'Seen' in the Bible

I have seen the task which God has given to the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

But better off than either of them is the one who has not yet been born, who has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being kept and hoarded by their owner to his own misery.

Behold, here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in all the labor in which he labors under the sun during the few days of his life which God gives him—for this is his [allotted] reward.

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men:

It has not seen the sun nor had any knowledge; yet it has more rest and is better off than he.

Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice over and yet has seen no good and experienced no enjoyment—do not both go to one place [the grave]?”

I have seen everything during my [fleeting] days of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in [spite of] his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives a long life in [spite of] his wickedness.

All this I have seen while applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has exercised power over others to their detriment.

This [illustration of] wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and great it was to me:

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an error which proceeds from the ruler—

I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the ground.

“The watchmen who go around the city found me,And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’

The vision of [the prophet] Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning [the kingdom of] Judah and [its capital] Jerusalem, which he saw [as revealed by God] during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Then I said,“Woe is me! For I am ruined,Because I am a man of [ceremonially] unclean lips,And I live among a people of unclean lips;For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

The people who walk in [spiritual] darknessWill see a great Light;Those who live in the dark land,The Light will shine on them.

And the Lord will make His majestic voice heard,And show the descending of His arm [striking] in [His] fierce anger,And in the flame of a devouring fire,In the crashing sound of heavy rain, cloudburst, and hailstones.

“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘For the Lord, the God of David your father says this, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; listen carefully, I will add fifteen years to your life.

Then Isaiah said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

The islands and coastlands have seen and they fear;The ends of the earth tremble;They have drawn near and have come.

You have seen many things, but you do not observe them;Your ears are open, but no one hears.

He burns half of the wood in the fire; over this half he [cooks and] eats meat, he roasts meat and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.”

“Your nakedness will be uncovered,Your shame will also be exposed;I will take vengeance and will spare no man.”

But Zion (Jerusalem in captivity) said, “The Lord has abandoned me,And my Lord has forgotten me.”

“I have seen his [willful] ways, but I will heal him;I will lead him [also] and will restore comfort to him and to those who mourn for him,

“For in fact, darkness will cover the earthAnd deep darkness will cover the peoples;But the Lord will rise upon you [Jerusalem]And His glory and brilliance will be seen on you.

For from days of old no one has heard, nor has ear perceived,Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,Who works and acts in behalf of the one who [gladly] waits for Him.

“Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things?Can a land be born in one day?Or can a nation be brought forth in a moment?As soon as Zion was in labor, she also brought forth her sons.

I will set up a [miraculous] sign among them, and from them I will send survivors to the nations: Tarshish, Pul (Put), Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant islands and coastlands that have not heard of My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare and proclaim My glory among the nations.

Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am [actively] watching over My word to fulfill it.”

Moreover, the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king [of Judah], “Have you seen what that faithless Israel has done—how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there she was a prostitute?

Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes [a place of retreat for you between acts of violence]? Behold, I Myself have seen it,” says the Lord.

“I have seen your vile and detestable acts,Even your adulteries and your lustful neighings [after idols],And the lewdness of your prostitutionOn the hills in the fields.Woe (judgment is coming) to you, O Jerusalem!How long will you remain unclean [by ignoring My precepts]?”

“And I have seen a foolish and an offensive thing in the prophets of Samaria:They prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to go astray.

“Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:They commit adultery and walk in lies;They encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers,So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.All of them have become like Sodom to Me,And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and see, this day they are desolated and no one lives in them

“Why have I seen it?They are terrifiedAnd have turned back,And their warriors are beaten down.They take flight in hasteWithout looking back;Terror is on every side!”Says the Lord.

Jerusalem sinned greatly;Therefore she has become an unclean thing [and has been removed].All who honored her [now] despise herBecause they have seen her nakedness;Even she herself groans and turns [her face] away.

The adversary has spread out his handOver all her precious and desirable things;For she has seen the [Gentile] nations enter her sanctuary (the Jerusalem temple)—The ones whom You commandedThat they should not enter into Your congregation [not even in the outer courts].

I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen afflictionBecause of the rod of His wrath.

O Lord, You have seen the wrong [done to me];Judge my case.

You have seen all their vengeance,All their schemes against me.

So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the glory and brilliance of the Lord was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell face downward.

Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his [secret] room of carved images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has abandoned the land.’”

He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater repulsive acts than these [that they are committing].”

He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to commit the repulsive acts which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and repeatedly provoked Me to anger? And behold, they are putting the branch to their nose.

And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to the exiles in Chaldea (Babylonia). Then the vision that I had seen left me.

Thus says the Lord God, “Woe (judgment is coming) to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit [claiming to have seen things] but have [in fact] seen nothing.

They have seen falsehood and lying divination, saying, ‘The Lord says,’ but the Lord has not sent them. Yet they hope and make men to hope for the confirmation of their word.

Did you not see (make up) a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘The Lord declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?”’”

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Because you have spoken empty and delusive words and have seen lies, therefore behold, I am against you,” says the Lord God.

