Opening eyes takes its significance from who acts and what is seen, and its results are not identical across these passages. Genesis describes the pair recognizing their nakedness after eating, and later God opening Hagar's eyes so she sees a well and gives the boy water.
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Full entry for פָּקַח (H6491) · Open the biblical lexicon
Opening eyes takes its significance from who acts and what is seen, and its results are not identical across these passages. Genesis describes the pair recognizing their nakedness after eating, and later God opening Hagar's eyes so she sees a well and gives the boy water.
The BSB source-word alignment has 20 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include open (6), opened (4), . . . (1), and opened (1), are open (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 3:5. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Kings (6), Isaiah (4), Genesis (3), Job (2).
Opening eyes takes its significance from who acts and what is seen, and its results are not identical across these passages. Genesis describes the pair recognizing their nakedness after eating, and later God opening Hagar's eyes so she sees a well and gives the boy water. Kings records the servant's sight of the surrounding protection and the Arameans' opened eyes inside Samaria, after which they are fed and sent away.
Daniel petitions God to open His eyes and see the desolation, while Isaiah announces the eyes of the blind opened in a restoration setting. These uses do not make every opening moral progress, imply that blind people lack dignity or promise a present teacher clairvoyant powers. Read the speaker, object and narrated outcome. A congregation can hear a plea and support people in need without prescribing a vision technique or guaranteeing an identical bodily cure.
Recognition after eating, Hagar's seen well, two Kings outcomes, Daniel's petition and Isaiah's restoration announcement keep opened eyes in distinct units. The verb alone does not assess every perception as good or bad.
And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.
The pair's eyes open and they recognize nakedness after eating, before the narrated hiding and divine address.
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
God opens Hagar's eyes, she sees a well and then supplies water for the boy.
Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
The Lord opens the servant's eyes at Elisha's prayer, and he sees the narrated horses and chariots of fire.
When they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes, and they looked around and discovered that they were in Samaria.
The Arameans' eyes are opened in Samaria, and the ensuing account directs that they be fed rather than killed.
Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.
Daniel asks God to open His eyes and see the desolation while appealing to great compassion, not righteousness.
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
The announcement names blind eyes opened and deaf ears unstopped within the restoration unit.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Opening eyes moves from physical sight to spiritual perception and discernment of truth
Opening eyes moves from physical sight to spiritual perception and discernment of truth
to open (the senses, especially the eyes); figuratively, to be observant BDB: open Usage: open.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 21 lexical occurrence verses.
פָּקַח is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
An opening of eyes is not a complete moral judgment. In Genesis 3 the recognition of nakedness follows eating and leads into hiding and the Lord's address. Hagar's opened eyes identify a well and a concrete act of care for the boy. Kings first records a servant seeing protection, then records the Arameans recognizing their location; the subsequent direction is to feed them and send them away rather than kill them.
Daniel's eye-opening language is a petition for God to see desolation, grounded in compassion instead of the people's righteousness. Isaiah's announcement belongs to its restoration unit. A congregation should keep these outcomes visible. It must not rank blind people through a moral metaphor, promise every sufferer an identical cure or prescribe Elisha's account as a vision technique.
John's account of the man born blind addresses an assumed link between blindness and personal sin on its own terms and requires a whole-narrative reading.
Gen.21.19
The verb's Qal and Niphal forms retain their actual actors and constructions; no automatic moral assessment follows from a stem. Twenty BSB tokens in eighteen verses remain separate from canonical twenty-one; artifact identity and transliteration remain unchanged without repairing tagging or inventing a perception authority.
John 9 narrates the healing of a man born blind, rejects the disciples' assumed explanation through his or his parents' sin and develops testimony, disputed judgment and Jesus' encounter with him. This is a canonical sight comparison, not a universal cure formula or permission to make bodily blindness a measure of guilt or dignity.