the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Secret
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or Sôd (סוֹד, Strong's #5475), “secret or confidential plan(s); secret or confidential talk; secret; council; gathering; circle.” This noun occurs 21 times in biblical Hebrew.
Sôd means, first, “confidential talk”: “Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked …” (Ps. 64:2). In Prov. 15:22 the word refers to plans which one makes on one’s own and before they are shared by others: “Without counsel [self-made] purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they [succeed].” Sometimes the word signifies simply a talk about something that should be kept confidential: “Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself; and discover not a secret to another” (Prov. 25:9).
Second, the word represents a group of intimates with whom one shares confidential matters: “O my soul, come not thou into their [Simeon’s and Levi’s] secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united …” (Gen. 49:6—the first occurrence of the word). Jer. 6:11 speaks of the “assembly [informal but still sharing confidential matters] of young men together.” To “have sweet counsel” is to be in a group where everyone both shares and rejoices in what is being discussed and/or done (Ps. 55:14).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Secret'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/s/secret.html. 1940.
