What Does Jeremiah 36:19 Mean in the King James?

Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.

Jeremiah 36:19 · 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

Here, concealment becomes protection: the princes make the speakers unseen so they cannot be found.

THE MEANING

When speaking makes people vulnerable, being unseen can shelter them without erasing what they have said. The princes’ instruction makes their whereabouts unknowable, keeping the speakers out of reach. The verse holds concealment as a real form of protection.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that hiding means the truth has been silenced: the speakers are hidden, but what they have spoken remains.

THE ROOT

הִסָּתֵר

hissater

GROWS FROM

סתר

satar

To hide or conceal.

The Hebrew command comes from a root that also gives words for hiddenness and a hiding place. English can make “hide” sound like mere disappearance; the root holds the act of concealment together with the shelter it creates.

ALSO GROWS

seter: A hiding place; a secret place.

סֵתֶר

The branch names the shelter implicit in the princes’ command: hiddenness can be a place where someone is kept from danger.

nistar: Hidden; concealed.

נִסְתָּר

This form describes what cannot be seen, echoing the verse’s demand that no one know where the two men are.

THE PATTERN

When danger seeks a person, concealment can preserve them from being seized.

But Jonathan Saul’s son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:

1 Samuel 19:2 · KJVJonathan names the danger and directs David into hiding, making concealment a means of protection.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

Psalm 27:5 · KJVThe speaker describes hiddenness as shelter in a time of trouble, where protection keeps them secure.

Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

John 8:59 · KJVAs stones are raised against him, Jesus becomes unseen and passes beyond the immediate threat.

THE THREAD

But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the LORD hid them.

Jeremiah 36:26 · KJV

The same Hebrew root returns: here the princes tell Baruch and Jeremiah to hide, and in verse 26 the LORD is said to have hidden them. The command names a shelter that the next verse shows holding them beyond the king’s reach.

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