paqad, “to visit,” strong’s H6485

The first occurrence.

And YHVH visited Sarah as He had said, and YHVH did unto Sarah as He had spoken. Gen 21:1

The primitive root.

Strong’s H6485 פקד paqad, a primitive root meaning, “to visit, to reckon.” The pictographs are pey + quph + dalet.

pey פ, ף = the mouth, thus open, blow, scatter, edge
quph ק = sun on the horizon, thus condense, circle, time
dalet ד = the door, thus enter, move, hang

The various translations translate paqad as “remember,” “visit,” “take care of,” “come help,” “come to your aid,” “attend to.” Quite a variation! One of the derived nouns from this root is riverbank. To understand why this is so, we see that the river is edged (pey) by the bank which keeps the river condensed (quph) to its channel instead of flowing willy-nilly. Just as the river is compassed by the bank to keep it on its path, so Israel is compassed by the Lord God to keep them whither they go to and fro (dalet, as the door swings back and forth). Isn’t that beautiful? ♥

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