Strong's Number: H5641
Original Word: satar
Usage Notes: "to conceal, hide, shelter." This verb and various derivatives are found in modern Hebrew as well as in biblical Hebrew. Satar occurs approximately 80 times in the Old Testament. The word is found for the first time in Gen 4:14 as Cain discovers that because of his sin, he will be "hidden" from the presence of God, which implies a separation. In the so-called Mizpah Benediction (which is really a warning), satar again has the sense of "separation": "The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another" (Gen 31:49). To "hide oneself" is to take refuge: "Doth not David hide himself with us …" (1Sam 23:19). Similarly, to "hide" someone is to "shelter" him from his enemy: "… the Lord hid them" (Jer 36:26).
To pray, "Hide thy face from my sins" (Psa 51:9), is to ask God to ignore them. but when the prophet says, "And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob…" (Isa 8:17), he means that God's favor has been withdrawn. Similarly, Judah's sins have "hidden" God's face from her (Isa 59:2).
