To See Eye to Eye

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.

-- Isaiah 52: 7-8 (KJV)

We don't really mean "see eye to eye," and neither did the author of Isaiah. The Hebrew "eye to eye" actually means "right before the eye" and doesn't necessarily involve a second party, despite the way we use it today. And it has nothing to do with equality of views.

Here the author imagines the happy day when Yahweh will humiliate the oppressors of Israel by returning with his liberated people to the holy hill of Zion. As they witness these developments "eye to eye" (that is, plainly), sentries and heralds will shout the good news that Israel is free and that God the King has returned. These joyous events are supposed to bring harmony and peace among all the peoples of Palestine -- or make them see "eye to eye" in the modern sense, which appears to date to the 1870s.

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!