God is a God who “will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of parents upon the children.” We find this kind of visit from God in the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 5:9), and in the longer version of God’s most-quoted motto (Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18). One may wonder why the term “visit” is used in these verses, where punishment is strongly implied. But we also find all other sorts of visits from God in the Hebrew Bible, remarkable twists of meaning, all conveyed by the Hebrew verb paqad and its related words. All sorts of famous verses employ this versatile verb, including some fun surprises.
There are at least nine kinds of visits from God for which the verb paqad is used. Many of these meanings are also found in the Akkadian (Assyrian/Babylonian) verb paqadu that pre-dates Hebrew. Almost nowhere is this verb used for a social or sightseeing type of visit. What the meanings all have in common is the idea of a visit from a supreme military commander. Indeed, in Ugaritic, the Canaanite ancestor of Hebrew, the only meaning of this verb is to command troops.
Let’s start with the kind of “visit” found in the Second Commandment, a visit in order to judge and/or punish. We find this meaning approximately 65 times in the Hebrew Bible, including 27 times in Jeremiah. A typical example is Psalm 89:32, where God says, “Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” God uses the verse twice in Exodus 32:34 to warn that when he comes back, he will punish what Israel has done. If you have been behaving badly, look out when the Supreme Commander comes to visit!
Discipline is only one part of a commander’s visit. A commander may visit simply inspect the troops to see what’s happening in the field on the ground, what requires attention. In Exodus 3:16, God informs Moses that he has inspected and has seen the suffering of the Hebrews. Job asks, “when God comes to visit/inspect, what shall I answer him?” (Job 31:14) We find this meaning also in Job 5:24 and 7:18.
But a commander’s visit may also bring reward or rescue from a tough situation. The first time we find this verb is where YHWH “visits” Sarah by granting her a child in her old age (Genesis 21:1). God likewise “visits” Hannah with a child in her infertility in 1 Samuel 2:21. God “visits” famine-stricken Judah with food in Ruth 1:6. In Jeremiah 27:22 and 29:10, we are even told that God will “visit” Judah in Babylon to set them free from exile.
A commander’s visit may simply be to demonstrate care and concern. Possibly the most famous example would be Psalm 8:4, “What is humanity, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you (literally) visit him?” Also, Psalm 65:9 praises God for “visiting” the earth and watering it to provide what they need. In 1 Samuel 17:18, David is told by his father to “visit” his brothers on the battlefield as to their shalom or welfare, to see how they’re doing. And in Zechariah 11:16, God warns that he is raising up a shepherd who does not “visit” (care for) the perishing sheep, like any decent shepherd ought to do.
Part of a commander’s job is to take inventory, not only of their equipment (Exodus 38:21), but particularly of the size of their workforce. So we should not be surprised that we find paqad being used 92 times in the book to Numbers alone to refer to the numbering of the Hebrew people. The word is also used for David’s census of Israel in 2 Samuel 24:2-4 and 1 Chronicles 21:6. In verses like 1 Chronicles 23:24, the passive participle “ones who had been numbered” could also be translated “registered,” since the very next word is be-mispar, “by number,” which shows that paqad is about more than math or raw numbers. In Judges 20: 15 and 20:17, the army must count to see how many troops survived after their recent battle.
A most important military use of paqad is where it means “muster” or “mobilize troops.” We find this meaning in verses like Joshua 8:10, Judges 21:8, 1 Samuel 11:8, 1 Kings 20:15, 20:26-27, 2 Kings 3:6, and Isaiah 13:4. In passages such as 1 Samuel 13:15, 14:17 and 15:4, and 2 Samuel 18:1, the verb could mean either muster or number. One puzzling passage is Ezekiel 38:8, where one can translate that either Gog will be “mustered” or “visited” (with punishment) in the latter days.
In the process of visiting to see who shows up to fight, the commander also takes note of who is “missing,” which becomes the major meaning of the passive form of paqad. After a skirmish between the men of David and Ishbosheth, 2 Samuel 2:30 tells us that 19 men were “missing” (killed) besides Asahel. After the Hebrew soldiers return from a battle with the Midianites, we are told that “not one was missing.” (Numbers 31:49)
This meaning also occurs in non-military contexts. In 1 Samuel 20, this verb is used four times to say that either David will be “missing” from Saul’s table or that his seat will be “empty” (twice in 20:18, plus 20:25 and 20:27), that is, his presence will be “missing.” In 1 Samuel 25, three times we are told that nothing was “missing” as long as David’s men guarded Nabal’s flock (25:7, 15, 21). And in 2 Kings 10:19, Jehu commands the worshipers of Baal to come to a sacrifice, and decrees, “Let no one be missing.” (See also Isaiah 34:16.)
The commander also visits to “appoint” people to various roles and places. God appoints Jeremiah over nations and kingdoms (Jeremiah 1:10), while Judean officials appoint Jeremiah to prison (Jeremiah 37:21). Solomon appoints Jeroboam over his labor force (1 Kings 11:28). Joshua appoints/stations soldiers to guard captive kings in a cave (Joshua 10:18). In 1 Samuel 29:4, the Philistines send David back to the place where he was “assigned.” In Job 34:13, Elihu asks, “Who gave God a charge/assignment over the earth?” (See also Job 36:23) Commanders can also “appoint” various storage places: the Judean nobles stored or “appointed a place for” Jeremiah’s scroll (Jeremiah 36:20). Perhaps the most important verse of this kind is Psalm 31:5, echoed by Jesus from the cross: “Into your hand I commit/appoint my spirit.”
Finally, the commander can also visit to delegate subordinates to “oversee,” to do the visitation and inspection for him. Overseers (“those who visit”) are a common participle of paqad. See 2 Kings 22:5 and 22:9, 1 Chronicles 26:32, and 2 Chronicles 34:10 and 34:12.
Paqad is used in a few ways that are hard to categorize. In Ezekiel 23:21, the nymphomaniac Oholibah is told that “you visited (we might say “re-visited,” i.e. fondly remembered, or maybe repeated?) the lewdness of your youth.” The same idea may be found in Jeremiah 3:16, where we are told that no one will remember or “(re)visit” the Ark of the Covenant, although one may repoint the verb as passive and read that it “will not be missed.” In 2 Samuel 3:8, General Abner complains to Saul’s son, “You visit upon me (blame me for) iniquity about a woman,” namely, sleeping with Saul’s concubine. In Isaiah 38:10, Hezekiah laments that “I am deprived of (literally “appointed to,” or maybe “punished”?) the remainder of my days.” In 2 Kings 9:34, after Jehu slays Jezebel and then sits down for lunch, he says, “Attend to (literally “visit”) this accursed woman and bury her.” And in Judges 15:1, Samson “visits” his estranged wife with a gift to see if he can resume his place in the bedroom with her, the closest example of paqad as a social visit to be found in the Hebrew Bible.
What a combination of very different meanings for this Hebrew word, all stemming from an original picture of a visit from a commander, often the Supreme Commander: visiting to punish, to rescue or reward, visiting to inspect, to muster or mobilize, to do inventory or count heads, to visit and find missing, to appoint, and to oversee on behalf of a higher commander!
