What Does Ezekiel 28:3 Mean in the King James?
Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:
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
Here, a “secret” is something sealed shut, so the claim is not merely to know many answers but to leave no closure beyond reach.
THE MEANING
The verse places a mind above Daniel and describes it as able to see through every sealed matter. Its edge lies in the totality: nothing hidden remains obscure. You can hear how knowledge sounds when it reaches for complete access.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that seeing through every hidden thing makes a person godlike; total insight can be a claim of power, not proof of divinity.
THE ROOT
סָתוּם
satúm
GROWS FROM
סתם
To close, shut, or stop up.
The Hebrew word for “secret” carries the image of something closed off, not merely information that is missing. The verse’s claim is that no sealed thing stays out of reach.
ALSO GROWS
satam: To shut or stop up.
סָתַם
This verb makes the word’s image concrete: what is secret is what has been closed.
setimah: A blockage or obstruction.
סְתִימָה
A closed thing can also be an obstruction; the verse claims that even this barrier does not prevent knowing.
חָכָם
ḥakham
GROWS FROM
חכם
To be wise or skillful.
“wiser” in this verse is ḥakham. The root links the description of wisdom to a capacity, not simply a storehouse of facts. Paired with the sealed image in סָתוּם (satúm), it makes the verse’s claim reach beyond cleverness toward access to what is closed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥokhmah: Wisdom or skill.
חָכְמָה
This noun names the quality the verse assigns to the mind it describes.
ḥakham: To be wise or act wisely.
חָכַם
The verb presents wisdom as an active capacity, sharpening the verse’s portrait of a mind that penetrates hidden matters.
THE PATTERN
What is concealed can be searched out or disclosed, while access to hidden things does not by itself establish mastery over their source.
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.THE THREAD
For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.The word סָתוּם (satúm), “secret,” in Ezekiel comes from סתם, the root used here for wells physically stopped up. The shared root makes hiddenness feel like blocked access: the claim is that no obstruction keeps a matter out of reach.
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