What Does Exodus 2:25 Mean?
And God looked on the children of Israel, and God knew them.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.THE KEY
The KJV’s “had respect” carries the Hebrew sense of knowing: divine regard is not only a look, but recognition.
THE MEANING
You are not lost inside the crowd: the same gaze that sees your condition also knows you. The verse holds sight and recognition together, so your suffering is not anonymous before God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being one among many makes you unknown to God. What appears to be a passing glance is joined to knowing.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּדַע
wayyēdaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
to know, perceive, recognize
“knew” in this verse is wayyēdaʿ. The KJV’s “had respect” carries the deeper shade of knowing: this regard recognizes rather than merely notices. The verse places seeing alongside knowing, so the people are both visible and known.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun grows from the same knowing-root, opening “respect” into recognition that reaches beyond a glance.
mōdaʿ: acquaintance, kinsman
מוֹדָע
A word for someone known can also name a relation, hinting that this kind of knowing belongs to relationship rather than detached observation.
THE PATTERN
God’s seeing does not leave suffering at a distance; it becomes personal knowledge and attention.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.The eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their cry.I am the good shepherd. I perceive my own, and my own perceive me.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.The “know” here is יָדַע (yādaʿ, “know, perceive”), from the same root as וַיֵּדַע (wayyēdaʿ, “and [God] knew”) in this verse. Exodus 3:7 opens the depth of that knowing: it reaches into sorrow.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us