Hebrew word · H8265

שָׂקַר

umesakerot

to ogle

Found only here in the Hebrew Bible, so the meaning comes from cognates and ancient translations.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) (Piel) to ogle, be wanton

1a) ogling (participle)

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 Isaiah 3:16

Range of meaning

Found only here in the Hebrew Bible, so the meaning comes from cognates and ancient translations. Main options: (1) 'to glance, eye, ogle', from Aramaic/Syriac sqr 'to look at, inspect'; (2) 'to paint (the eyes)', linked to Aramaic siqrāʾ, 'red paint'; (3) with a different letter (shin), 'to deceive', from šeqer, 'lie'.

Against the English

KJV 'wanton eyes', BSB 'wanton eyes', WEB 'flirting eyes', ESV 'glancing wantonly', NASB 'seductive eyes', YLT 'deceiving with the eyes'. The sexualised renderings ('seductive', 'wanton') say more than the Hebrew clearly does. The verb is about how the eyes are used to attract notice; whether flirtation is meant is not certain.

How it drifted

'Wanton' in 1611 English covered 'playful, frisky, unrestrained' as well as 'lascivious'. Today it mostly means either 'gratuitous' ('wanton violence') or 'sexually loose', which narrows the picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has en neumasin ophthalmōn, 'with nods/winks of the eyes', and the Vulgate follows with 'nods of the eyes'. The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 62b) explains it as women who 'filled their eyes with kohl and winked'. Kohl is a black eye-cosmetic, well attested in the ancient Near East (compare Jezebel in 2 Kgs 9:30, and Jer 4:30).

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 3:16 וּֽמְשַׂקְּר֖וֹת and making seductive glances

    The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—

    Here: Found only here in the Hebrew Bible. Probably 'casting glances' (compare Aramaic sqr, 'to look at'). Ancient readers took it as winking or eyeing others, or as eyes painted with cosmetic. The picture is eyes used to draw attention.

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