StrongerBible

mareh

מַרְאֶה

HebrewH4758appearance, sight, ...

Appears 103 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:9Gen 12:11Gen 24:16Gen 26:7Gen 29:17Gen 39:6Gen 41:2Gen 41:3Gen 41:4 (2×)Gen 41:21Exo 3:3Exo 24:17Lev 13:3Lev 13:4Lev 13:12Lev 13:20Lev 13:25Lev 13:30Lev 13:31Lev 13:32Lev 13:34Lev 13:43Lev 14:37Num 8:4Num 9:15Num 9:16Num 12:8Deu 28:34Deu 28:67Jos 22:10Jdg 13:6 (2×)1Sa 16:71Sa 17:422Sa 11:2Job 4:16Job 41:9(1)Ecc 6:9Ecc 11:9Sng 2:14 (2×)Sng 5:15Isa 11:3Isa 52:14Ezk 1:5Ezk 1:13 (2×)Ezk 1:14Ezk 1:16Ezk 1:27 (2×)Ezk 8:2Ezk 8:4Ezk 10:10
Word studymar-EHnoun

What mareh means

what something looks like: the way a person or thing presents itself to the eye, and by extension a sight seen or a vision

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This word names the visible side of things, what meets the eye. Its center is plain: the look of a face, a body, an object, the impression it makes on someone watching. From there it stretches in two natural directions. Looking outward, it becomes the act or experience of seeing itself, what a person takes in through the eyes. Looking upward, in the prophets, it becomes the word for an extraordinary sight, the vision a seer is shown.

The everyday use describes ordinary good or striking looks. Rachel, Joseph, David, Esther, and the cows of Pharaoh's dream are all introduced by how they appear. The priestly laws use the same word coldly and technically, asking only what a patch of skin or a wall looks like, deeper or no deeper than the surface, so that appearance becomes the basis of a verdict.

In Ezekiel and Daniel the word does its heaviest work. There the prophet keeps reaching for it because he is straining to report something at the edge of sight: the appearance of fire, the appearance of a man, the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. The repeated hedging is deliberate. He is telling us he saw a real sight while admitting that words can only reach its outward look, not its substance.

The senses are one word, not three unrelated words, because they all answer a single question: how did it look, what was seen? The shift is in what is being looked at, an ordinary face, the field of vision itself, or a holy spectacle, not in the meaning of the word.

Nuances

1athe outward look of a person or thing: how it appears, often its beauty or striking form
Gen 12:11Gen 24:16Gen 26:7Gen 29:17Gen 39:6Gen 41:2Gen 41:3Gen 41:4 (2×)Gen 41:211Sa 16:71Sa 17:422Sa 11:2
1bthe act or object of seeing: what the eyes take in
Deu 28:34Deu 28:67Ecc 6:9Ecc 11:9Isa 11:3Ezk 23:16
1can extraordinary sight a person is shown: a spectacle, and in the prophets a vision
Exo 3:3Exo 24:17Num 8:4Num 9:15Num 9:16Num 12:8Job 4:16Ezk 1:5Ezk 1:13 (2×)Ezk 1:14Ezk 1:16Ezk 1:26

What scholars say about mareh

The standard lexica treat מַרְאֶה as a single noun built on the verb to see, with a unified range from outward appearance to sight to vision. HALOT and BDB list the senses as the look or appearance of a person or thing, the act or object of sight, and a (chiefly prophetic) vision, without positing separate homonyms. DCH groups the occurrences the same way. TDOT and TWOT, treating the wider family of seeing, note how Ezekiel and Daniel exploit the word's outward-look nuance to report theophany at a careful remove, the appearance of the likeness of the glory.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. מַרְאֶהlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. מַרְאֶהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. מַרְאֶהlexicon
  • TDOT, s.v. רָאָה (raah)theological-dictionary
  • TWOT, no. 2095, רָאָהtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of מַרְאֶה

m s construct

מַרְאֵה, מַּרְאֵה, מַרְאֵי

Exo 24:17, Lev 13:3, Lev 13:12, Lev 13:32, Lev 13:43, Num 9:15, Num 9:16, Jdg 13:6

m s absolute

מַרְאֶה, מַּרְאֶה

Gen 2:9, Gen 12:11, Gen 24:16, Gen 26:7, Gen 29:17, Gen 39:6, Gen 41:2, Gen 41:3

m s construct

מַרְאֵהוּ, מַרְאָיו

Lev 13:30, Lev 13:31, Lev 13:34, Jdg 13:6, 1Sa 16:7, Job 4:16, Sng 5:15, Isa 52:14

m s construct

מַרְאֵיהֶם

Ezk 1:13, Ezk 1:16, Ezk 10:10, Ezk 10:22, Dan 1:15

m s construct

מַרְאֵיהֶן

Gen 41:21, Lev 14:37, Ezk 1:5, Nam 2:4

m s construct

מַרְאֶהָ

Lev 13:4, Lev 13:20, Lev 13:25

m s construct

מַרְאֵיךְ, מַרְאַיִךְ

Sng 2:14, Sng 2:14

m s construct

מַרְאֵינוּ

Dan 1:13