What does תְּחִנָּה (tĕḥināh) mean in the Bible?
Tĕḥinnâ names an entreaty or plea in the selected prayer passages. Solomon asks the LORD to attend to his plea and to hear the prayers of Israel from heaven.
Hebrew · H8467
תְּחִנָּה
Tĕḥinnâ names an entreaty or plea in the selected prayer passages. Solomon asks the Lord to attend to his plea and to hear the prayers of Israel from heaven.
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תְּחִנָּהH8467
Pronunciationtĕḥināh
What does תְּחִנָּה (tĕḥināh) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for תְּחִנָּה (H8467) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H8467?
The BSB source-word alignment has 25 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and petition (3), my petition (2), plea (2), their plea (2), [of] (1).
Where does תְּחִנָּה (tĕḥināh) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Joshua 11:20. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Kings (9), 2 Chronicles (5), Jeremiah (5), Psalms (3).
What This Word Actually Means
Tĕḥinnâ names an entreaty or plea in the selected prayer passages. Solomon asks the Lord to attend to his plea and to hear the prayers of Israel from heaven. The temple gives those prayers an appointed direction, but Solomon identifies heaven as God's dwelling place and asks for hearing and forgiveness rather than treating the building as a mechanism that compels a response.
The passages include people who know their own afflictions and captives who confess their wrongdoing. Such pleading acknowledges need and addresses the God who knows human hearts. It does not establish that persuasive wording, a particular posture or sufficient distress earns divine favor. Teachers can encourage specific, honest prayer while distinguishing the act of entreaty from the petitioner's desired outcome and from the broader covenant setting in which the requests are made.
Passage contextCanonical parallel
How the Bible Uses It
Solomon's temple prayer supplies repeated pleas for hearing, forgiveness and help amid affliction and captivity. The repeated requests present dependent address to God, who knows hearts, rather than control over His answer.
- 1Kgs.8.28
Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O Lord my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You today.
Solomon asks God to regard his prayer and plea during the dedication. The request acknowledges divine attention as sought help rather than an automatic property of a ceremony.
- 1Kgs.8.30
Hear the plea of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. May You hear and forgive.
The plea is directed toward the temple while God is asked to hear from heaven and forgive. Direction of prayer and location of God's dwelling are carefully distinguished.
- 1Kgs.8.38
Then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
Each petitioner knows personal affliction while spreading out hands toward the temple. The next verse gives knowledge of hearts to God, limiting human claims about another person's prayer.
- 1Kgs.8.49
Then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause.
The plea comes from repentant captives who acknowledge sin and return to God. Hearing and upholding their cause belong to the prayer's covenant setting rather than a universal escape formula.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itand petition3×1 Kings 8:49, 1 Kings 8:54, 1 Kings 9:3
my petition2×Jeremiah 38:26, Daniel 9:20
plea2×1 Kings 8:28, 2 Chronicles 6:19
their plea2×1 Kings 8:45, 2 Chronicles 6:35
[of]1×1 Kings 8:52
and pleas1×2 Chronicles 6:39
grace1×Ezra 9:8
his petition1×2 Chronicles 33:13
May my petition1×Jeremiah 37:20
May my plea1×Psalms 119:170
May our petition1×Jeremiah 42:2
mercy1×Joshua 11:20
my cry for mercy1×Psalms 6:9
my plea1×Psalms 55:1
or petition1×1 Kings 8:38
or plea1×2 Chronicles 6:29
the plea1×1 Kings 8:30
the pleas1×1 Kings 8:52
their petition1×Jeremiah 36:7
your petition1×Jeremiah 42:9
Show sample aligned rows
Joshua 11:20תְּחִנָּ֑הtomercyNoun - feminine singular1 Kings 8:28תְּחִנָּת֖וֹtopleaNoun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular1 Kings 8:30תְּחִנַּ֤תtothe pleaNoun - feminine singular construct1 Kings 8:38תְּחִנָּ֗הtoor petitionNoun - feminine singular1 Kings 8:45תְּחִנָּתָ֑םtotheir pleaNoun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine plural1 Kings 8:49תְּחִנָּתָ֑םtoand petitionNoun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine plural1 Kings 8:52תְּחִנַּ֣תtothe pleasNoun - feminine singular construct1 Kings 8:52תְּחִנַּ֖תto[of]Noun - feminine singular construct1 Kings 8:54וְהַתְּחִנָּ֖הtoand petitionConjunctive waw, Article | Noun - feminine singular1 Kings 9:3תְּחִנָּתְךָ֮toand petitionNoun - feminine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowJoshua 11:20
