What Does Exodus 2:2 Mean in the King James?
And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
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 word translated “hid” can also mean “store up” or “treasure”: the child is kept out of sight as something precious.
THE MEANING
A child’s worth is present before he can stand in public view. When danger makes visibility costly, hiding can preserve life rather than erase it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what is unseen has been forgotten or has no worth: the hidden child is seen as good and protected.
THE ROOT
וַתִּצְפְּנֵהוּ
vattitspenēhu
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide, conceal, store up, or treasure.
“hid” in this verse is vattitspenēhu. The verb can describe both concealing something and laying it up for safekeeping. That range gives the hiding here the shade of preservation: he is kept from view, not cast away.
ALSO GROWS
tsāfantā: You have laid up or stored away (Psalm 31:19).
צָפַנְתָּ
The same root describes goodness being kept in store, bringing a sense of guarded value to the child hidden here.
titspōn: You will hide or store up (Proverbs 2:1).
תִּצְפֹּן
The root can describe keeping something close and safe, not simply making it disappear.
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, pleasing, beneficial.
“goodly” in this verse is tov. The description echoes the recurring language of creation: what is seen as good is recognized as having value. Here, that goodness remains true even while the child must be hidden.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good (Genesis 1:4).
טוֹב
The same word describes what God sees in creation, linking the child’s goodness with life recognized as good.
tuv: Goodness (Psalm 31:19).
טוּב
This noun appears in the verse where the root for “hid” also describes goodness laid up, joining hiddenness with preserved value.
THE PATTERN
When a ruler’s threat endangers vulnerable life, concealment and shelter can preserve it.
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.THE THREAD
Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!The root צפן (tsaphan, “hide or store up”) describes both the mother hiding her son and goodness being “laid up” here. The shared root lets the concealment in Exodus carry the sense of safeguarding something precious.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us