a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hide
יִסָּתֵ֨רyi.sa.Ter
H5641
to hide (by covering) · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
places
בַּמִּסְתָּרִ֛יםba.mis.ta.Rim
H4565
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
see
אֶרְאֶ֖נּוּ'er.'E.nu
H7200
to see · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
fill
מָלֵאmâlêʼ
H4392
full (literally or figuratively) or filling (literally)
heaven
הַשָּׁמַ֧יִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
earth
הָאָ֛רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
Psalms 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Psalms 90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
Isaiah 29:15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knowe…
Amos 9:2-3 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have b…
Psalms 139:11-16 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that i…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 23:9-32
Here is a long lesson for the false prophets. As none were more bitter and spiteful against God's true prophets than they, so there were none on whom the true prophets were more severe, and justly. The prophet had complained to God of those false prophets (Jer 14:13), and had often foretold that they should be involved in the common ruin; but here they have woes of their own.
I. He expresses the deep concern that he was under upon this account, and what a trouble it was to him to see men who pretended to a divine commission and inspiration ruining themselves, and the people among whom they dwelt, by their falsehood and treachery (Jer 23:9): My heart within me is broken; I am like a drunken m…
(Psa 139:7, &c.; Amo 9:2-3).
fill heaven and earth--with My omniscience providence, power, and essential being (Kg1 8:27).
John Gill on Jeremiah 23:24
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord,.... If a man should hide himself in the most secret and hidden places of the earth, and do his works in the most private manner, so that no human eye can see him, he cannot hide himself or his actions from the Lord, who can see from heaven to earth, and through the darkest and thickest clouds, and into the very bowels of the earth, and the most hidden and secret recesses and caverns of it. The darkness and the light are both alike to him; and also near and distant, open and secret places:
do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord; not only with inhabitants, and with other effects of his power and providence…
Jeremiah 23:23-24
23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?
23. An Deus e propinquo, dicit Jehova? Et non Deus e longinquo?
24. 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.
24. An absonderit vir in latebris et ego non videbo eum, dicit Jehova? An non coelos et terram impleo, dicit Jehova?
Here he especially shakes off from hypocrites their self-delusions; for they were torpid in their vices, because they thought that they could in a manner blind the eyes of God. They did not indeed say so; but the heedless security of men would, never be so great as it is, were they to believe that no…
The Church Fathers
It was by this same divine creative force, which knows not what it is to be made but only how to make, that roundness was given to the eye, to the apple and to other objects that are by nature round and that we see all about, taking on their form with no extrinsic cause but by the intrinsic power of the Creator, who said, "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" and whose wisdom "reaches from end to end mightily and orders all things sweetly."
Elsewhere we read the words of the prophet: "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" God tells why he fills all things: "because I am with you to save you." Behold, the Lord shows us not only his rule and its all pervading fullness but also the power and benefits accruing from this very fullness. For the fullness of divinity carries as its reward the salvation of what it fills. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, said, "for in him we live and move and are."
If the sun, being corporeal, for it is visible and susceptible to disintegration, cannot be polluted when it passes through corpses, putrid mud and many other evil-smelling substances, much more impervious to such pollution is the maker of the sun, the creator of the universe, the incorporeal one, the invisible, the unchangeable, the one who always remains the same. And that those things are so the following reflection will bear out. We both assert and believe that his nature is infinite, for we have heard him exclaim: "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? says the Lord."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Heaven — (1.) Definitions. The phrase “heaven and earth” is used to indicate the whole universe (Gen. 1:1; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:24). According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens, (a) The firmament,…
God · Fills heaven and earth — Fills heaven and earth
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Against the False Prophets. - Next to the kings, the pseudo-prophets, who flattered the people's carnal longings, have done most to contribute to the fall of the realm. Therefore Jeremiah passes directly from his discourse against the wicked kings to rebuking the false prophets; and if we may presume from the main substance, the latter discourse belongs to the same time as the former. It begins
Jer 23:9-11
With a description of the pernicious practices of these persons. - Jer 23:9. "Concerning the prophets. Broken is mine heart within me; all my bones totter. I am become like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of Jahveh and because of His holy words. Jer 23:10. Fo…
The Lord revealed the difference between himself and the Canaanite nature deities. The pagan deities were close at hand, as part of nature. The Lord was close at hand because he created all nature, but he was also far away in his distinction from it. His essence is different from nature, yet he is present in all the heavens and earth.
Rashi on Jeremiah 23:24
Can a man hide in secret places This is a repetition of the question, ‘Am I a God from near,’ according to the manner of all double questions.
