. In Psalm 106:30 we read how Phinehas stood up and intervened to stop the plague, so literally ‘intervene’. By contrast 1 Samuel 2:25 in the King James is translated as ‘judge’ and again the intimation is similar in Ezekiel 16:52 “you should also bear your own shame that you ‘pilalt’ to your sisters.” It is worth noting that more modern translations such as the NIV reflect this understanding with words such as intercede or mediate.

But these examples do not feature the ‘hit’ stem that appears in Hannah’s prayer. The traditional teaching is that it is a reflexive stem, indicating that the actor is doing something, or an action, on themselves.

There are 984 instances of the ‘hit’ stem in the bible, with the vast majority acting as a ‘reflexive’ stem.

Station oneself         – hityatzev   48 times
Strengthen oneself  – hithazek    27 times
Sanctify oneself       – hitkadesh  24 times
Cleanse oneself       – hitaher      20 times

However, there are times when the ‘hit’ stem acts in other ways.

Genesis 42:1 carries a meaning, ‘why are you looking at one another?’, where the ‘hit’ seems to act as a reciprocal (a ‘one another’), rather than as a reflexive. Similarly, 2 Chronicles 24:25 is translated ‘conspired with one another’, again as a reciprocal.

Another frequently used alternative is ‘hithalekh’, which is translated as ‘to walk continually, or maybe, repeatedly’. Here the application is of time or continuity.

What Hannah, along with all the others praying this prayer, was actually doing was making herself an object of God’s assessment of judgement.

A further ‘hit’ application is ‘ התחנן’, which is translated ‘to be gracious’, and in 1 Kings 8:33 we have a double ‘hit’ with ‘ והתחננו והתפללו’ which is virtually untranslatable as a reflexive. Modern translations apply a sense of ‘making yourself the object of another’s’ – almost an indirect reflexive.
Deuteronomy 3:23 and Moses’ plea is a good example of this:

“At that time I pleaded with the Lord: ‘Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.’”

Moses’ objective is to make himself the object of God’s favour or grace.

What Hannah, along with all the others praying this prayer, was actually doing was making herself an object of God’s assessment of judgement. In my modern language I would say ‘opening herself up to God’. That feels like a good thing to do.