“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
- KJV Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
- NKJV Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?” says the Lord; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.
- NASB “Can a person hide himself in hiding places So that I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
- NLT Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
No one can hide from God in any secret place, because He fills heaven and earth. His omniscience makes hidden sin impossible.
Overview
God declares that no concealment can escape His sight, for His presence pervades all creation. The false prophets and their hearers could not hide their deceit from Him. The same God who searches every heart sees us fully in Christ, yet in the gospel invites us not to hide but to come into the light and be forgiven.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Prov 15:3The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good.
- Ps 139:7Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?
- Ps 90:8You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
- Isa 29:15Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
- 1 Kgs 8:27But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
- Ps 139:11–16If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”—
- Isa 57:15For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.
- Amos 9:2–3Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down.
- Job 22:13–14Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?
- Isa 66:1This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?
- Ps 10:11He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
- 2 Chr 6:18But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.
- Dan 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- 2 Chr 2:6But who is able to build a house for Him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him? Who then am I, that I should build a house for Him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before Him?
- Job 24:13–16Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.
- Jer 49:10But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his hiding places, and he will be unable to conceal himself. His descendants will be destroyed along with his relatives and neighbors, and he will be no more.
- Eph 1:23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
- Gen 16:13So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”
- Ezek 9:9He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’
- Ezek 8:12“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”
- Ps 148:13Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is exalted; His splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 23:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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