What Does Ecclesiastes 12:14 Mean in the King James?

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 · KJV

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

What is hidden from people still stands within God’s judgment.

THE MEANING

Every action, including what no one else sees, remains within God’s judgment. Good and evil stay distinct, and secrecy does not erase either one from his sight.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that what nobody sees does not matter.

THE ROOT

נֶעְלָם

ne'elam

GROWS FROM

עלם

ʿalam

to conceal or be hidden

“secret thing” in this verse is ne'elam. ⁨נֶעְלָם⁩ names what has disappeared from view, but its root does not make hiddenness a place beyond God’s reach. The same root appears in Psalm 90:8 for “our secret sins,” which are already “in the light” of God’s face.

ALSO GROWS

ne'elam: hidden, concealed; a hidden thing

נֶעְלָם

This is the word used here: the verse includes what has left human view within its judgment.

ʿalumenu: our hidden things, our secrets (Psalm 90:8)

עֲלֻמֵנוּ

The same root describes what is already set in the light of God’s face, showing that concealment does not create distance from him.

מַעֲשֶׂה

ma'aseh

GROWS FROM

עשה

asah

to do or make

“work” in this verse is ma'aseh. ⁨מַעֲשֶׂה⁩ can name a deed or what is made, while ⁨עָשָׂה⁩ names the doing or making itself. The verse’s scope reaches both what you do and what takes shape from it.

ALSO GROWS

asah: to do, make

עָשָׂה

The root gathers action and making under “every work” brought into judgment.

ma'aseh yadav: the work of his hands (Psalm 19:1)

מַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו

This phrase shows the same word can name what has been made, widening “work” beyond an unseen intention to its visible outcome.

THE PATTERN

Concealment changes who can see an act, but never removes it from God’s sight or reckoning.

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

Psalm 90:8 · KJVWhat is secret is already before God and in the light of his face.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Hebrews 4:13 · KJVNothing remains concealed from the one whose sight reaches all things.

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

1 Corinthians 4:5 · KJVThe hidden things and the heart’s counsels come into the open when the Lord brings them to light.

THE THREAD

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

Psalm 90:8 · KJV

The Hebrew ⁨עֲלֻמֵנוּ⁩ (ʿalumenu, our hidden things) comes from the same root ⁨עלם⁩ (ʿalam, conceal) as ⁨נֶעְלָם⁩ (ne’elam, hidden thing) in Ecclesiastes. The psalm says this hiddenness is already in the light of God’s face, opening the verse’s future reckoning onto what is true now.

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