What Does Isaiah 29:15 Mean in the King James?
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
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
Their secrecy is not distance from the LORD; it only reveals that they mistake darkness for invisibility.
THE MEANING
You can bury counsel in deliberate depth and carry your work into the dark, yet neither makes you unseen before the LORD. “Who seeth us?” names the illusion that what escapes human eyes escapes being known. The verse calls that confidence woe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that hidden work becomes unknown to the LORD simply because it is hidden from view.
THE ROOT
לְהַסְתִּיר
lehastir
GROWS FROM
סתר
s-t-r
The root sāṯar means to hide, conceal, or keep out of sight.
“hide” in this verse is lehastir. Hebrew’s word for hiding carries the idea of concealment, but the same root also forms a “secret place” or “hiding place.” The word itself does not make hiding a refuge: the verse exposes the belief that concealment can keep the LORD from seeing.
ALSO GROWS
sēṯer: A secret place; a place of hiding.
סֵתֶר
The same word-family appears in Psalm 91:1, where the secret place is with the Most High, turning concealment from escape into refuge.
mistār: A place of concealment or shelter.
מִסְתָּר
This branch makes the verse’s question sharper: being hidden is not the same as being beyond the LORD’s sight.
יֹדְעֵנוּ
yōḏəʿēnû
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
The root yādaʿ means to know or perceive, including knowing through encounter.
“knoweth us” in this verse is yōḏəʿēnû. The question is not merely whether anyone has information about their actions; it asks who can perceive and know them. The root holds knowledge as personal recognition, so secrecy cannot turn a person into a stranger to the one who sees.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge; understanding or perception.
דַּעַת
This noun shows that the root reaches beyond a glance to what is understood and known.
dēʿāh: Knowledge; understanding.
דֵּעָה
This related form reinforces that being known includes perception, not just being visible to human eyes.
מַעֲמִיקִים
maʿămîqîm
GROWS FROM
עמק
ʿ-m-q
The root ʿāmaq means to be deep or to deepen.
“seek deep” in this verse is maʿămîqîm. The phrase pictures people making their counsel deep to hide it from the LORD. Its spatial language exposes the assumption beneath their secrecy: that enough depth can create a place beyond being seen.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmōq: Deep; extending far down.
עָמֹק
This adjective makes clear that the verse’s concealment is imagined as depth.
ʿēmeq: A valley; low-lying land.
עֵמֶק
This related word carries the root’s spatial sense into a low place, echoing how the hidden counsel is pictured as being sunk out of sight.
THE PATTERN
Darkness and secrecy never place a person’s work outside God’s sight.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.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.THE THREAD
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.Isaiah’s “hide” and the Psalm’s “secret place” draw on סתר (sāṯar, hide or conceal). The same root holds concealment that tries to escape the LORD and shelter found in the Most High.
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