to examine with discriminating attention: to look someone or something over closely enough to sort, weigh, or tell one thing from another
This is a rare verb, used only seven times, and every time it describes a careful, discriminating look. At its core it names the act of examining something closely enough to tell one thing from another: to sort, to weigh, to take stock. Whether the one looking is a priest, a herdsman, or a worshiper, the common thread is focused, evaluating attention.
The seven passages spread that one idea across strikingly different settings:
- a priest searches a skin condition for the one telltale sign that settles a case (Leviticus 13:36)
- a worshiper is forbidden to pick through his herd sorting the good animals from the bad (Leviticus 27:33)
- God promises to seek out and tend his scattered flock the way a shepherd takes stock of his sheep (Ezekiel 34:11 and 34:12)
- a person belatedly thinks better of a rash promise (Proverbs 20:25)
- the psalmist longs to fix his attention on God in the temple (Psalm 27:4)
Because no single English word stretches across inspecting, tending, and contemplating, translators reach for a different word almost every time, which hides the underlying unity. The verb sits close to the broader words for seeking, דרשׁ and בקשׁ, and it is paired with the first of these when God searches for his flock. But it is narrower and more evaluating than either: not merely to look for something, but to look it over and weigh what is found.
The hardest verse is Psalm 27:4, where the word appears in a form found nowhere else and stands beside the verb for gazing, חזה. Scholars are genuinely divided over whether it means to contemplate God's beauty, to seek an answer from him, or to serve in his house. The entry records those readings without pretending to settle them.
Nuances
What Ahaz reserves the old bronze altar for in 2 Kings 16:15. The clause has no agreed reading and no critical edition emends the text; the difficulty is one of meaning, not of the words themselves.
- contestedTo consider or decide what to do with it, the same reflective sense the verb carries in Proverbs 20:25.; M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (Anchor Bible), 1988, p. 189
- contestedTo inquire by, treating the demoted altar as a private oracle among Ahaz's other irregular practices.; M. A. Sweeney, I & II Kings (Old Testament Library), 2007; V. Fritz, 1 & 2 Kings (Continental Commentary), 2003
What the verb means in Psalm 27:4, where it takes a form found nowhere else and is paired with the verb "to gaze". Older technical readings (a priestly inspection of sacrifices, and a denominative "to come in the morning, visit") are now largely abandoned; three readings remain live.
- contestedTo contemplate, behold, or meditate on God's presence, driven by the tight parallel with "to gaze" and the lack of any object to inspect.; BDB, s.v. בקר, p. 133; H.-J. Kraus, Psalms 1-59 (Continental Commentary), ET 1988; P. J. Botha, "Psalm 27 and the Battle Against Fear," HTS 77 (2021)
- contestedTo inquire or seek an oracle in the sanctuary, taking the parallel word for God's "beauty" in a divinatory sense.; P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (Word Biblical Commentary), 1983; J. Goldingay, Psalms 1-41 (Baker), 2006; J. D. Levenson, "A Technical Meaning for n'm in the Hebrew Bible," VT 35 (1985): 61-67
- minorityTo serve or attend in God's house, pointing to sustained temple service rather than a single act.; B. D. Sommer, "From Confidence to Confusion: Structure and Meaning in Psalm 27," in Hakol Kol Yaakov (Brill), 2021; S. Terrien, The Psalms (Eerdmans Critical Commentary), 2003, p. 267