Jehovah-jireh

Jehovah will see; i.e., will provide, the name given by Abraham to the scene of his offering up the ram which was caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah. The expression used in Gen. 22:14, “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen,” has been regarded as equivalent to the saying, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.”

je-ho'-va-ji'-re (yahweh yir'-eh, "Yahweh sees"): The name given by Abraham to the place where he had sacrificed a ram provided by God, instead of his son Isaac (Ge 22:14). The meaning plainly is that the Lord sees and provides for the necessities of His servants. There is an allusion to Ge 22:8 where Abraham says, "God will provide himself (the Revised Version, margin "will see for himself") the lamb for a burnt offering." The verse (22:14 the King James Version) goes on to connect the incident with the popular proverb, "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen" (the Revised Version (British and American) "provided"), the Revised Version margin suggests "he shall be seen." "The mount of Yahweh" in other places denotes the temple hill at Jerusalem (Ps 24:3; Isa 2:3, etc.). With changes of the punctuation very different readings have been suggested. According to Swete's text: "And Abraham called the name of that place (the) `Lord saw' (aorist) in order that they may say today: `In the mountain (the) Lord was seen'" (aorist). Septuagint reads, "In the mountain Yahweh seeth," or "will see." If there is merely a verbal connection between the clauses we should most naturally read, "In the mount of Yahweh one is seen (appears)," i.e. men, people, appear--the reference being to the custom of visiting the temple at pilgrimages (Driver, HDB, under the word). But if the connection of the proverb with the name "Yahweh-jireh" depends on the double sense of the word "see," then the best explanation may be, Yahweh sees the needs of those who come to worship before Him on Zion, and there "is seen," i.e. reveals Himself to them by answering their prayers and supplying their wants. His "seeing," in other words, takes practical effect in a "being seen" (ibid.).

W. Ewing