1 Corinthians 14:13

Amplified Bible

Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may [be gifted to] translate or explain [what he says].

Parallel Translations

Simplified Cowboy Version
If you're gonna pray for the ability to speak in tongues, pray also for the ability to interpret them.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may translate.

Bible in Basic English
For this reason, let the man who has the power of using tongues make request that he may, at the same time, be able to give the sense.

Darby Translation
Wherefore let him that speaks with a tongue pray that he may interpret.

Christian Standard Bible®
Therefore the person who speaks in another language should pray that he can interpret.

World English Bible
Therefore let him who speaks in another language pray that he may interpret.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Therefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret.

Weymouth's New Testament
Therefore let a man who has the gift of tongues pray for the power of interpreting them.

King James Version (1611)
Wherefore let him that speaketh in an vnknowen tongue, pray that he may interprete.

Literal Translation
So then, the one speaking in a language, let him pray that he may interpret.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Wherfore let him that speaketh wt tunges, praye, that he maye interprete also.

Mace New Testament (1729)
wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue, pray for the gift of interpretation.

THE MESSAGE
So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don't hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what's the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind. If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what's going on know when to say "Amen"? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.

American Standard Version
Wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

Revised Standard Version
Therefore, he who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Wherfore let him that speaketh with tonges praye that he maye interpret also.

Update Bible Version
Therefore let him that speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

Webster's Bible Translation
Wherefore, let him that speaketh in an [unknown] language, pray that he may interpret.

Young's Literal Translation
wherefore he who is speaking in an [unknown] tongue -- let him pray that he may interpret;

New Century Version
The one who has the gift of speaking in a different language should pray for the gift to interpret what is spoken.

New English Translation
So then, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.

Berean Standard Bible
Therefore, the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.

Contemporary English Version
When we speak languages that others don't know, we should pray for the power to explain what we mean.

Complete Jewish Bible
Therefore someone who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.

English Standard Version
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Wherefore, let him that speaketh a strange tongue, pray, that he may interprete.

George Lamsa Translation
Thus he who speaks in an unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret it.

Hebrew Names Version
Therefore let him who speaks in another language pray that he may interpret.

International Standard Version
Therefore, the person who speaks in a tongue should pray for the ability to interpret it.

Etheridge Translation
And let him who speaketh with tongues pray that he may interpret.

Murdock Translation
And let him that speaketh in a tongue, pray that he may interpret.

New King James Version
Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

New Living Translation
So anyone who speaks in tongues should pray also for the ability to interpret what has been said.

New Life Bible
So the man who speaks in special sounds should pray for the gift to be able to tell what they mean.

English Revised Version
Wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

New Revised Standard
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Wherefore, he that speaketh with a tongue, let him pray that he may translate;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And therefore he that speaketh by a tongue, let him pray that he may interpret.

King James Version
Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.

Lexham English Bible
Therefore the one who speaks in a tongue must pray that he may interpret.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wherfore, let him that speaketh with tongue, pray that he may interprete.

Easy-to-Read Version
So those who have the gift of speaking in a different language should pray that they can also interpret what they say.

New American Standard Bible
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue is to pray that he may interpret.

Good News Translation
The person who speaks in strange tongues, then, must pray for the gift to explain what is said.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And therfor he that spekith in langage, preie, that he expowne.

Contextual Overview

⁶Now, believers, if I come to you speaking in unknown tongues, how will I benefit you unless I also speak to you [clearly] either by revelation [revealing God's mystery], or by knowledge [teaching about God], or by prophecy [foretelling the future, speaking a new message from God to the people], or by instruction [teaching precepts that develop spiritual maturity]? ⁷Yet even lifeless things, whether flute or harp, when producing a sound, if they do not produce distinct [musical] tones, how will anyone [listening] know what is piped or played? ⁸And if the [war] bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? ⁹So it is with you, if you speak words [in an unknown tongue] that are not intelligible and clear, how will anyone understand what you are saying? You will be talking into the air [wasting your breath]! ¹⁰There are, I suppose, a great many kinds of languages in the world [unknown to us], and none is lacking in meaning. ¹¹But if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will [appear to] be a foreigner to the one who is speaking [since he knows exactly what he is saying], and the one who is speaking will [appear to] be a foreigner to me. ¹²So it is with you, since you are so very eager to have spiritual gifts and manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in ways that will build up the church [spiritually]. ¹³Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may [be gifted to] translate or explain [what he says].¹⁴For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive [because it does not understand what my spirit is praying].

