Secret - Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old Testament Words
Usage Number: 1
Strong's Number: H5475
Original Word: sôd
Usage Notes: "secret or confidential plan(s); secret or confidential talk; secret; council; gathering; circle." This noun occurs 21 times in biblical Hebrew.
Sod means, first, "confidential talk": "Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked …" (Psa. 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 initimates 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 (Psa. 55:14).