It is difficult to know if the prayer of the group is addressed to God, the Father, or to Jesus, since Lord may refer to either. However, 1.2 indicates that it is Jesus who has chosen the other apostles, and it is quite likely that they are asking Jesus to choose this one.

The pronoun they also refers at this point to the believers. Probably there will be no difficulty in the reference to “believers,” if these are specified in the preceding verse.

In some languages “Lord,” as a term of direct address, must be related to the verb of speaking, for example, “they prayed to the Lord, ….” Otherwise, it might appear that the people were summoning the Lord.

The expression know the hearts may require some slight modifications, for example, “you know how men think in their hearts,” “you know what all men are like in their hearts,” or “you really know how men truly are.”

Some type of transitional, for example, and so, is quite important at this point, for it ties together the two parts of the prayer: (1) the general recognition of the Lord’s understanding of all men’s motives and (2) the specific request for guidance in the choice of a successor to Judas.

Insofar as possible it is important to preserve the tense relation in have chosen. What is requested in the prayer is simply confirmation of what the Lord had already decided. In some languages, this may need to be made even more specific, for example, “which one of the two you have already decided should be the one.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .