What Does Genesis 28:8 Mean in the King James?
And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Esau sees the Canaanite daughters through his father’s eyes, so Isaac’s judgment enters Esau’s own sight.
THE MEANING
A choice comes into view through the eyes of someone whose judgment carries weight for you. The daughters are described through how they appear to Isaac, and Esau sees that dissonance. The verse holds the instant when another’s judgment enters your sight, before action follows.
THE ROOT
רָאָה
ra’ah
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look, or perceive.
The Hebrew verb names more than the receipt of visual information: Esau perceives that these marriages look wrong to Isaac. The verse makes sight relational, Esau’s seeing includes the judgment held in his father’s eyes.
ALSO GROWS
mar’eh: Appearance or sight
מַרְאֶה
The branch links seeing with how something appears, fitting the verse’s focus on the daughters as they appear to Isaac.
ro’eh: Seer; one who sees
רֹאֶה
This branch makes the perceiver explicit: what Esau recognizes depends on whose eyes are doing the evaluating.
רָעוֹת
ra’ot
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be bad, evil, or harmful.
The word carries the force of “bad” in Isaac’s eyes, giving the phrase more weight than a simple lack of preference. English “pleased not” leaves room for that deeper judgment: the marriages appear wrong to him.
ALSO GROWS
ra: Bad, evil, or harmful
רַע
This familiar branch shows the stronger evaluative shade carried by the daughters being “pleased not.”
ra’ah: Evil or calamity
רָעָה
This branch shows how the root can name something regarded as harmful, not merely something someone dislikes.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats seeing as judgment-bearing: the eyes that evaluate a choice shape how it appears.
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.THE THREAD
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.Both verses use ראה (ra’ah, “see”) as someone looks at daughters and evaluates what he sees. In Genesis 6 they appear fair to the observers; here they appear bad in Isaac’s eyes, so the repeated root brings the difference in judgment into view.
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