What Does Isaiah 16:3 Mean in the King James?
Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.
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 verse makes concealment an act of justice: at noon, refuge is deep enough to become night.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks from inside the work of refuge: counsel and just judgment shape a cover so complete it is night at noon. It holds the one driven out and the one still fleeing in view, while its final command refuses to expose the fugitive. Here, concealment is protection made visible as shade.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a person in flight must be made visible before receiving protection; here, justice shelters without exposing them.
THE ROOT
סַתְּרִי
satteri
GROWS FROM
סתר
to hide, conceal, or shelter
“hide” in this verse is satteri. The root’s noun branches name a hiding place, so the command grows into a place of refuge. Paired with the refusal to expose the fugitive, hiding becomes protection rather than disappearance.
ALSO GROWS
sēter: a secret place, a hiding place
סֵתֶר
The concealed person has somewhere to remain, not merely something kept from view.
mistār: a hiding place, shelter
מִסְתָּר
This related form makes concealment spatial: it is cover someone can inhabit.
נִדָּחִים
niddāḥîm
GROWS FROM
נדח
to drive away, thrust aside, or banish
“outcasts” in this verse is niddāḥîm. The word names people by what has been done to them: they are the ones driven out. Its neighbor נֹדֵד (nōdēd, “wanderer”) echoes the opening consonants נ־ד but comes from a different root, נדד; the sound holds together one person pushed away and another still in flight.
ALSO GROWS
nādaḥ: to drive away, thrust aside, or banish
נָדַח
The root keeps the force of displacement visible behind the word “outcasts.”
niddāḥ: a person driven away, an outcast
נִדָּח
The singular form marks the displaced person as someone acted upon, not as someone defined by a failing.
תְּגַלִּי
tegallî
GROWS FROM
גלה
to uncover, reveal, or lay bare
“Bewray” carries the force of exposure: the line does not merely ask for privacy but forbids making the fugitive known. Beside the command to hide, this root makes refuge both a covering and a refusal to lay bare.
ALSO GROWS
gillûy: uncovering, disclosure, revelation
גִּלּוּי
The noun shows that revealing is an act of bringing what is hidden into view.
megalleh: one who uncovers or reveals
מְגַלֶּה
This form makes the exposure active, matching the verse’s direct prohibition against revealing the fugitive.
THE PATTERN
Justice becomes refuge when it gives exposed people cover and keeps the displaced from further exposure.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:THE THREAD
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.This verse calls for a shadow as deep as night at noon; Psalm 91 names abiding beneath that same shadow. The shared Hebrew noun צֵל (ṣēl, “shadow”) makes the image structural: shade is refuge enough to dwell beneath.
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