Word study
Conceal
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: concealed, conceal, conceals. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “conceal” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- כָּסָה kâsâhcovertranslated this way 7 times of its 150 uses · Strong’s H3680Verb · Translated: covered 51, cover 36, covers 16, covering 9Full study and all 148 verses →
Proverbs 10:6 Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
Isaiah 26:21 For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.
- כָּחַד kâchadhide, effacetranslated this way 6 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H3582Verb · Translated: hide 8, hidden 4, conceal 3, destroyed 2Full study and all 30 verses →
2 Samuel 14:18 Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!” “Let my lord the king speak,” she replied.
Job 15:18 what was declared by wise men and was not concealed from their fathers,
- סָתַר sâtharhide, concealtranslated this way 5 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H5641Verb · Translated: hide 34, hidden 13, hid 9, hiding 5Full study and all 80 verses →
Job 14:13 If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!
Psalm 27:5 For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock.
- צָפַן tsâphanhide, treasure uptranslated this way 3 times of its 31 uses · Strong’s H6845Verb · Translated: hide 4, hidden 2, concealed 2, treasured 2Full study and all 30 verses →
Job 10:13 Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind:
Psalm 31:20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the schemes of men. You conceal them in Your shelter from accusing tongues.
- עָלַם âlamconcealtranslated this way 2 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H5956Verb · Translated: ignore 5, even if he is unaware 3, hide 3, hidden 3Full study and all 27 verses →
Numbers 5:13 by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),
Job 42:3 You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀπόκρυφος apókryphoshidden away, secrettranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G614Adjective · Translated: concealed 2, hidden 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Mark 4:22 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light.
Luke 8:17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be made known and brought to light.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.