Hebrew word · H2253

חֶבְיוֹן

chevyon

hiding

This noun occurs only here. It comes from ḥavah / ḥava', 'to hide, withdraw' (Isa 26:20 'hide yourself a little while'; Gen 3:10 the related ḥava'). It means a hiding, a covering, a concealment or a hidden place.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

concealment, covering, hiding, hiding place

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Habakkuk 3:4

Range of meaning

This noun occurs only here. It comes from ḥavah / ḥava', 'to hide, withdraw' (Isa 26:20 'hide yourself a little while'; Gen 3:10 the related ḥava'). It means a hiding, a covering, a concealment or a hidden place.

Against the English

KJV and NASB keep the noun ('the hiding of his power/might'). BSB, WEB and NIV turn it into a clause ('where his power is hidden'). ESV says he 'veiled his power'. NET reads it as the outward display of his power, a looser interpretation.

How it drifted

English 'hidden' can suggest that God's power is absent, held back, or secret. In this setting it is power inside the blaze: veiled by the brilliance, not missing from it.

Used elsewhere in the period

Psalm 18:11 (= 2 Sam 22:12) has a close parallel: 'He made darkness his covering (sitro), his canopy around him.' When God appears, he is both shown and wrapped, in cloud, darkness or here light (cf. Exod 33:20–23; Ps 104:2 'wrapping himself in light as a garment'). The Septuagint did not recognise the rare word. It apparently read it as coming from ḥavav, 'to love', and rendered 'a mighty love'.

Where it appears

Habakkuk · 1

  1. Habakkuk 3:4 חֶבְי֥וֹן [the] hiding place of

    His radiance was like the sunlight; rays flashed from His hand, where His power is hidden.

    Here: This word appears only here in the Bible. It comes from the verb ḥavah, 'to hide, withdraw'. It means a covering or hiding-place. The paradox is that the dazzling light both shows God's power and wraps it up.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.