Ears and Eyes

My eyes fail with longing for Your word, while I say, “When will You comfort me?”   Psalm 119:82  NASB

Fail – Do you long for God’s Word?  Well then, just pick up the Bible and read.  Right?  That’s what we might assume is the intent of the poet’s cry.  After all, it his eyes that fail.  Perhaps he’s just getting old and he can’t see too well.  Is that what he means?  No, I don’t think so.

The first clue that we are misreading the Hebrew is that the poet’s longing is for ʾimrâ, not dābar.  The word means utterance, that is, the spoken word.  It isn’t about what is written.  It’s about what we hear.  Now “longing” makes some sense.  If I were longing for God’s written word, I could just pick up the book (or the scroll), but if I am longing for His spoken word, well, that’s another story altogether.  I can’t make that happen.  God has to choose to speak to me—personally—in audible sounds.  And for almost all of us, we identify precisely with the poet’s cry.  Sometimes the written words just aren’t enough.  We want to hear God speak.

But then we notice something very strange.  How can I long for a spoken word with my eyes?  Our English translation fails us here.  Hebrew is replete with idioms that employ body parts.  As Schultz comments:

More than the eye itself is implied by this word. Occasionally it represents the whole process of seeing and by extension, of understanding and obedience (Jer 5:21). However, in the ot it is the ear which is generally used in this figurative way. The eye is used to express knowledge, character, attitude, inclination, opinion, passion, and response. The eye is a good barometer of the inner thoughts of man.^[1]

While we can interpret this idiomatic phrase as if it were “my entire inner being” fails, I think there is a bit more to consider.  After all, even Schultz notes that most often it is the ear that is used figuratively, and certainly obedience in the Tanakh is directly associated with hearing, not seeing (“Hear O Israel,”).  Isn’t it possible that the poet deliberately uses the wrong idiom because he wants to arrest the readers thought?  Imagine reading this verse in Hebrew.  You know that the noun is about speech.  You know that it is God’s spoken word that establishes Israel position.  You know that obedience is commanded audibly.  But then you’re abruptly confronted with the wrong idiom.  What happens?  Instead of reading over the verse, you stop.  You’re challenged to put two apparently incompatible thoughts together, and this is, of course, exactly what poetry does.  Its brilliance is not in the individual vocabulary but rather in the juxtaposition of vocabulary that doesn’t quite fit—until you think deeper.

Why do eyes long for the spoken word of God?  Because the whole person is wrapped up in the eyes.  The passion of life is in the eyes.  And it is this passion that cries out for God’s voice.

Topical Index: eye, longing, word, ʾimrâ, ear, Psalm 119:82

^[1] Schultz, C. (1999). 1612 עִין. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 662). Moody Press.