ראה

Forms

רָאָה (rāʾâ) verb^[1] Qal 1,129 times (imperfect יִרְאֶה, short וַיַּרְא, participle רֹאֶה), niphal 102 times (נִרְאָה “to appear”), hiphil 62 times (הֶרְאָה “to show”), and rarely hophal (הָרְאָה “to be shown”) and hithpael (“to look at one another”).^[4][5] Lachish ostracon 4 has the form nrʾh “we see”.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Semitic *rʔy (“to see”).^[7] Kogan finds the root mostly in Hebrew, Arabic رَأَى (raʾā), Sabaean rʾy and Ge'ez ርእየ (rəʾya), and in Hebrew and Arabic it is the basic verb “to see”.^[7][8][5] The Mesha inscription shows that Moabite shared it (Moabite wʾrʾ (“and I saw”)).^[9][5] Other languages see with other roots: Aramaic חֲזָה (ḥăzā), and Ugaritic and Akkadian with ⟨ʾmr⟩, as in Akkadian amāru (“to see”).^[10][9] Biblical and Jewish Aramaic keep the root only in the noun רֵו (rēw, “appearance”).^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is the common verb of seeing in every part of the Bible, 1,295 times, 20 of them in the archaic poems.^[1][11] In the Blessing of Jacob, Issachar wayyarʾ mənuḥâ kî ṭôḇ, “saw that a resting place was good” (Genesis 49:15), and Balaam says mērōʾš ṣurîm ʾerʾennû, “from the top of the rocks I see him” (Numbers 23:9).^[1] The oldest dated record is nrʾh “we see” in Lachish ostracon 4, one of the Lachish letters of the 6th century BC.^[6][12]

Semantic evolution

HALOT's long article runs from seeing with the eyes to perceiving and understanding (parallel to yāḏaʿ “to know”), to experiencing (“to see death”, “to see good”), to looking at, inspecting, visiting someone, and choosing or providing for oneself (Genesis 22:8, 1 Samuel 16:1).^[4] The imperative rəʾēh “see!” is almost an interjection, like Amarna Akkadian amur.^[4] The niphal is to appear or be seen, and above all of God, who appears to the patriarchs; the hiphil is to show, and God shows the prophets their visions.^[4]

The participle rōʾeh became a title, “seer”: 1 Samuel 9:9 explains that kî lannāḇîʾ hayyôm yiqqārēʾ ləp̄ānîm hārōʾeh, “the one now called a prophet was formerly called a seer”.^[1][13] BDB calls it the old name for nāḇîʾ, used of Samuel and, as an archaism, in Chronicles, and HALOT finds it barely different from ḥōzeh.^[13][14] The Septuagint renders the verb with the forms of Ancient Greek ὁράω (horáō) and the seer with Ancient Greek βλέπων (blépō) or Ancient Greek προφήτης (prophḗtēs).^[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls use the verb 990 times.^[15] Today Modern Hebrew ראה (ra'á) is still the verb “to see”.^[16]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – nrʾh “we see” in Lachish ostracon 4.^[6][12]
• Archaic Hebrew poetry – Genesis 49:15 and Balaam's oracles (Numbers 23:9, 23:21).^[11][1]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – hārōʾeh “the seer” for Samuel, an older name of the prophet (1 Samuel 9:9).^[13][1]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – rōʾeh kept as an archaism in Chronicles (1 Chronicles 9:22, 29:29).^[13]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek ὁράω (horáō).^[17][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 990 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[18][15]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal to see, to look at, to behold.^[4][5]
2. qal to perceive, to understand; to experience (death, good, trouble).^[4]
3. qal to inspect; to visit someone; to choose or provide (Genesis 22:8).^[4]
4. qal participle rōʾeh a seer, an older word for a prophet.^[14][13]
5. niphal to appear, to be seen; to present oneself; of God, to appear.^[4]
6. hiphil to show, to let someone see; to make someone experience.^[4]
7. hophal to be shown;^[16] hithpael to look at one another; to meet in battle.^[4]

Word family

• מַרְאֶה (marʾeh, “sight, appearance”)
• רְאִי (rəʾî, “mirror”)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew ראה (ra'á)^[16]

Usage notes

Several rare words share the spelling.^[1] rāʾâ, a bird of prey (Deuteronomy 14:13), is read by HALOT and BDB, with some manuscripts, the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch, as dāʾâ of Leviticus 11:14;^[19][5] Koehler had explained it as the red kite, named for its sharp sight.^[19][5] The adjective rəʾēh “seeing” in Job 10:15 is doubtful: BDB and Gesenius–Buhl record the emendation rəwēh “sated”.^[20][21] In Isaiah 28:7 bārōʾeh is taken by HALOT as a noun “vision”.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. ראה
5. ^ a b c d e f g Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. רָאָה
6. ^ a b c Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.004.12
7. ^ a b Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 443
8. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 999
9. ^ a b Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (SAHD), online edition, sahd-online.com (articles by individual authors, dated), p. s.v. רֹאֶה
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. ראה
11. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
12. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 76–77
13. ^ a b c d e Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. רֹאֶה
14. ^ a b Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. רֹאֶה I
15. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
16. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
17. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
18. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
19. ^ a b Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. רָאָה
20. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. רָאֶה
21. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. רָאֶה