Aramaic word · H5642

סְתַר

umesaterata'

to destroy

Aramaic has two words spelled this way: one means 'to hide' (here) and one 'to demolish' (Ezra 5:12). Hence the supplied tag H5642A. The intensive passive participle means 'things concealed' or 'hidden things'.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Pael) to hide, remove from sight

Aramaic of sa.tar (סָתַר "to hide" H5641)

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 Daniel 2:22

Range of meaning

Aramaic has two words spelled this way: one means 'to hide' (here) and one 'to demolish' (Ezra 5:12). Hence the supplied tag H5642A. The intensive passive participle means 'things concealed' or 'hidden things'.

Against the English

KJV and WEB 'secret things', BSB, ESV and NIV 'hidden things'. 'Hidden' fits the passive form more closely. 'Secret' can suggest something private or deliberately withheld from others, which narrows the sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

Compare Deut 29:29 (29:28 in Hebrew): 'the hidden things (hannistarot) belong to YHWH our God, but the revealed things (hanniglot) belong to us'. The same pair, hidden and revealed, appears there. Daniel's hymn says God can move things from the first category to the second.

Where it appears

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 5:12 סַתְרֵ֔הּ he destroyed it

    But since our fathers angered the God of heaven, He delivered them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean who destroyed this temple and carried away the people to Babylon.

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 2:22 וּמְסַתְּרָתָ֑א and <the> hidden [things]

    He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.

    Here: 'And the hidden things', a passive participle: things that have been concealed, kept out of sight. Paired with 'deep', it describes knowledge that is both out of reach and covered over.

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