To see , literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
רָאָה is one of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible, currently counted by the local OT index at about 1,314 uses, and its range reaches far beyond the physical act of seeing. In Hebrew thought, to see is to perceive, to experience, to know by direct encounter.
Reader summary
Full entry for רָאָה (H7200) · Open the biblical lexicon
רָאָה is one of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible, currently counted by the local OT index at about 1,314 uses, and its range reaches far beyond the physical act of seeing. In Hebrew thought, to see is to perceive, to experience, to know by direct encounter.
The BSB source-word alignment has 1,299 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include saw (120), see (107), and saw (36), and see (36), to see (35).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (141), Psalms (100), Exodus (92), Isaiah (81).
This entry includes 11 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
רָאָה is one of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible, currently counted by the local OT index at about 1,314 uses, and its range reaches far beyond the physical act of seeing. In Hebrew thought, to see is to perceive, to experience, to know by direct encounter. The same verb covers a shepherd seeing a flock (Gen 29:2), a prophet receiving a vision (Isa 1:1 — the superscription says 'the vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw'), God seeing the affliction of his people (Exod 3:7), and the worshipper seeing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps 27:13).
This semantic range is not loose usage; it reflects a conviction that genuine perception is more than optical reception — it involves the whole person. The theologically decisive uses of rāʾâh concern what God sees and what God is seen doing. Hagar's naming of the well as Beer-lahai-roi — 'the well of the one who sees me' — after her encounter in the wilderness is the first explicit divine-seeing narrative: 'You are a God who sees' (Gen 16:13).
This is not merely surveillance; it is attentive, redemptive presence. The God of Israel sees the affliction of his people before acting (Exod 3:7; Exod 2:25), sees the heart when humans see only the outward appearance (1 Sam 16:7), and promises that the pure in heart will see him (Ps 24:6; Matt 5:8). The prophetic use of rāʾâh is equally foundational: the prophets are 'seers' (rōʾîm, the active participle), and their role is to see what others cannot — the divine perspective on human events.
To have vision is to have rāʾâh from God's point of view.
רָאָה is currently counted by the local OT index at about 1,314 uses in the OT, making it one of the ten most common Hebrew verbs. Its uses span physical sight, intellectual perception, prophetic vision, divine observation, and experiential encounter. Key theological concentrations include the theophany narratives (Gen 16, 32; Exod 3, 24; Isa 6; Ezek 1), the seer/prophet texts, the divine-seeing passages (God sees affliction, God sees the heart), and the wisdom literature's teaching on discernment.
So Hagar gave this name to the Lord who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”
Hagar's naming is the OT's first theological declaration about divine seeing: El Roi, the God who sees. The narrative context — an Egyptian slave woman fleeing into the wilderness, outside the covenant, perceived as invisible — makes the claim explosive. The God who sees chooses as his first named theological witness someone with no social status or covenant standing. Divine rāʾâh is not selective by human criteria.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
The divine seeing that initiates the Exodus. God's rāʾâh of the affliction is not passive observation but active engagement: 'I have seen... I have heard... I know... I have come down.' The seeing is the beginning of the deliverance. This Exodus pattern helps frame later uses of 'God saw' in the OT — divine seeing is the prelude to divine action.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the Lord does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart.”
The distinction between human and divine rāʾâh. Samuel is about to anoint Eliab on the basis of appearance; God sees differently. The theological claim is precise: divine seeing penetrates what human seeing cannot access. The anointing of David is grounded in God's unique rāʾâh of the heart — and by extension, divine judgment rests on a seeing that outperforms human perception.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple.
The prophetic rāʾâh at its highest register: Isaiah sees the divine throne room. The Hiphil form of rāʾâh governs the entire prophetic call narrative — Isaiah's commission, his confession, his cleansing, and his sending all flow from this single act of seeing. The fact that seeing the Lord produces immediate self-awareness of uncleanness ('I am a man of unclean lips') establishes the epistemological relationship between divine and human: genuine rāʾâh of God is simultaneously revelation and conviction.
Still I am certain to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
David's rāʾâh-confidence in the face of enemies: not merely that God exists but that the divine goodness will be seen — experienced as visible reality — in this present life. The Psalm moves from threat (v.1-6) through lament (v.7-12) to this climactic confidence of vision. To 'see the goodness of the Lord' is the goal of the persevering faith that trusts even when unable to see in the present moment.
And Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
YHWH Yireh — 'the Lord will see/provide' — the name Abraham gives the site of the near-sacrifice of Isaac. The Hebrew yireh is from rāʾâh: the Lord will see (and in seeing, provide). The wordplay embeds divine rāʾâh in the covenant's central test: God sees Abraham's obedience, sees the ram, and provides. The name becomes a promise: at the mountain of the Lord, he will be seen (the passive form yēraʾeh can also mean 'he will appear/be seen').
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. to see , literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)
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.
רָאָה 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.
The rāʾâh theology of the OT answers one of the deepest pastoral questions: does God see? Hagar asks it from a wilderness, Exodus Israel ask it from Egypt, the Psalmists ask it from caves and enemies and illness. The consistent Hebrew answer is not merely 'yes, God sees' as a theoretical proposition, but 'the God who sees acts.' In these central deliverance and calling texts, divine seeing is not inert: El Roi sees Hagar and speaks; God sees the affliction in Egypt and comes down; God sees the heart of Jesse's youngest son and anoints him.
The preacher working with rāʾâh can recover something that modern suffering theology needs: not the reassurance that God passively notices but the promise that divine seeing is the beginning of divine engagement. The pastoral force is that suffering is not invisible to God, and these texts teach His seeing as active engagement rather than detached notice. The YHWH Yireh name in Genesis 22 presses this even further: at the decisive moment when the covenant seems about to be destroyed, the name given to the place is 'the Lord will see' — because seeing and providing are the same act.
The pastoral weight is enormous: in the place of greatest loss and incomprehension, the name of God is 'he sees.'
Gen.16.13
The root rāʾâh generates an important noun: rōʾeh (seer, the early title for what later becomes nābîʾ, prophet — 1 Sam 9:9). The participial form rōʾeh (one who sees) describes Samuel and other early prophets, and the semantic shift from 'seer' to 'prophet' in biblical usage tracks a broader development in how prophetic authority was understood. The Hiphil stem (hirʾâh, to cause to see, to show) is theologically rich: God 'shows' Moses the promised land (Deut 34:1), 'shows' Ezekiel the visions of judgment (Ezek 11:25), and the eschatological promise 'all flesh shall see' (rāʾâh) uses the Qal to name the universal vision of God's salvation (Isa 40:5).
The NT inherits the rāʾâh theology through several channels. The beatitude of Matthew 5:8 — 'blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' — is the direct fulfillment of Psalm 24:6 ('such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O Jacob') and the entire OT longing to 'see' God. John's Gospel is saturated with vision language: 'Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9) is the rāʾâh claim of the Incarnation — to see the Son is to see the Father.
The Johannine promise of Revelation 22:4 — 'they will see his face' — is the eschatological completion: the beatitude of the pure in heart finally realized, the rāʾâh of God's goodness in the ultimate land of the living.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain