StrongerBible

seter

סֵתֶר

HebrewH5643“hiding place, shelter, ...”

Appears 36 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 13:6(7)Deu 27:15Deu 27:24Deu 28:57Deu 32:38Jdg 3:191Sa 19:21Sa 25:202Sa 12:12Job 13:10Job 22:14Job 24:15Job 31:27Job 40:21Psa 18:11(12)Psa 27:5Psa 31:20(21)Psa 32:7Psa 61:4(5)Psa 81:7(8)Psa 91:1Psa 101:5Psa 119:114Psa 139:15Pro 9:17Pro 21:14Pro 25:23Sng 2:14Isa 16:4Isa 28:17Isa 32:2Isa 45:19Isa 48:16Jer 37:17Jer 38:16Jer 40:15
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeSAY-ternoun

What seter means

a cover: a place or condition of being hidden, whether for shelter or for secrecy

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

At its root this word names a covering, something that screens a person or thing from view. Everything it does grows out of that single picture. A cloth or a curtain hides; a ridge or a thicket hides; the dark hides; and so the word can name the physical thing that covers, the safe place you take cover in, or the simple fact that something is out of sight.

Two very different feelings sit inside that one idea, and the Hebrew Bible plays on both. To be hidden can mean to be safe, sheltered behind something stronger than the danger, which is why this is one of Scripture's favorite words for refuge in God. But to be hidden can also mean to be unseen by witnesses, free to act in the dark, which is why it is just as readily the word for a thing done in secret, a slander muttered low, an idol set up where no one can see.

So the senses below are not separate words but one word seen from different sides: the cover itself, the shelter it gives, and the secrecy it allows. The same darkness that protects can also conceal wrongdoing, and the Bible lets the word carry both without explaining the tension away.

Nuances

1aa place of shelter where one is hidden and so kept safe, very often God himself as the believer's refuge
Deu 32:381Sa 19:2Psa 27:5Psa 31:20(21)Psa 32:7Psa 61:4(5)Psa 91:1Psa 119:114Isa 16:4Isa 28:17Isa 32:2
1ba screen of cloud, darkness, or terrain that hides what is behind it from sight
1Sa 25:20Job 22:14Job 40:21Psa 18:11(12)Psa 81:7(8)Sng 2:14
1csecrecy: a thing done, said, or kept out of public view, away from witnesses, often with a hint of wrongdoing
Deu 13:6(7)Deu 27:15Deu 27:24Deu 28:57Jdg 3:192Sa 12:12Job 13:10Job 24:15Job 31:27Psa 101:5Psa 139:15Pro 9:17

What scholars say about seter

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) and the major theological dictionaries agree that the underlying sense of the root is concrete covering or veiling, with concealment as its extension; the Arabic cognate satara ("to veil") and the noun sitr ("a curtain") are the most diagnostic comparative evidence, while Akkadian has no true cognate. From this concrete base the lexica draw a stable range for the noun: a literal covering (clouds, darkness), a hiding place or shelter, secrecy or a secret place, and the act of concealment. The TDOT article (S. Wagner) places the word within the wider field of Hebrew "hide" terms and argues it alone bears the technical theological weight of God's hiding. The protective register dominates the Psalter, where this word clusters with other shelter terms; J. Creach reads refuge in YHWH as an editing motif across the Psalter. In wisdom and law the "in secret" idiom takes on a moral and juridical edge, naming the offense no human court can reach (M. Weinfeld on Deuteronomy; M. Fox on Proverbs). The deepest theological tension, treated by S. Balentine, is that the same root names both God as the believer's shelter and God's punitive withdrawal of his face.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • F. Brown, S. R. Driver, C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB), 711-12lexicon
  • L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, J. J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. סֵתֶרlexicon
  • D. J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), vol. VI, s.v. סֵתֶרlexicon
  • G. J. Botterweck, H. Ringgren, H.-J. Fabry, eds., Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. X, s.v. סָתַר (S. Wagner)theological-dictionary
  • S. E. Balentine, The Hidden God: The Hiding of the Face of God in the Old Testament, Oxford Theological Monographs (Oxford: OUP, 1983)monograph
  • S. E. Balentine, "A Description of the Semantic Field of Hebrew Words for 'Hide'," Vetus Testamentum 30 (1980): 137-53article
  • J. F. D. Creach, Yahweh as Refuge and the Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, JSOTSup 217 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1996)monograph
  • M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972)monograph
  • M. V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9, AYB 18A (New Haven: Yale UP, 2000), 304-7commentary
  • F.-L. Hossfeld and E. Zenger, Psalms 2, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), 430commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of סֵתֶר

m s absolute

סֵּתֶר, סֵתֶר, סָּתֶר, סָתֶר

Deu 13:6, 1Sa 19:2, Job 13:10, Job 31:27, Psa 101:5, Psa 139:15, Pro 21:14, Isa 45:19

m s construct

סֵתֶר

1Sa 25:20, Job 24:15, Job 40:21, Psa 27:5, Psa 31:20, Psa 61:4, Psa 81:7, Psa 91:1

f s absolute

סִתְרָה

Deu 32:38

m p absolute

סְתָרִים

Pro 9:17

m s construct

סִתְרִי

Psa 119:114

m s construct

סִתְרוֹ

Psa 18:11