To hide (by covering), literally or figuratively
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H5641 is a Hebrew verb for hiding, concealing, sheltering, or withdrawing something from sight. Its uses range from a person taking refuge to a guilty matter being concealed, from Moses covering his face in holy fear to the LORD hiding His face in covenant judgment.
Reader summary
Full entry for סָתַר (H5641) · Open the biblical lexicon
H5641 is a Hebrew verb for hiding, concealing, sheltering, or withdrawing something from sight. Its uses range from a person taking refuge to a guilty matter being concealed, from Moses covering his face in holy fear to the LORD hiding His face in covenant judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 81 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include hide (12), hiding (4), hidden (3), is hidden (3), to hide (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:14. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (23), Isaiah (14), Job (8), 1 Samuel (6).
H5641 is a Hebrew verb for hiding, concealing, sheltering, or withdrawing something from sight. Its uses range from a person taking refuge to a guilty matter being concealed, from Moses covering his face in holy fear to the Lord hiding His face in covenant judgment. In 2 Kings 11:2, Joash is hidden from Athaliah so a child marked for death is preserved. Proverbs 22:3 describes prudence that sees danger and takes cover.
Jeremiah 16:17 insists that human ways and guilt are never hidden from God. The word therefore does not make secrecy either virtuous or wicked by itself. A hiding place may protect the vulnerable, evade responsibility, preserve privacy, or express broken fellowship. The surrounding actors, danger, covenant relationship, and moral purpose decide the sense. H5641 opens teaching on refuge, divine knowledge, prudent boundaries, and the anguish of God’s hidden face.
It corrects both the demand that faithful people disclose everything to everyone and the claim that concealed wrongdoing escapes God’s sight.
H5641 gathers physical hiding, protective shelter, concealed conduct, withheld knowledge, and the relational image of a hidden face. Scripture evaluates the concealment by asking what is hidden, from whom, and for what purpose. No creature is hidden from God, yet God may provide shelter and may describe covenant estrangement as hiding His face.
But Jehosheba daughter of King Joram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.
Jehosheba hides the threatened child Joash from Athaliah, making concealment an act of courageous protection rather than deceit for personal gain.
The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.
The prudent person sees danger and takes cover, while the simple continue forward and bear the consequences.
For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.
The Lord declares that Israel’s ways and guilt are not concealed from His eyes, closing every imagined refuge from divine truth.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Hide through active covering; ranges from physical concealment to divine withdrawal or moral secrecy.
Hide through active covering; ranges from physical concealment to divine withdrawal or moral secrecy.
to hide (by covering), literally or figuratively BDB: hide Usage: be absent, keep close, conceal, hide (self), (keep) secret, × surely.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 82 lexical occurrence verses.
סָתַר is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Explains perceived hiddenness within divine sovereignty.Isaiah 45:14-19
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H5641 teaches that concealment is a moral setting whose character comes from relationship and purpose. Jehosheba’s hidden room protects Joash from murderous power; Proverbs commends taking cover when danger is recognized; Elijah’s concealment at Cherith occurs under God’s direction. Other passages expose the opposite movement: guilt can be concealed from neighbors but not from the Lord, and the fantasy that God neither sees nor remembers is itself condemned.
Texts about God hiding His face employ covenant and relational language for judgment, felt absence, or withheld favor. They should not be turned into a claim that God has ceased to know or sustain His creation. The breadth of H5641 helps pastoral teaching honor legitimate privacy and safety planning while refusing secret systems that protect abusers, financial deception, or unconfessed sin.
God’s complete knowledge gives comfort to unseen sufferers and summons concealed wrongdoers to truth. Wise application asks whether hiding preserves life and dignity or shields injustice from accountable light. The answer must come from the passage, not from a slogan that treats exposure or secrecy as automatically righteous.
2Kgs.11.2
H5641 is a verb whose contexts include hiding oneself, concealing a person or matter, taking cover, keeping something secret, and hiding the face. The object, agent, and relational setting determine whether the action is protection, privacy, evasion, or judgment.
The New Testament continues the distinction between wise refuge and sinful concealment: Jesus sometimes withdraws from danger, while hidden works and motives remain open before God. These are canonical parallels rather than claims that every later Greek verb is a lexical equivalent of H5641.