Supplication

"And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto Him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul ... " (Enos 1:4)

"Supplication"

is defined as a humble or earnest petition or entreaty, a humble prayer

addressed to God that often specifically petitions for a special

blessing.

The root of supplication comes from "to be flat," or

pliant. It also has the sense of supple or foldable. In a literal

sense, to supplicate means to be on folded knees. Another sense of the

word is to beg humbly.

The word supplication, as used in the Old

Testament, is a translation of a number of words, which mean to bend or

to stoop; to beg for favor, grace or pity; to entreat; or to search for

the answer to a hard question, proverb or riddle. The Greek word in the

New Testament is essentially the same with the additional sense of

beseeching or begging as binding oneself.

Very often in

scripture and in more modern usage, supplication is used in conjunction

with prayer, as in prayer and supplication. The question is whether

this is simply repetition for effect or redundancy, or if there really

are separate meanings for prayer and supplication. In fact, sometimes

prayer and supplication are used as repetition for emphasis. For

example, Psalms 6:9 reads: "The Lord hath heard my supplication; the

Lord will receive my prayer." However, there are a number of cases

where supplication is used as a special application of prayer.

Prayer