ἀπαιτέω

From the study of Sirach 31:2

Range of meaning

To demand back what is owed, to exact payment, to claim. It is commercial and legal language: a creditor 'demands back' a loan.

Against the English

The WEB's 'will crave' reads it as the anxious person longing for sleep. Most modern translations (NRSV 'prevents') and the KJV ('will not let a man slumber') take it as worry robbing a person of sleep. The KJV probably also reflects the variant reading apostēsei, 'drives away'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Luke 6:30 ('do not demand it back'). Luke 12:20, the rich fool: 'this night your soul is demanded of you'. Wisdom 15:8 (the soul 'demanded back'). The word belongs to the vocabulary of debt and repayment.

From the study of Luke 12:20

Range of meaning

To ask back, demand back, reclaim what belongs to oneself. It is used of creditors demanding repayment, of reclaiming a deposit or loan, and of collecting what is due.

Against the English

KJV: 'shall be required of thee'. BSB, ESV, NASB: 'required'. NIV: 'demanded from you'. Vulgate: repetunt, 'they seek back'. 'Required' loses the 'back': the sense of returning something that was lent.

How it drifted

Since the KJV, 'required' in modern English has come to mean 'needed' or 'made obligatory'. The older sense, 'asked for as one's due', fades, and the picture of a loan being called in disappears.

Used elsewhere in the period

Luke 6:30: 'from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back (μὴ ἀπαίτει)'. Wisdom of Solomon 15:8 describes a human being who 'when the soul that was lent him is demanded back' (τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπαιτηθεὶς χρέος, literally 'having been asked back the debt of his soul') returns to the earth he was made from. The same thought shows up in Cicero, Epictetus and Jewish epitaphs: life is a loan from God, and death is its return.

From the study of Luke 6:30

Range of meaning

To ask back, demand back, reclaim what is owed or was taken. In business papyri it is the ordinary word for demanding payment of debts, rents or taxes (Moulton–Milligan).

Against the English

BSB/NIV/ESV/NASB "demand back" is right. KJV "ask not again" can sound to a modern ear like "don't ask twice" rather than "don't press your claim to get it back". NLT "don't try to get them back" catches the action but loses the sense of a rightful claim.

How it drifted

In 1611, "ask again" meant "ask back, reclaim". Today "again" mostly means "once more", so the KJV phrase has drifted.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Deuteronomy 15:2–3, on the seventh-year release of debts: "you shall not demand it back (οὐκ ἀπαιτήσεις) from your neighbor", though you may from a foreigner. Sirach 20:15: the fool "lends today and demands it back (ἀπαιτήσει) tomorrow". Wisdom 15:8: a person's soul is a loan that will be "demanded back". In the NT it appears only here and in Luke 12:20 ("this night your soul is demanded of you"). Didache 1:4: "If anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back, for you are not able to."