"Looking for God" : the translation of a biblical metaphor into Polish and Arabic

We discuss Polish and Arabic translations of biblical expressions darash/biqqesh et jhwh ‘to pray to God,’ literally ‘to look for God.’ The most common Polish rendering is szukać Boga ‘to look for God.’ This metaphor appears also in contemporary Polish texts and means ‘to look for an evidence for God’s existence in the world,’ thus the translation szukać Boga distorts the original meaning but is of greater utility in terms of pastoral service. The most common Ara- bic rendering of the idiom is َiltamasa or َtalaba with ‘God’ as a direct object, i.e. ‘to approach God with a request or question.’ This conveys the general sense of the original in more accurate way than Polish szukać Boga.