Aramaic word · H5870

עַ֫יִן

'aynin

eye

Eye; by extension sight, perception, look, outward appearance; also a spring of water (in Hebrew). Eyes stand for perception, attention, watchfulness, and sometimes for desire or pride ('haughty eyes', Prov 6:17).

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 5 times in 4 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

eye

Aramaic of a.yin (עַ֫יִן ": eye" H5869A)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Daniel 7:20

Range of meaning

Eye; by extension sight, perception, look, outward appearance; also a spring of water (in Hebrew). Eyes stand for perception, attention, watchfulness, and sometimes for desire or pride ('haughty eyes', Prov 6:17).

Against the English

'Eyes' is accurate. What English cannot show by itself is that v.8 specifies 'eyes like the eyes of a man', a deliberately human feature on a beastly body.

Used elsewhere in the period

Elsewhere in the Bible, eyes on a figure signal awareness or knowledge (Ezek 1:18; 10:12, wheels 'full of eyes'; Zech 4:10, 'the eyes of the LORD'). Compare Rev 5:6, where the Lamb's seven eyes are the seven spirits of God.

Where it appears

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 5:5 וְעֵ֣ין and [the] eye of

    But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, so that they were not stopped until a report was sent to Darius and written instructions about this matter were returned.

Daniel · 4

  1. Daniel 4:34 עַיְנַ֣י׀ eye my

    But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me. Then I praised the Most High, and I honored and glorified Him who lives forever: “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

    Here: 'My eyes', placed first for emphasis. A man who had been grazing with his face toward the grass now looks up: a human posture is restored.

  2. Daniel 7:8 עַיְנִ֜ין כְּעַיְנֵ֤י eyes, like [the] eyes of

    While I was contemplating the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like those of a man and a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.

    Here: 'Eyes.' Horns do not have eyes, so the image is meant to be unsettling. The horn can watch, calculate and look down on others.

  3. Daniel 7:20 וְעַיְנִ֣ין and eyes

    I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn whose appearance was more imposing than the others, with eyes and with a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.

    Here: 'Eyes': strange on a horn. In v.8 they are 'like the eyes of a man', suggesting human cunning, watchfulness and the claim to see and know.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.