What Does Psalm 94:7 Mean?
And they say, The LORD will not see, and the God of Jacob will not discern it.
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
Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.THE KEY
Even the claim that the LORD cannot see is spoken inside the sight it denies.
THE MEANING
The verse names the belief that harm can be hidden from the LORD and exposes it as a denial, not a reality. The LORD sees what is done, and the God of Jacob discerns it; concealment does not make it disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that what escapes human notice escapes the LORD’s perception too.
THE ROOT
יִרְאֶה
yir’eh
GROWS FROM
רָאָה
ra’ah
To see, look at, or perceive.
“see” in this verse is yir’eh. The word reaches beyond eyesight to perception, so the claim imagines that the act escapes notice altogether. Its root also forms words for a seer and for sight itself, keeping the perceiver and what is perceived in one family.
ALSO GROWS
ro’eh: A seer; one who sees.
רֹאֶה
This branch makes seeing an active faculty of perception, the very faculty the speakers claim is absent.
mar’eh: Sight, appearance, or vision.
מַרְאֶה
The root extends to what is seen, linking the act of seeing with the field of perception the denial tries to close.
יָבִין
yavin
GROWS FROM
בִּין
bin
To discern, distinguish, or understand.
“discern” in this verse is yavin. The verse pairs sight with discernment: the claim is not only that the act goes unseen, but that its meaning goes unrecognized. The Hebrew verb carries understanding alongside the KJV’s “regard,” revealing a denial of both perception and comprehension.
ALSO GROWS
binah: Understanding or discernment.
בִּינָה
This branch shows that the root concerns grasping what something means, not merely noticing it.
mevin: One who understands or discerns.
מֵבִין
The same root names a perceiver who can make sense of what is seen, sharpening the verse’s second denial.
THE PATTERN
What people hide or deny remains within divine perception and discernment.
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the harm and the good.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?The same Hebrew root רָאָה (ra’ah, to see or perceive) appears in “Thou God seest me.” The sight denied here is also personal recognition: the one who sees what others hide sees the person who feels unseen.
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