57 Bible Verses about Secrecy

And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even expose [them]. For it is shameful even to speak [about] the things being [done] by them in secret,

"If your brother, the son of your mother or your son or your daughter {or your wife whom you embrace} or {your intimate friend} in secrecy {says}, 'Let us go and let us serve other gods!' [gods] that you and your ancestors have not known,

'Cursed be the man that makes a divine image or a cast image, [which is] a detestable thing for Yahweh, the work of the hand of a skilled craftsman, and [then] sets [it] in a hiding place.' And {all the people shall respond}, 'Amen.'

Then Absalom sent scouts throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, "When you hear the sound of the trumpet, you shall shout 'Absalom has become king in Hebron!'"

The {Israelites} secretly did things which [were] not right, against Yahweh their God; they built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower up to the fortified city.

"If I have made gold my trust, or I have called fine gold my security, if I have rejoiced because my wealth [was] great or because my hand found a fortune, if I looked at [the] sun when it shone or [at the] moon moving [in] splendor,read more.
and {I was secretly enticed}, and {my hand threw them a kiss}, this also [is] an iniquity [to be] judged, for I have deceived God above.

He sits in ambush in villages; in the hiding places he kills [the] innocent. His eyes {lurk} for [the] helpless.

"Stolen waters are sweet, and bread of secrecy is pleasant."

The wicked will accept a bribe from the lap, [in order] to pervert the ways of justice.

{who sit} in graves and spend the night in {secret places}, {who eat} the flesh of swine with a fragment of impurity [in] their vessels,

Then they secretly instigated men who said, "We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God!"

but we have renounced shameful hidden things, not behaving with craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but with the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person's conscience before God.

For the mystery of lawlessness is at work already; only the one who now restrains [will do so] until he is out of the way,

But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction.

But I say to you, to the rest [who are] in Thyatira, all those who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep [things] of Satan, as they say, I do not put upon you any other burden.

And Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise with their secret arts.

And the magicians did likewise with their secret arts, and they brought up frogs over the land of Egypt.

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men from Acacia Grove [as] spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name [was] Rahab, and {spent the night} there.

And the {Israelites} cried out to Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud son of Gera, a Benjaminite and {a left-handed man}. And the {Israelites} sent a tribute to Eglon king of Moab {through him}. Ehud made for himself a short, {two-edged} sword (a cubit in length), and he fastened it under his clothes on his right thigh. Then he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon [was] a very fat man.read more.
When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he turned back from the sculptured stones that [were] near Gilgal, and he said, "I have {a secret message} for you, O king." And he said, "Silence!" So all those standing in his presence went out, and Ehud came to him [while] he [was] sitting alone in his cool upper room. And Ehud said, "I have a {message from God} for you." So he got up from his seat. Then Ehud reached with his left hand for the sword on his right thigh, and he thrust it into his stomach. And the handle also went [in] after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade because he did not draw back the sword from his stomach; and it went protruding out the back. And Ehud went out the vestibule, and he closed the doors of the upper room and locked [them] behind him. After he left, his servants returned. When they saw [that] the doors of the upper room [were] locked, {they thought}, "Surely he [is] {relieving himself} in the cool inner room." And they waited so long they became embarrassed because he did not open the doors of the upper room. So they took the key and opened [the doors], and there their lord was lying on the ground dead. And Ehud escaped while they delayed. He passed by the sculptured stones and escaped to Seirah.

So David left and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the rulers of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth Shan, where [the] Philistines hung them {when} [the] Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa.

But if you will not listen to it, my inner self will weep in secret places, because of {the presence of} [your] pride. And my eyes will weep bitterly, and they will melt [in] tears, because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive.

So Zedekiah the king swore to Jeremiah in secret, {saying}, "{As Yahweh lives}, who has made for us this life, I will not kill you and I will not give you into the hand of these men who are seeking your life."

And from there he set out [and] went to the region of Tyre. And [when he] entered into a house, he wanted no one to know, and [yet] he was not able to escape notice.

Now the feast of the Jews--the [feast of] Tabernacles--was near. So his brothers said to him, "Depart from here and go to Judea, so that your disciples also can see your works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret and [yet] he himself desires to be {publicly recognized}. If you are doing these [things], reveal yourself to the world!"read more.
(For not even his brothers believed in him.) So Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it, that its deeds are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, because my time is not yet completed. And [when he] had said these [things], he remained in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not openly, but (as it were) in secret.

And after these [things], Joseph [who was] from Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus (but a secret one for fear of the Jews), asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate allowed [it], so he came and took away his body.

Or can a person hide himself in secret places and I cannot see him?" {declares} Yahweh. "[Do] I not fill up the heaven and the earth?" {declares} Yahweh.

Then Nathan said to him, "You [are] the man! Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: 'I anointed you as king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you the household of your master and the women of your master into your lap. I also gave you the house of Israel and Judah; if [that had been too] little, I would have added to you {much more}. Why have you despised the word of Yahweh by doing evil in his eyes? Uriah the Hittite you have struck down with the sword, and his wife you have taken to yourself as wife! You have killed him with the sword of the {Ammonites}!read more.
So then, a sword will not turn away from your house forever, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife!' Thus says Yahweh, 'Look, I [am] going to raise up evil against you from [within] your house, and I will take your women before your eyes, and I will give them to your neighbor, and he shall sleep with your wives {in broad daylight}. Though you did this in secret, I will do this thing before all of Israel {in broad daylight}!'"

