H2372 — חָזָה (chazah)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H2372
Original: חָזָה
Transliteration: châzâh
Pronunciation: khaw-zaw
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Cognates: H2377 חָזוֹן (chazon) "vision"; H2374 חֹזֶה (chozeh) "seer"; H2384 חִזָּיוֹן (chizzayon); H4236 מַחֲזֶה (machazeh); H2370/H2376 Aramaic counterparts
Occurrences: 47 unique verses (58 tokens) in OT
Books: 13
First Occurrence: Exo 18:21 — "Moreover thou shalt provide (chazah) out of all the people able men, such as fear God..."
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root; to gaze at; mentally to perceive, contemplate (with pleasure); specifically, to have a vision of: — behold, look, prophesy, provide, see.

The verb differs from the more general H7200 רָאָה (ra'ah, "to see") by leaning toward fixed, contemplative gazing and, in the prophetic corpus, revelatory perception. It is the root behind the prophetic vocabulary of "vision" (chazon) and "seer" (chozeh).

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Attestations in the Masoretic text are overwhelmingly Qal (sample of attested forms from BHSA: Qal perfect/imperfect/participle/wayyiqtol dominate). No Piel/Hiphil attestations in the biblical data — the verb stays in the active Qal throughout its 58 OT tokens.

Stem	Share	Typical Meaning
Qal	~100%	gaze at, perceive, behold (esp. in vision)

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
behold / to behold / doth behold / I will behold	8	17.0%
see / may see / shall see / will ye see / ye shall see / let...see	13	27.7%
saw / he saw / they saw / did see / thou sawest	11	23.4%
seeth / he seeth / Seest thou	5	10.6%
have seen / I have seen / but have seen / they have seen	6	12.8%
look / Look / that we may look	3	6.4%
prophesy / Prophesy	2	4.3%
provide (Exo 18:21)	1	2.1%
Other idiomatic pairings	5	10.6%

Roughly 85% of occurrences render some form of "see / behold / look", with a small but distinctive cluster translating "prophesy" (Isa 30:10; Eze 13) and one unique rendering "provide" (Exo 18:21, where the idea is "have the sight/discernment to select").

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Micah	2	1.9
Habakkuk	1	1.8
Job	9	0.8
Isaiah	9	0.7
Amos	1	0.7
Lamentations	1	0.6
Ezekiel	6	0.5
Zechariah	1	0.5
Psalms	9	0.4
Proverbs	3	0.3
Exodus	2	0.2
Numbers	2	0.2
Song of Songs	1	—

Patterns. The verb is a prophetic–poetic word. It clusters in the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve) and in Wisdom poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs). It is nearly absent from the Torah (only Exo 18:21; 24:11; Num 24:4, 16) and the historical narrative corpus (Joshua–Kings, Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, Esther, Ruth). The Numbers occurrences both belong to Balaam's oracles — the single Torah passage framed as prophetic vision.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Prophetic Vision — The Oracle a Prophet "Sees"¶

chazah is the technical verb for receiving divine revelation through visionary perception. Superscriptions of prophetic books use it to introduce the whole prophetic witness.

Isa 1:1 — "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw (chazah) concerning Judah and Jerusalem"
Isa 2:1 — "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw (chazah) concerning Judah and Jerusalem"
Isa 13:1 — "The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see (chazah)"
Amos 1:1 — "The words of Amos... which he saw (chazah) concerning Israel"
Mic 1:1 — "The word of the LORD... which he saw (chazah) concerning Samaria and Jerusalem"
Hab 1:1 — "The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see (chazah)"

2. Balaam-Type Visionary Perception — "Who Saw the Vision of the Almighty"¶

The verb describes the prophet's altered-state reception of a revelation.

Num 24:4 — "which saw (chazah) the vision (machazeh) of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open"
Num 24:16 — "saw (chazah) the vision of the most High"
Eze 12:27 — "The vision that he seeth (chazah) is for many days to come"

3. False Vision / Prophesying Lies¶

A sharply marked sub-use: chazah often labels what false prophets "see" (vanity, lies, vain divination). The verb itself is neutral — content determines truth or falsehood.

