What Does Deuteronomy 29:29 Mean?
The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the uncovered things belong to us and to our children for the ages, that we may do all the words of this instruction.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.THE KEY
The verse makes revelation a family inheritance whose purpose is practice, not possession.
THE MEANING
What remains hidden belongs to the LORD your God; what is disclosed is entrusted to you and your children across the ages. The revealed words reach you as a shared inheritance meant to take shape in what you do.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that every mystery must be solved before life can be lived: what remains hidden stays with God, while what is revealed is given for you to do.
THE ROOT
הַנִּגְלֹת
ha-niglot
GROWS FROM
גלה
גלה (galah) means to uncover, expose, or make visible.
“uncovered” in this verse is ha-niglot. The verse’s word for what is revealed grows from גלה (galah), the act of uncovering or bringing into view. Revelation here is what passes from concealment into shared sight, becoming available to you and your children.
ALSO GROWS
galah: to uncover or reveal
גָּלָה
This verb names the movement from what is hidden to what can be seen.
niglah: to be revealed or appear
נִגְלָה
This form describes something coming into view, as the revealed things do in this verse.
הַנִּסְתָּרֹת
ha-nistarot
GROWS FROM
סתר
סתר (satar) means to conceal or hide from view.
“hidden” in this verse is ha-nistarot. The verse pairs what is concealed with what is uncovered, naming two distinct conditions in its own Hebrew. What remains concealed is not treated as a failure to know; it belongs to God, while disclosure is entrusted to the generations.
ALSO GROWS
satar: to hide or conceal
סָתַר
The verb names the hiddenness of the secret things.
mistar: a hiding place or shelter
מִסְתָּר
This noun shows the same root’s sense of something kept out of sight.
לַעֲשׂוֹת
la'asot
GROWS FROM
עשה
עשה (asah) means to do or make, to bring about.
“to do” in this verse is la'asot. The verse ends by naming the purpose of what is revealed: doing. This root joins action with deed, so disclosure becomes a lived practice rather than a store of answers.
ALSO GROWS
asah: to do or make
עָשָׂה
This verb carries the same action named in the verse’s purpose.
ma'aseh: a deed, work, or act
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun shows action taking form as something done.
THE PATTERN
A revealed word becomes an inheritance as it is carried forward and enacted.
For he made a testimony stand in Jacob, and set instruction in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, to make them known to their children.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been uncovered to him.The word translated “revealed” comes from the same Hebrew root גלה (galah), to uncover or make visible. Samuel’s verse shows a word not yet brought into view; Deuteronomy names what happens when disclosure does reach you: it becomes an entrusted word to do.
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