What Does Proverbs 7:6 Mean in the King James?

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

Proverbs 7:6 · KJV

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

The Hebrew verb for “looked” carries a gaze cast outward and downward, turning the window into a vantage point from which a hidden scene begins to emerge.

THE MEANING

You stand at a threshold of sight: the lattice frames what passes below, and a movement comes into view before its meaning is clear. Seeing arrives first; the next lines reveal what the speaker sees.

THE ROOT

נִשְׁקָפְתִּי

nishqafeti

GROWS FROM

שקף

To look out or down over a scene.

“looked” in this verse is nishqafeti. The root carries a sense of looking out or down over what lies below. The same verb describes the LORD looking down from heaven, so this gaze holds a vantage point beyond the immediate room.

ALSO GROWS

hashqifah: Look down.

הַשְׁקִיפָה

Psalm 102:19 uses this form for the LORD looking down from the height of the sanctuary, echoing the elevated vantage in this verse.

vayyashqifu: They looked toward.

וַיַּשְׁקִפוּ

In Genesis 18:16, the men look toward Sodom; the same root makes looking a gaze that reaches across distance toward a scene.

THE PATTERN

A gaze that surveys a scene brings what is hidden or distant into view.

For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;

Psalm 102:19 · KJVThe LORD’s gaze reaches from the sanctuary to the earth, making the unseen from below visible from above.

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Proverbs 15:3 · KJVThe verse extends the gaze across every place, where both good and evil remain in view.

For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

Luke 12:2 · KJVWhat is covered or hidden comes into view; concealment does not make it unseen.

THE THREAD

For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;

Psalm 102:19 · KJV

The Hebrew verb behind “looked” shares its root with the psalm’s “looked down.” One gaze reaches from a house toward the street; the other reaches from the sanctuary toward the earth, and both carry the sense of seeing from a vantage point.

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