‘And it had strong branches for the scepters of rulers,And its height was raised above the thick branches and into the cloudsSo that it was seen [easily] in its height with the mass of its branches.

And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision I saw beside the River Chebar [near Babylon]; and I fell face downward.

And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me back to the bank of the river.

At the end of ten days it seemed that they were looking better and healthier than all the young men who ate the king’s finest food.

The king said to Daniel, whose [Babylonian] name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to reveal to me the [content of the] dream which I have seen and its interpretation?”

‘O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles or troubles you, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretation.

This is the dream which I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, explain its meaning, since none of the wise men of my kingdom are able to reveal its interpretation to me; but you are able, for a spirit of the holy gods is in you.’

He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and charged at him in [the fury of] his power and wrath.

When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; then behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man.

while I was still speaking in prayer and extremely exhausted, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me about the time of the evening sacrifice.

I have seen a horrible thing [sins of every kind] in the house of Israel!Ephraim’s prostitution (idolatry) is there; Israel has defiled itself.

Ephraim, as I have seen,Is planted in a pleasant [and prosperous] meadow like Tyre;But Ephraim will bring out his children to the executioner [for slaughter].

Then the Lord will be seen [hovering] over them [protecting His people],And His arrow will go forth like lightning;And the Lord God will blow the trumpetAnd will march in the windstorms of the south.

For the teraphim (household idols) speak wickedness (emptiness, worthlessness),And the diviners see lying visionsAnd tell false dreams;They comfort in vain.Therefore the people wander like sheep,They are afflicted and suffer because there is no shepherd.

Every cooking pot in [all the houses in] Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of hosts, and all who sacrifice will come and take them and boil [their sacrifices] in them. And in that day there will no longer be a Canaanite [that is, any godless or spiritually unclean person, whether Jew or Gentile] in the house of the Lord of hosts.

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

After hearing the king, they went their way; and behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them [continually leading the way] until it came and stood over the place where the young Child was.

“The people who were sitting (living) in [spiritual] darkness have seen a great Light,And for those who were sitting (living) in the land and shadow of [spiritual and moral] death,Upon them a Light has dawned.”

“Be [very] careful not to do your good deeds publicly, to be seen by men; otherwise you will have no reward [prepared and awaiting you] with your Father who is in heaven.

“Also, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to pray [publicly] standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets so that they may be seen by men. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, they [already] have their reward in full.

“And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they put on a sad and dismal face [like actors, discoloring their faces with ashes or dirt] so that their fasting may be seen by men. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, they [already] have their reward in full.

And when the demon was driven out [by Jesus], the mute man spoke; and the crowds wondered in amazement, saying, “Never before has anything like this [miracle] been seen in Israel.”

And as they were going down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Do not tell anyone what you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries (tefillin) wide [to make them more conspicuous] and make their tassels long.

For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming [in glory] of the Son of Man [everyone will see Him clearly].

And he got up and immediately picked up the mat and went out before them all, so that they all were astonished and they glorified and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Those who had seen it described [in detail] to the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man, and [told them all] about the pigs.

Seeing the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night (3:00-6:00 a.m.) He came to them, walking on the sea. And [acted as if] He intended to pass by them.

and they had seen that some of His disciples ate their bread with [ceremonially] impure hands, that is, unwashed [and defiled according to Jewish religious ritual].

As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus expressly ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it.

Later, Jesus appeared to the eleven [disciples] themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He called them to account for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen [from death].

But when he did come out, he was unable to speak to them. They realized that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he kept making signs to them, and remained mute.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed).

For my eyes have seen Your Salvation,

They were all astonished, and they began glorifying God; and they were filled with [reverential] fear and kept saying, “We have seen wonderful and incredible things today!”

So He replied to them, “Go and tell John about everything you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news (gospel) preached to them.

Those who had seen it told them how the man who had been demon-possessed had been healed.

When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found there alone. And they kept silent, and told no one at that time any of the things which they had seen [concerning the divine manifestation].

Woe to you! For you are like graves which are unmarked, and people walk over them without being aware of it [and are ceremonially unclean].”

Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he began praising and honoring God, saying, “Certainly this Man was innocent.”

and they did not find His body. Then they came back, saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive!

No one has seen God [His essence, His divine nature] at any time; the [One and] only begotten God [that is, the unique Son] who is in the intimate presence of the Father, He has explained Him [and interpreted and revealed the awesome wonder of the Father].

John gave [further] evidence [testifying officially for the record, with validity and relevance], saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.

I myself have [actually] seen [that happen], and my testimony is that this is the Son of God!”

I assure you and most solemnly say to you, we speak only of what we [absolutely] know and testify about what we have [actually] seen [as eyewitnesses]; and [still] you [reject our evidence and] do not accept our testimony.

What He has [actually] seen and heard, of that He testifies; and yet no one accepts His testimony [as true].

So when He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him, since they had seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they too came to the feast.