To hide: to conceal a thing out of sight, to cover it over so it cannot be found. This is the deliberate act of putting out of view: treasure hidden in a field, a city that cannot be hid. Where yesterday's root pulled the blanket back, this one lays it down.
Notice that the corpus does not treat hiding as simply bad. The same root covers the man who hides the treasure again for joy, and the city on the hill that cannot be hidden. Hiding is a tool; the question is always what is being covered, and why, and for how long, because Day 46 already told us how the story of every covered thing ends.
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passive participle, "hidden" | d- + pael passive participle | damṭašyā | דמטשיא ܕ݁ܰܡܛܰܫܝܳܐ | to hide | to hide · conceal · cover from sight |
| Verb, "he hid it" | pael perfect + object suffix | wṭašyāh | וטשיה ܘܛܰܫܝܳܗ | hid | hid it again (Mt 13:44) |
| Verb, "be hidden" | passive imperfect | teṭše | דתטשא ܕ݁ܬ݂ܶܛܫܶܐ | be hid | cannot be hidden (Mt 5:14) |
| Noun, "secrecy" | b- + ṭušyā | bṭušyā | בטושיא ܒ݁ܛܽܘܫܝܳܐ | in secret | in secret (Jn 7:4) |
| Stem | Force | Form here | Sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peal | simple active | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Ethpeel | simple passive | teṭše | be hidden: corpus-attested at Mt 5:14 (scaffold parse) |
| Pael | intensive | ṭašši | to hide something away: corpus-attested as wṭašyāh, Mt 13:44; participle mṭašay, "hidden," Mt 10:26; Mt 13:44 |
| Ethpaal | intensive passive | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Aphel | causative | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Ettaphal | causative passive | — | not attested in this corpus |
| Shaphel | rare causative | — | not attested in this corpus |
Hold both hidings in mind at once. There is the treasure a man hides for joy: something precious kept safe until the right moment. And there is the city on the hill, which will be seen whether it likes it or not. Ask yourself plainly: which of the things I keep covered are treasure waiting for its moment, and which are just a city pretending it isn't on a hill? Take one slow breath for each answer that surfaces. No fixing, just an honest inventory of your coverings.
This root is the shadow-twin of G-L-Y (Day 46); in Matthew 10:26, Luke 8:17 and John 7:4 the two appear in the same sentence, hiding and uncovering locked in one saying. Its own noun, ṭušyā, "secrecy," gives the corpus its phrase "in secret" (Jn 7:4). Behind both stands ʿ-L-M (Day 45), the hidden age. The ṭšy family is Aramaic's own household word here: no common Hebrew or English descendant to point to, and we won't invent one.
In two to three minutes, tell a friend the story of Matthew 13:44 with the Aramaic at its hinges: the treasure was damṭašyā, hidden; the man wṭašyāh, hid it again, and explain why the joyful hiding and the doomed hiding of Matthew 5:14 (teṭše: it cannot be hidden) are the same word doing two different jobs. End with your own inventory: one treasure, one hilltop city.