What Does Jeremiah 36:26 Mean in the King James?

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 analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

The king can command their capture, but the LORD makes concealment the boundary his power cannot cross.

When authority reaches for a person and the witness they carry, its command does not settle the outcome; the LORD can keep them beyond its reach. Concealment can be protection, so being out of sight is not by itself evidence of abandonment.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that hiddenness means abandonment is undone here: being out of sight can be the very form preservation takes.

וַיַּסְתִּרֵם

wayyastirem

GROWS FROM

סתר

To hide or conceal, keeping someone out of sight.

“hid” in this verse is wayyastirem. The verb names concealment as the LORD’s action, not as their disappearance or defeat. In Psalm 31:20, the same root appears in both “hide” and “secret,” joining the act of concealment to the refuge it creates.

ALSO GROWS

seter: A secret place or hiding place.

סֵתֶר

This branch uses the same root for the refuge itself, linking the LORD’s act of hiding with a place beyond hostile reach.

nistar: Hidden or concealed.

נִסְתָּר

This branch describes what is kept from view, echoing how the LORD holds Baruch and Jeremiah beyond the king’s grasp.

When hostile power seeks a life, concealment can become the LORD’s means of keeping it beyond reach.

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
Psalm 31:20 · KJVThe same Hebrew root links hiding with the secret place where people are kept from hostile power.
Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
Psalm 64:2 · KJVThe speaker asks to be concealed from those who plot and gather against him.
While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
John 12:36 · KJVJesus withdraws from those seeking him, showing concealment as a response to an immediate threat.
Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
Psalm 31:20 · KJV

Jeremiah says the LORD hid them; this psalm names the shelter as the secret of God’s presence. Hebrew uses the same root, ⁨סתר⁩, for “hide” and “secret,” binding the refuge to the act that keeps them out of reach.

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Jeremiah 36:26 KJV Meaning