What Does 1 Samuel 20:19 Mean in the King James?
And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly, and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself when the business was in hand, and shalt remain by the stone Ezel.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The hiding place is not an absence from the story; it is the appointed place from which the next encounter can happen.
THE MEANING
The verse holds swift movement and deliberate concealment together: you return to a known place, then remain by a fixed marker. A place that once held you hidden becomes the place where the next meeting is prepared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that being hidden means being abandoned or failing; here, hiddenness has a time, a place, and a purpose.
THE ROOT
נִסְתַּרְתָּ
nistarta
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide or conceal, to keep out of sight.
“hid thyself” in this verse is nistarta. The Hebrew verb נִסְתַּרְתָּ (nistarta, you hid yourself) grows from סתר (satar, hide or conceal), the same root found in סֵתֶר (seter, a hiding place). The hidden person and the place of hiding belong to one word-family: concealment here is located, deliberate, and bounded by a time to return.
ALSO GROWS
seter: Hiding place; secret shelter.
סֵתֶר
The shared root turns hiding from an abstract condition into a place one can return to.
histir: He hid; concealed.
הִסְתִּיר
This causative form shares the same root consonants, showing concealment as an action rather than mere absence.
THE PATTERN
A hidden place can hold a person until the moment of meeting.
For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.THE THREAD
Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.Psalm 32:7 calls the hiding place סֵתֶר (seter, shelter or concealment), from the same root סתר (satar, hide) as “hid thyself” here. The connection opens concealment as more than disappearance: it can be a place of preservation, surrounded by deliverance.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us