Overview
El Roi (אֵל רֳאִי) reveals God as the One who sees, demonstrating His intimate awareness and care.
Biblical Context
First mentioned in 13 when Hagar, fleeing from Sarai, encounters God in the wilderness and realizes He sees her distress.
Theological Significance
- Emphasizes God’s personal attention to individuals
- Shows God’s care for the marginalized and afflicted
- Reveals that no human suffering goes unnoticed by God
Source Criticism
Documentary Hypothesis attribution: J source (Yahwist)
El Roi appears in 13, within the Hagar narrative — a passage most source critics assign to the J source. Key J markers in Gen 16 include: the active divine agent is the “angel of YHWH” (v.7), YHWH is the name used in direct divine speech, and the passage features an etiological naming tradition (the well Beer-lahai-roi, v.14) characteristic of J’s narrative interest in sacred site origins.
The two Hagar narratives in Genesis are a classic example of source division: Gen 16 (Hagar’s flight while pregnant) is assigned to J, while Gen 21:8-21 (Hagar’s expulsion with Ishmael) is assigned to E. Their parallel structure — both involving Hagar in the wilderness, both featuring divine intervention and provision — is frequently cited in introductory source criticism as evidence for the J/E distinction.
Scholarly Debate
The assignment of Gen 16 to J is broadly accepted but the parallel with Gen 21 (E) raises questions about how much was available to each hypothetical author. Some scholars treat the two Hagar narratives as doublets derived from a single oral tradition that J and E each adapted independently. The figure of Hagar — a non-Israelite woman who names God, and the only person in the Torah to do so — has attracted significant attention in recent feminist and postcolonial interpretation, though this does not bear directly on source provenance. See Documentary Hypothesis for methodological context.
Traditional scholarship reads Gen 16 as a unified narrative, noting the theological significance of God’s active care for those outside the covenant community.
Source Criticism
Documentary Hypothesis attribution: J source (Yahwist)
El Roi appears in 13, within the Hagar narrative — a passage most documentary hypothesis scholars assign to the J source. The narrative’s use of YHWH as the active divine agent (the “angel of YHWH” who encounters Hagar, v.7) is consistent with J’s characteristic pattern: YHWH acts in direct, intimate encounters with individuals. The name El Roi coined by Hagar reflects J’s interest in etiological naming traditions tied to sacred sites.
The two Hagar narratives in Genesis are a classic J/E division: Gen 16 (Hagar’s flight) is attributed to J, while Gen 21:8-21 (Hagar’s expulsion) is attributed to E — each using its characteristic divine name (YHWH in Gen 16, Elohim in Gen 21).
Scholarly Debate
The assignment of Gen 16 to J is broadly accepted. The parallel structure of the two Hagar narratives — both featuring divine intervention in the wilderness — has been cited as one of the clearer demonstrations of J/E source division. However, some scholars note that the passage’s unique element (a non-Israelite woman naming God) may indicate an independent folk tradition absorbed into J rather than J-composition itself. See Documentary Hypothesis for context.
Traditional scholarship reads Gen 16 as a unified narrative without source division, emphasizing the theological significance of God’s concern for the marginalized regardless of ethnic identity.
Textual Transmission
Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
El Roi (אֵל רֳאִי) appears once in the Hebrew Bible at Genesis 16:13, named by Hagar in the wilderness. The noun ro’i is a participial form of ra’ah (to see), and the name is unique as one coined by a non-Israelite woman — the only such naming of God in the Torah.
Paleo-Hebrew Script
The form 𐤀𐤋 𐤓𐤀𐤉 would appear in paleo-Hebrew in the pre-exilic period; the root r’y (to see) is widely attested in ancient Northwest Semitic inscriptions in both human and divine naming contexts. Paleo-Hebrew form: 𐤀𐤋 𐤓𐤀𐤉
Greek (Septuagint)
The LXX renders El Roi as ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἐπιδών με (ho theos ho epidon me, “the God who looked upon me”), a participial construction that captures the visual-attentive meaning of the Hebrew. The LXX translator chose a compound phrase rather than a single Greek equivalent.
Latin (Vulgate)
Jerome rendered El Roi as Deus videns (“the seeing God” or “God who sees”), a participial rendering that captures the ongoing or characteristic divine attribute of seeing rather than a single past act.
Aramaic (Targum Onkelos)
Onkelos employs a characteristically anti-anthropomorphic paraphrase, rendering the name as אֱלָהָא דִּי אִתְגְּלֵי קֳדָמַי (the God before whom I was revealed) rather than the anthropomorphic “God who sees me.” This technique of reversing the direction of divine perception — from God seeing Hagar to Hagar being revealed before God — is a hallmark of Onkelos’s theological method.
Syriac (Peshitta)
The Peshitta renders El Roi as ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ ܚܳܙܶܐ (Alaha Haze, “God who sees”), preserving the direct anthropomorphic description that Onkelos avoided. The Peshitta is generally less concerned with anti-anthropomorphic paraphrase than the Palestinian and Babylonian Targum traditions.