The "idealized" English is the King James? Where did you learn that? The most popular English translation when the Pilgrims came to America was The Geneva Bible.
I don't think to many people don't understand that "to pray" can mean "to ask"; but when you praise God in prayer, which we are also told to do is not "asking". Paul instructs us to intercede for others to God, not to dead saints to intercede to God.
When you pray to a physically dead person you are praying to the spirit world, which is a form of the occult. Scripture forbids communicatig with the pysically dead.