Isa 30:10 — "Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy (chazah) not unto us right things"
Lam 2:14 — "Thy prophets have seen (chazah) vain and foolish things for thee"
Eze 13:6 — "They have seen (chazah) vanity and lying divination"
Eze 13:7 — "Have ye not seen (chazah) a vain vision?"
Eze 13:8, 23; 21:29 — repeated "whiles they see (chazah) vanity"
Zec 10:2 — "the diviners have seen (chazah) a lie"

4. Beatific / Worshipful Gazing upon God¶

A distinctive poetic use — seeing God, His face, His beauty, His works — carrying connotations of intimacy, longing, or reverent contemplation.

Exo 24:11 — "also they saw (chazah) God, and did eat and drink"
Job 19:26 — "yet in my flesh shall I see (chazah) God"
Job 19:27 — "Whom I shall see (chazah) for myself, and mine eyes shall behold"
Psa 11:7 — "his countenance doth behold (chazah) the upright" (also, "they...behold his face")
Psa 17:15 — "I will behold (chazah) thy face in righteousness"
Psa 27:4 — "to behold (chazah) the beauty of the LORD"
Psa 63:2 — "To see (chazah) thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary"

5. Contemplative Observation of the World / Persons¶

In wisdom poetry the verb denotes the sage's discerning observation of human life.

Pro 22:29 — "Seest thou (chazah) a man diligent in his business?"
Pro 24:32 — "Then I saw (chazah), and considered it well"
Pro 29:20 — "Seest thou (chazah) a man that is hasty in his words?"
Job 8:17 — "His roots... seeth (chazah) the place of stones"
Job 15:17; 27:12; 34:32; 36:25 — Job's appeal to shared human perception

6. Seeing Judgment or Vindication¶

The psalmist/prophet "sees" God's judgment fall on enemies or His deliverance arrive.

Psa 46:8 — "Come, behold (chazah) the works of the LORD"
Psa 58:10 — "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth (chazah) the vengeance"
Isa 26:11 — "they shall see (chazah), and be ashamed for their envy"
Isa 33:17 — "Thine eyes shall see (chazah) the king in his beauty"
Isa 33:20 — "thine eyes shall see (chazah) Jerusalem a quiet habitation"
Mic 4:11 — "let our eye look (chazah) upon Zion"

7. Discerning Selection — "To Look Out / Provide"¶

A single-occurrence idiom where visual discernment is applied to vetting people.

Exo 18:21 — "Moreover thou shalt provide (chazah) out of all the people able men, such as fear God" (Jethro's counsel to Moses)

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occ	Typical Pattern
אֲשֶׁר (asher)	H834	12x (26%)	"which he saw concerning..." — standard superscription frame
לֹא (lo)	H3808	11x (23%)	negation — "see not," "have not seen," false-vision polemic
יְהוָֹה (YHWH)	H3068	9x (19%)	the LORD as object/source of seeing
עַיִן (ayin) "eye"	H5869	8x (17%)	"mine eyes shall behold" — pairing organ of sight with visionary verb
עַל (al)	H5921	8x (17%)	"concerning..." — object of the vision (city/nation)
בֵּן (ben)	H1121	7x (15%)	prophet's patronymic in superscriptions ("son of Amoz")
יוֹם (yom)	H3117	7x (15%)	"the vision is for many days"
רָאָה (ra'ah)	H7200	7x (15%)	paired with general verb of sight — parallelism
שָׁוְא (shav) "vanity"	H7723	7x (15%)	"seen vanity" — false-vision cluster
אָמַר (amar)	H559	6x (13%)	"which he saw... saying" reporting frame
נְאֻם (neum) "oracle"	H5002	5x (11%)	prophetic declaration formula
דָּבָר (dabar) "word"	H1697	5x (11%)	"the word... which he saw"
דָבַר (dabar) "speak"	H1696	4x (9%)	speaking + seeing as prophetic pair
מֶלֶךְ (melek) "king"	H4428	5x (11%)	vision dated to reign of a king
גָּלָה (galah) "uncover"	H1540	4x (9%)	divine unveiling paralleling chazah
יָדַע (yada) "know"	H3045	4x (9%)	perception + knowledge paired
פָּנִים (panim) "face"	H6440	5x (11%)	"behold thy face" / "his face doth behold"

