What Does Jeremiah 33:5 Mean?
They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have struck in the burning of my anger and in my heat, for all their wickedness I have hidden my face from this city.
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
They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.THE KEY
The verse makes divine concealment part of the catastrophe itself: the root of “hid” also gives Hebrew a word for a hiding place.
THE MEANING
The verse puts the reader before people coming to fight the Chaldeans and a city being filled with corpses of people God says he has slain in anger and fury. It names the city’s evil and God’s hidden face alongside the physical devastation, holding death and relational rupture together.
THE ROOT
הִסְתַּרְתִּי
histartî
GROWS FROM
סתר
s-t-r
Hide or conceal; keep out of sight.
“hidden my face” in this verse is histartî. The form הִסְתַּרְתִּי (histartî, “I hid”) belongs to the same root family as words for a hiding place. Here the face is deliberately hidden from the city, making concealment part of the stated judgment.
ALSO GROWS
sēter: Secret; hiding place.
סֵתֶר
This branch can name a place of shelter, sharpening the force of a face hidden from the city.
mistār: Hiding place; shelter.
מִסְתָּר
The same root that can describe a refuge names God’s act of concealment here.
פָּנַי
pānay
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
Turn; face toward.
The word פָּנַי (pānay, “my face”) belongs to the family of turning. So the hidden face carries a relational direction: God’s turning toward this city is withdrawn.
ALSO GROWS
pānîm: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
The face can stand for presence, making its concealment a felt rupture in the city’s relation to God.
pānāh: Turn; turn toward.
פָּנָה
This verb gives the face its orientation: the verse describes a turning away from the city.
רָעָתָם
raʿātām
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
Be bad; do harm or act wickedly.
The word רָעָתָם (raʿātām, “their evil”) comes from a root for doing harm and being bad, so wickedness carries the shape of action as well as condition. In this sentence, that action stands beside literal corpses and the hidden face.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Evil; bad.
רַע
This branch carries the root’s sense of badness as a condition named in the city’s evil.
hērēaʿ: Do evil; cause harm.
הֵרֵעַ
This verbal branch keeps the root connected to harmful action, which the verse places beside its consequences.
THE PATTERN
The hidden face marks a real relational rupture, whether named as consequence of evil, cried out in anguish, or bounded by faithful love.
And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they have done, because they have turned their faces toward other gods.To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?In a flood of anger, in a blink, I hid my face from you, but with faithful love of the ages I will show you compassion, says the LORD your Redeemer.THE THREAD
In a flood of anger, in a blink, I hid my face from you, but with faithful love of the ages I will show you compassion, says the LORD your Redeemer.Isaiah uses the same סתר (s-t-r, hide) root for the hidden face. Jeremiah names the city’s evil as the setting; Isaiah places that concealment “for a moment” beside faithful love, opening the image of rupture toward restoration.
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