supplication
te.chin.nah names an appeal presented before God or a ruler, with two contexts concerning favor or mercy.
The dominant use is an appeal brought before God, often alongside prayer and with a request that God hear, forgive, rescue, or maintain a cause. A smaller group concerns an appeal presented to a human ruler, while two absolute-form contexts concern favor or mercy rather than the act of presenting an appeal.
Senses in use
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Appeal brought before God · dominant
Singular construct forms occur in requests that God hear an appeal: in 1 Kings 8:30 the APB renders the clause "hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel," and in Psalm 119:170 it renders "Let my supplication come before you; rescue me according to your word." In 2 Chronicles 6:39, the plural construct form occurs where the request includes hearing, maintaining the people's cause, and forgiving them.
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Petition presented to a human ruler · common
In Jeremiah 37:20 the singular construct form belongs to a plea addressed to the king not to send the speaker back to Jonathan's house. Jeremiah 38:26 likewise has the speaker presenting an appeal before the king, while Jeremiah 42:2 and Jeremiah 42:9 describe an appeal brought before Jeremiah and before God through him.
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Favor or mercy in the immediate context · rare
The absolute form appears in contexts where the APB speaks of "favor" in Ezra 9:8 and of destruction "without mercy" in Joshua 11:20. These verses support a favor-or-mercy context but do not isolate the term's precise English rendering.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the term in appeal-to-God contexts as "supplication," while human-address contexts use "petition" or "supplication." Ezra 9:8 and Joshua 11:20 instead contain "favor" and "mercy" in the verse's rendering; Those English terms cannot be assigned to the lemma with certainty.