Word Family / Cognates (root חזה)¶

H2377 חָזוֹן (chazon) — vision, revelation (37x) — the nominal content of chazah
H2374 חֹזֶה (chozeh) — seer, prophet (17x) — the active participle used as title
H2378 חָזוֹת (chazoth) — vision (1x hapax)
H2380 חָזוּת (chazuth) — conspicuous appearance / vision (6x)
H2384 חִזָּיוֹן (chizzayon) — nocturnal vision (9x)
H4236 מַחֲזֶה (machazeh) — vision (4x) — frequent partner of chazah (Num 24:4, 16)
H2370 חֲזָא / H2376 חֵזֵו — Aramaic verb and noun; the Daniel/Ezra counterpart

Synonyms¶

H5027 נָבַט (nâbaṭ) — look intently, regard; close observational verb
H1696 דָּבַר (dâbar) — speak; overlaps in prophetic settings where the seen word is then declared
H7200 רָאָה (râʼâh) — see; the broadest Hebrew sight verb and the study's primary comparison point

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H2372.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared KJV	Key Difference
רָאָה (ra'ah)	H7200	"see," "behold," "saw"	ra'ah is the general verb of visual/experiential seeing (1300+); chazah specializes in contemplative or revelatory sight
יָרֵא (yare) — parsing overlap	H3372	"shall see" (rare)	yare = to fear/revere; confusion only in certain English renderings
שׁוּר (shur)	H7789	"behold," "see"	shur = to eye attentively, spy; lacks prophetic-revelation specialization
נָבַט (nabat)	H5027	"look," "behold"	nabat = to look intently, regard; chazah carries revelation/contemplation nuance
הֵן / הִנֵּה	H2005 / H2009	"behold" (demonstrative particle)	those are attention-particles, not verbs of seeing
חֲזָא (Aramaic)	H2370	"saw," "have seen"	direct Aramaic cognate of chazah — identical semantics, used in Daniel/Ezra

UBS Semantic Domains¶

Code	Domain Label	Notes
002004001005	See	Core visual/perceptual field for beholding and contemplative sight
002001001003	Alive	Secondary experiential field returned by the tool in "seeing God / seeing life" contexts
002002001016	Search	Fits the discerning/look-out nuance seen in Exo 18:21 and wisdom observation
002004002007	Know	Cognitive-perceptual extension from seeing to understanding
002004002015	Vision	Direct prophetic-vision field, matching the root's seer/vision nouns

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
ὁράω (horaō) G3708	28	3.65	Primary general-sight equivalent
ὅρασις (horasis) G3706	8	5.52	Noun "vision" used in verbless constructions or when chazah is nominalized; strongest prophetic bridge
μάταιος (mataios) G3152	6	5.44	Co-occurs in "seen vanity" passages (Eze 12–13)
ψευδής (pseudēs) G5571	6	5.16	Parallel tracking of "false vision" cluster
μαντεύομαι (manteuomai) G3132	3	6.95	Pagan divination verb used in polemic contexts
ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalyptō) G601	3	4.14	"reveal" — bridges chazah → NT revelation vocabulary
ὀφθαλμός (ophthalmos) G3788	8	2.99	Carries over the ayin/eye collocation
ἀδικία (adikia) G93	3	3.13	False-vision cluster ("iniquity" parallel)

The strongest bridges into NT vocabulary are horaō / horasis (general and prophetic sight) and apokalyptō (revelation). The prophetic-visionary use is carried in Acts 2:17 and Rev 9:17, where ὅρασις translates revelatory "visions."