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

pray: 1 Corinthians 14:27, 1 Corinthians 14:28, 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Corinthians 12:30, Mark 11:24, John 14:13, John 14:14, Acts 1:14, Acts 4:29-31, Acts 8:15

Reciprocal: 1 Corinthians 14:5 - except

Cross-References

Genesis 10:16
and the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite

Genesis 14:24
"I will take nothing except what my young men have eaten, and the share of the spoils belonging to the men [my allies] who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their share of the spoils."

Genesis 39:14
she called to the men of her household and said to them, "Look at this, your master has brought a Hebrew [into the household] to mock and insult us; he came to me to lie with me, and I screamed.

Genesis 40:15
"For in fact I was taken (stolen) from the land of the Hebrews by [unlawful] force, and even here I have done nothing for which they should put me in the dungeon."

Genesis 41:12
"Now there was with us [in the prison] a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us, to each man according to the significance of his own dream.

Genesis 43:32
So the servants served Joseph by himself [in honor of his rank], and his brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because [according to custom] the Egyptians could not eat food with the Hebrews, for that is loathsome to the Egyptians.

Exodus 2:6
When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. And she took pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

Exodus 2:11
One day, after Moses had grown [into adulthood], it happened that he went to his countrymen and looked [with compassion] at their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his countrymen.

Numbers 21:21
Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,

1 Samuel 4:12
Now a man [from the tribe] of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh that same day with his clothes torn and dust on his head [as signs of mourning over the disaster].

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue,.... The Hebrew, or any other, the gift of speaking with which is bestowed upon him:

pray that he may interpret; that he may have also the gift of interpretation of tongues; for as has been before hinted, these two gifts were distinct; and a man might have the one, and not the other; a man might speak in an unknown tongue, so as to understand himself, what he said, and be edified, and yet not be capable of translating it at once into the common language of the people; and if he could not do this, he would not excel in his gift to the edification of the church; whereas if he could interpret he would, and therefore, above all things, he should pray to the Father of lights, the giver of every good and perfect gift, that he might be furnished with this also.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pray that he may interpret - Let him ask of God ability that he may explain it clearly to the church. It would seem probable that the power of speaking foreign languages, and the power of conveying truth in a clear and distinct manner, were not always found in the same person, and that the one did not of necessity imply the other. The truth seems to have been, that these extraordinary endowments of the Holy Spirit were bestowed upon people in some such way as “ordinary” talents and mental powers are now conferred; and that they became in a similar sense the “characteristic mental endowments of the individual,” and of course were subject to the same laws, and liable to the same kinds of abuse, as mental endowments are now. And as it now happens that one man may have a special faculty for acquiring and expressing himself in a foreign language who may not be by any means distinguished for clear enunciation, or capable of conveying his ideas in an interesting manner to a congregation, so it was then.

The apostle, therefore, directs such, if any there were, instead of priding themselves on their endowments, and instead of always speaking in an unknown tongue, which would he useless to the church, to “pray” for the more useful gift of being able to convey their thoughts in a clear and intelligible manner in their vernacular tongue. This would be useful. The truths, therefore, that they had the power of speaking with eminent ability in a foreign language, they ought to desire to be able to “interpret” so that they would be intelligible to the people whom they addressed in the church. This seems to me to be the plain meaning of this passage, which has given so much perplexity to commentators. Macknight renders it, however, “Let him who prayeth in a foreign language, pray so as some one may interpret;” meaning that he who prayed in a foreign language was to do it by two or three sentences at a time, so that he might be followed by an interpreter. But this is evidently forced. In order to this, it is needful to suppose that the phrase ὁ λαλῶν ho lalōn , “that speaketh,” should be rendered, contrary to its obvious and usual meaning, “who prays,” and to supply τις tis, “someone,” in the close of the verse. The obvious interpretation is that which is given above; and this proceeds only on the supposition that the power of speaking foreign languages and the power of interpreting were not always united in the same person - a supposition that is evidently true, as appears from 1 Corinthians 12:10.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 14:13. Pray that he may interpret. — Let him who speaks or reads the prophetic declarations in the Old Testament, in that tongue in which they were originally spoken and written, pray to God that he may so understand them himself, and receive the gift of interpretation, that he may be able to explain them in all their depth and latitude to others.