12/07/2025
What Does El Roi Mean?
We may have noticed that many names for God include “El.” El typically refers to God. But Roi brings another attribute of our Lord to the equation. El Roi means “The God who sees me.”
Ro’iy in the original Hebrew can be translated as shepherd, or as seeing, looking, or gazing.
In other words, when we feel most invisible and forgotten by everyone else, we can remember that God does see us. He witnesses our struggles and comes alongside us. After all, if he sees the sparrows and takes care of them (Matthew 6:26), how much more does he care for us in our greatest time of need? (Bible Study Tools)
Who Called God ‘El Roi’ in the Bible and Why?
Unlike many other names for God, we only find the instance of this name once throughout Scripture, and it comes from a very unusual source (Genesis 16).
For those not familiar with the story of Abraham and Hagar, Abraham (the father and patriarch of the Jewish nation) found himself nearing the age of 100 and rather childless. Years before, God had promised him offspring that would form a great nation (Genesis 12:2-3). But it was a little tricky to do that without children.
Abraham gets impatient and decides to take matters into his own hands, per the suggestion of his seemingly barren wife Sarah (Sarai at the time of Genesis 16). He sleeps with his Egyptian servant Hagar, and she gets pregnant.
Hagar appears to dislike Sarai, and Sarai won’t have it. So she abuses Hagar. Fleeing Sarai’s mistreatment, Hagar runs away. She stumbles into the angel of the Lord, who promises Hagar that her son will also form a great nation. He tells her that through her bloodline, she’ll have many descendants.
Because God sees her when no one else does, Hagar declares, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
Of course, we could pinpoint numerous examples of God seeing those who society chose not to see. He healed lepers, blind men, and the demon-possessed. He had a conversation with an outcast Samaritan woman at the well. It seems, throughout all of Scripture, that God chooses to see the unseen.
