Hebrew word · H7805

שָׁזַף

shezafatu

to see

In the Bible: 'catch sight of, glimpse, look at' (Job 20:9, 'the eye that glimpsed him'; Job 28:7, 'the falcon's eye has not seen it'). In later Hebrew and Aramaic the root came to mean 'tan, scorch, darken by the sun', probably because of this very verse. Modern Hebrew shazuf means 'sun-tanned'.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Qal) to catch sight of, look on

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 Song of Songs 1:6

Range of meaning

In the Bible: 'catch sight of, glimpse, look at' (Job 20:9, 'the eye that glimpsed him'; Job 28:7, 'the falcon's eye has not seen it'). In later Hebrew and Aramaic the root came to mean 'tan, scorch, darken by the sun', probably because of this very verse. Modern Hebrew shazuf means 'sun-tanned'.

Against the English

ESV 'has looked upon me', KJV 'hath looked upon me' and BSB 'has gazed upon me' keep the sense of seeing. WEB and YLT 'scorched' and NASB 'burned' give the result. Each loses part of the picture: either the wordplay or the plain meaning.

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint parablepsen me, 'glanced at me sideways' or 'looked askance at me': a seeing verb. Vulgate decoloravit me, 'discoloured me': the result. The two ancient versions already split the same way modern ones do.

From the study of Job 20:9

Range of meaning

A rare verb found only three times in the Hebrew Bible: Job 20:9, Job 28:7 ('no falcon's eye has caught sight of it', said of the hidden path to wisdom) and Song of Songs 1:6 ('the sun has looked upon me', meaning it has darkened the woman's skin). Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'catch sight of, glimpse, look on'. The Song passage shows it can also mean the sun's 'gaze' that tans or scorches the skin, which some scholars treat as a second, related sense.

Against the English

English versions flatten it to 'saw'. That is not wrong, but it loses the hint of a short look or passing glimpse that sets it apart from the ordinary verb for seeing (rāʾāh).

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 28:7 pairs it with a bird of prey's sharp eye. The Greek translation (Septuagint) of Job 20:9 uses parablepō, 'glance at, look aside at', which also points to a passing look.

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 20:9 שְׁ֭זָפַתּוּ it caught sight of him

    The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer behold him.

    Here: 'Glimpsed him' or 'caught sight of him.' This rare poetic verb suggests a quick look. Hebrew leaves out the word 'that', so the phrase means 'an eye that once caught sight of him.' The verb itself hints at how briefly he was there to be seen.

  2. Job 28:7 שְׁ֝זָפַ֗תּוּ it catches sight of it

    No bird of prey knows that path; no falcon’s eye has seen it.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 1:6 שֶׁשֱּׁזָפַ֖תְנִי [on] whom <it> has looked on me

    Do not stare because I am dark, for the sun has gazed upon me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me a keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have neglected.

    Here: 'Because it has glanced at me.' The only other uses of this verb (Job 20:9; 28:7) mean 'to catch sight of'. The sun is pictured as one more onlooker: 'you don't need to stare, the sun already has.' Later Hebrew turned this word into the ordinary word for 'sun-tanned', which is why some versions say 'scorched'.

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