"Surely he will rebuke you if {you show partiality} in secret.

If we had forgotten the name of our God, or had spread out our hands [in prayer] to a foreign god, would not God discover this, for he knows [the] secrets of [the] heart?

You have put our iniquities before you, our hidden [sins] into the light of your countenance.

One who slanders his neighbor in secret, him I will destroy. [One] haughty of eyes and {arrogant} of heart, him I will not endure.

O Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know [me]. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought from afar. You search out my wandering and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.read more.
For [there is] not a word [yet] on my tongue, [but] behold, O Yahweh, you know it completely. You barricade me behind and in front, and set your hand upon me. [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is set high; I cannot [prevail] against it. Where I can go from your Spirit, or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, there you [are], and if I make my bed [in] Sheol, look! [There] you [are]. If I lift up [the] wings of [the] dawn, [and] I alight on [the] far side of [the] sea, even there your hand would lead me, and your right hand would hold me fast. And if I should say, "Surely darkness will cover me, and [the] light around me [will be as] night," even [the] darkness is not too dark for you, and [the] night shines as the day-- the darkness [and] the light are alike [for you]. Indeed you created my {inward parts}; you wove me in my mother's womb. I praise you, because I am fearfully [and] wonderfully [made]. Wonderful [are] your works, and my soul knows [it] well. My {frame} was not hidden from you, when I was created secretly, [and] intricately woven in [the] depths of [the] earth.

I have spoken not in secrecy, in a place, a land, of darkness, I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, 'Seek me {in vain}!' I, Yahweh, [am] speaking righteousness, declaring uprightness.

Draw near to me; hear this! I have not spoken in secrecy from [the] {beginning}; from [the] time {it came to be}, there I [have been]; And now the Lord Yahweh has sent me and his Spirit."

Jesus replied to him, "I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple [courts] where all the Jews assemble, and I have said nothing in secret.

For the king knows about these [things], to whom also I am speaking freely, for I am not convinced [that] these [things] in any way have escaped his notice, because this {was} not {done} in a corner.

"Whenever you fast, do not be sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unrecognizable in order that they may be seen fasting by people. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward in full! But [when] you are fasting, {put olive oil on your head} and wash your face so that you will not be seen by people as fasting, but to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And take care not to practice your righteousness before people to be seen by them; {otherwise} you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore whenever you practice charitable giving, do not sound a trumpet in front of you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, in order that they may be praised by people. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward in full! But you, [when you] practice charitable giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,read more.
in order that your charitable giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to stand [and] pray in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, in order that they may be seen by people. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward in full! But whenever you pray, enter into your inner room and shut your door [and] pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"The hidden [things] {belong to Yahweh} our God, but the revealed [things] {belong to us} [to know] and to our children {forever}, [in order] to do all the words of this law."

But, {O that} God might speak, and [that] he would open his lips to you, and [that] he would tell you [the] secrets of wisdom, for {insight has many sides}. And know that God {on your behalf} has forgotten {some of} your guilt.

Look, are you wiser than Daniel, [so that] {no secret} is hidden [from] you?

And the disciples came up [and] said to him, "{Why} do you speak to them in parables?" And he answered [and] said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to those [people] it has not been granted.

And when he was alone, those around him together with the twelve began asking him about the parables. And he said to them, "To you has been granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything is in parables,

And he said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest [they are] in parables, so that 'Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'

And he said, "Go and say to this people, 'Keep on listening and do not comprehend! And keep on looking and do not understand!'

but we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory,

Thus let a person consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries.

A gossip walks [about] telling a secret, but the trustworthy in spirit keeps [the] matter.

And the rulers of [the] Philistines came up to her and said, "Entice him and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we can overpower him, so that we may bind him up in order to subdue him; each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and with what can you be tied up to subdue you?" Samson said to her, "If you tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried up, I will become weak like everyone else."read more.
So the rulers of [the] Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that were not dried up, and she tied him up with them. The ambush [was] sitting [in wait] for her in an inner room. And she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you Samson!" And he snapped the bowstrings just as flax fiber snaps when it comes close to fire. And [the secret of] his strength remained unknown. Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you can be bound." He said to her, "If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have not been used, I will become weak and be like everyone else." So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" (The ambush [was] sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread. And Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told lies to me. Tell me how you can be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave seven locks of my head with warp-threads." She fastened [it] with the pin and said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" And Samson woke up from his sleep and tore loose the loom pin of the web and the warp-threads. And she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me how your strength is [so] great." And because she nagged him day after day with her words, and pestered him, {his soul grew impatient to the point of death}. So {he confided everything to her}, and he said to her, "A razor {has never touched} my head, for I [am] a {Nazirite of God} {from birth}. If I am shaved my strength will leave me, and I will become weak, like everyone else.

on the day when God judges the secret things of people, according to my gospel, through Christ Jesus.

But if all prophesy, and some unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all, the secret things of his heart become evident, and so, falling on [his] face, he will worship God, proclaiming, "God is truly among you!"

I know [how] both {to make do with little} and I know [how] {to have an abundance}. In everything and in all [things] I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both {to have an abundance} and to go without.

Argue your argument with your neighbor [himself], the secret of another do not disclose,

in order that your charitable giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

But whenever you pray, enter into your inner room and shut your door [and] pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Now if your brother sins against you, go correct him between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.