to see: to perceive something with the eyes or the mind, whether an ordinary sight or a vision.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
In Biblical Aramaic this is the everyday word for seeing. It stretches from plain physical sight (a king watching a mysterious hand write on a wall, or idols that have eyes yet cannot see) to the mind's recognition of a fact ("you can see that my decision is final"). The English verb "see" reaches across the same range, which makes this word unusually easy to carry over.
It is best known from the book of Daniel, where it becomes the standard way to report a dream or a vision. Again and again Daniel says he was watching in the visions of the night as one revealed scene gave way to the next. The word itself does not mean "to have a supernatural vision"; it is ordinary seeing, and the wonder belongs to what is shown, not to the verb.
One frozen expression stands apart. In Daniel 3:19 the word is used for what is "seen as fitting," so the furnace is heated seven times hotter than was proper. Here the idea of seeing has hardened into "what one regards as the right thing to do," and English drops the seeing entirely, rendering it "than was customary" or "than was wont."
Nuances
1ato see with the eyes: ordinary physical sight, including watching an event or witnessing something.
Ezr 4:14Dan 3:25Dan 3:27Dan 5:5Dan 5:23
1bto see in a dream or vision: the seeing of revealed images, as when Daniel watches scenes unfold in his night visions.
The original is the plain, everyday word for seeing and is used for ordinary sight, so it does not by itself carry the solemn, attention-arresting weight that "behold" adds.Dan 5:5Dan 5:23
Both
In Daniel's vision reports both words render the act of watching a scene unfold, where "I saw" and "I beheld" are interchangeable.Dan 7:9
Only behold
"Behold" in English sounds formal and signals wonder or a command to look; the original word is neutral and gains its dramatic force only from the visions it happens to report.
“perceive”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
This is Daniel's word for a revelation that arrives through the eyes. Over and over the king or the prophet is watching while images unfold in a dream or a night vision: a huge statue, a great tree, four beasts coming up out of the sea, a human figure coming with the clouds. The hearing word never carries a vision like this.Dan 2:31Dan 4:10Dan 7:2Dan 7:13
It also does the ordinary work of eyesight: what someone watches happen right in front of them, in a way onlookers can confirm afterward. Nebuchadnezzar counts four men walking loose in the fire, his officials crowd around to look at the three who came out unharmed, and Belshazzar watches a hand writing on the palace wall.Dan 3:25Dan 3:27Dan 5:5
It has settled into fixed expressions that have left eyesight behind altogether. One says what is "fitting" or usual, as when the furnace is stoked seven times hotter than was normal for it. Another says what a person will put up with, as when officials write that they cannot sit and watch the king dishonored. The hearing word has no comparable set phrases.Dan 3:19Ezr 4:14
Both
Both name a basic way of taking the world in, and Daniel 5:23 denies both of them in one breath: the images of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone cannot see, cannot hear, and do not know. Pairing the two words is the point of the taunt, because between them they cover the senses a living being uses, and the idols have neither.Dan 5:23
Either word can report the knowledge a person has ended up with rather than the raw sensation. Nebuchadnezzar tells his advisers they can see that his order is fixed, meaning they have worked out where they stand, and Belshazzar tells Daniel he has heard that a divine spirit rests on him, meaning he knows it as settled fact.Dan 2:8Dan 5:14
This is the word for catching a sound that demands an immediate response. One chapter repeats the order four times: the moment the crowd hears the horn, pipe, and the rest of the music, everyone is to fall down and worship the golden statue. Sight is never the trigger in these scenes, only the sound.Dan 3:5Dan 3:7Dan 3:10Dan 3:15
It brings knowledge secondhand, through what other people say. Belshazzar tells Daniel he has "heard" that he can untangle riddles, and Darius hears the report about Daniel's prayers and is distressed by it. Nobody in these books learns about a person by seeing; that news always travels by ear.Dan 5:16Dan 6:14
It reaches all the way to obedience. At the close of Daniel's vision every ruling power will serve the one given the kingdom and obey him, so the word names compliance rather than a working ear. The seeing word never stretches into submission like this.Dan 7:27
ḥazah in the other biblical languages
חָזָהHebrew“to see”The Hebrew verb spelled the same way; in Hebrew it leans toward prophetic seeing, the beholding of a vision, while Hebrew keeps a separate general verb for everyday sight. This Aramaic twin does both jobs at once.
ὁράωGreek“to see: see”The common Greek verb for seeing, and the word behind Revelation's repeated "I saw"; like this Aramaic word it covers both plain sight and revealed vision.
What scholars say about ḥazah
This root is the standard verb of visual and mental perception in Biblical Aramaic, attested throughout Daniel and once in Ezra. Where Biblical Hebrew distinguishes the general verb רָאָה (H7200, "to see") from חָזָה (H2372), which specializes toward prophetic or visionary seeing, Aramaic uses this one root across the whole range: from ordinary sight to the apocalyptic vision reports that structure Daniel 2, 4, and 7, marked by the recurring formula חָזֵה הֲוֵית ("I was watching"). The passive participle in Daniel 3:19 functions idiomatically for what is deemed proper or customary. The lexical sense is settled, and the standard lexica and theological dictionaries treat it without significant disagreement.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. חֲזָה (Biblical Aramaic)lexicon
BDB, Biblical Aramaic section, s.v. חֲזָהlexicon
A. Jepsen, 'חָזָה ḥāzāh', TDOT 4:280-290theological-dictionary
John J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1993), on the vision reports of Daniel 7commentary