Observe, observation

The verb to observe is used throughout the AV in the sense of ‘give heed to.’ Thus Pr 2375 ‘My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways’ (RV ‘delight in,’ the translation of the ΝΣ Ne Gn 37" ‘his father observed the eaves (RV ‘kept the saying in mind’); Hos 148 ‘I have heard him, and observed him’ (3yws) ΠΝ Ἢ; RV ‘I have answered and will regard him’; ef. Shaks. Hamlet, Il. i.

162, ‘the observed of all observers’); Jon 28 ‘They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy’ (RV ‘regard,’ as in Ps 815 AV and RY); Sir 4” ‘Observe the opportunity and beware of evil’ (συντήρησον καιρόν); Mk 6” ‘For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him’ (συνετήρει, AVm ‘kept him,’ or ‘saved him’; RV ‘kept him safe’), the last passage ‘observed him’ means ‘gave him reverence,’ which is the tr. of Tind. followed b Cran., Gen.

, and the Bishops; ef. Shaks. 71 Henry IV. tv. iv. 30, ‘He is gracious, if he be observed.’ But the Greek verb means either to keep (laws, ete.) or else to preserve, and the latter is plainly the meaning here. See Swete in loc. Wyclif and the Rhem. Version have ‘kept him after Vulg. custodiebat eum. ‘Observation’ in Lk 17”, ‘the kingdom of God cometh not with observation,’ means at‘ertive OBSTINACY watching (Gr.

παρατήρησις), as in Walton, Compleat Angler, 99, ‘I told you Angling is an art, either by practice or a long observation or both.’ The word also occurs in Neh 134 AVm (text ‘ office,’ RV ‘observance’), where it means ‘ceremony,’ ‘rite,’ or to use the modern word in RY ‘obsery- ance.’ In this sense ‘observation’ was once com- mon. Thus, Rhem. NT on Ac 1733, ‘Paul calleth not them superstitious for adoring the true and only God with much devotion . . or any other Christian observation.

’ Observer of Times—See DIVINATION, SOOTH- SAYING. J. HASTINGS.