Aligned rows25
Books represented7
Joshua11 Kings92 Chronicles5Ezra1Psalms3Jeremiah5Daniel1
Source forms
תְּחִנָּתָ֑ם3xtə·ḥin·nā·ṯām1 Kings 8:45, 1 Kings 8:49, 2 Chronicles 6:35
תְּחִנָּ֗ה2xtə·ḥin·nāh1 Kings 8:38, 2 Chronicles 6:29
תְּחִנָּת֖וֹ2xtə·ḥin·nā·ṯōw1 Kings 8:28, 2 Chronicles 6:19
וְהַתְּחִנָּ֖ה1xwə·hat·tə·ḥin·nāh1 Kings 8:54
מִתְּחִנָּתִֽי׃1xmit·tə·ḥin·nā·ṯîPsalms 55:1
תְחִנָּ֜ה1xṯə·ḥin·nāhEzra 9:8
תְּחִנָּ֑ה1xtə·ḥin·nāhJoshua 11:20
תְּחִנַּ֤ת1xtə·ḥin·naṯ1 Kings 8:30
Parsing patterns
Noun - feminine singular construct | first person common singular5xPsalms 6:9, Psalms 119:170, Jeremiah 37:20, Jeremiah 38:26
Noun - feminine singular4xJoshua 11:20, 1 Kings 8:38, 2 Chronicles 6:29, Ezra 9:8
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine plural4x1 Kings 8:45, 1 Kings 8:49, 2 Chronicles 6:35, Jeremiah 36:7
Noun - feminine singular construct3x1 Kings 8:30, 1 Kings 8:52
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular3x1 Kings 8:28, 2 Chronicles 6:19, 2 Chronicles 33:13
Conjunctive waw, Article | Noun - feminine singular1x1 Kings 8:54
Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural1x2 Chronicles 6:39
Noun - feminine singular construct | first person common plural1xJeremiah 42:2
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Help someone name an actual need without requiring disclosure of painful details to a congregation or adviser.
- Unanswered or prolonged prayer must not become grounds for declaring another person insincere or less deserving of care.
Avoid claiming...
- H8467 does not guarantee an immediate favorable answer whenever a person uses the right words or physical posture.
- Solomon's prayer does not give a minister God's exclusive knowledge of the hidden motives of afflicted petitioners.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Entreaty made effective by appealing to another's graciousness; supplication that seeks favor through grace
Source Gloss
graciousness ; causatively, entreaty
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Entreaty made effective by appealing to another's graciousness; supplication that seeks favor through grace
graciousness; causatively, entreaty BDB: favour Usage: favour, grace, supplication.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Word Origins
For the Preacher and Teacher
Solomon's dedication prayer gives dependent pleading a broad human setting. A person may know an affliction intimately while being unable to judge every hidden motive, and a community may confess wrongdoing while living under captivity. The prayer brings these needs before the Lord and repeatedly asks Him to hear from heaven. Its posture is petition, not mastery over a sacred location. The claim that God alone knows hearts also checks a teacher's temptation to pronounce on the spiritual quality of someone else's distressed appeal.
Daniel 9:17-19 makes a comparable dependence explicit: requests are presented because of God's compassion rather than the petitioner's righteous acts. That comparison helps Christian teaching encourage confidence in God's mercy without selling a guaranteed outcome. The noun identifies the entreaty; the surrounding prayer explains its grounds, purpose and covenant setting. Those distinctions leave room for confession, sorrow and patient hope without making eloquence a qualification for prayer.
Anchor passage
1Kgs.8.30
Doctrinal connections
- First Kings 8:28-30 asks for divine hearing and forgiveness during the temple's dedication prayer.
- First Kings 8:37-40 recognizes individual affliction while reserving complete knowledge of human hearts to God.
- First Kings 8:47-51 joins captive petition to confession, return and remembrance of Israel's deliverance from Egypt.
- First Kings 9:3 records God's answer to Solomon without reducing every later petition to the same outcome.
- Daniel 9:17-19 appeals to God's compassion rather than presenting righteous actions as leverage over Him.
- Luke 17:12-14 shows afflicted people asking Jesus for mercy; this is narrative comparison, not another Hebrew occurrence.
Entreaty appears beside prayer in Solomon's address, highlighting the requested hearing and favor. Neighboring terms need not form an exhaustive prayer taxonomy, and the noun itself does not encode a particular posture or promised answer.
From Old to New Testament
The people asking Jesus for mercy in Luke 17 illustrate need voiced to a trusted recipient. Solomon's prayer likewise seeks hearing and help, though its temple and covenant circumstances remain distinct. The comparison encourages dependent address without treating the healing narrative as a guarantee attached to every entreaty.
Passage contextCanonical parallel