---
title: Jeremiah 23:24
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-23-24/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-23-24.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Jeremiah 23:24
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Jeremiah 23:24

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD.  “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "'Or can any man hide himself in places of concealment and I myself not see him?' is the utterance of Jehovah. 'Is it not the heavens and the earth that I myself fill?' is the utterance of Jehovah."
- NWT (2013 revision): "'Can any man hide in a concealed place where I cannot see him?' declares Jehovah. 'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares Jehovah."

## JW Usage

JWs cite Jeremiah 23:24 as evidence of Jehovah's omniscience and inescapable awareness — no false prophet, no idolater, no spiritually unfaithful Israelite can hide from him. Within the Watchtower framework the verse is treated as confirmation of Jehovah's universal knowledge, with less attention to the second clause ("Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?") as a positive declaration of divine omnipresence and the asymmetry that creates with every other spiritual being.

## Protestant Usage

Jeremiah 23:24 declares Jehovah's omnipresence as an exclusive divine attribute — "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" Pair this verse with Psalm 139:7-12 ("Where can I go to escape Your Spirit?") and 1 Kings 8:27 ("heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you"). The cumulative Old Testament picture: Yahweh's presence is qualitatively unlike any creature's — he fills heaven and earth, he cannot be evaded, he is not contained. Now contrast Satan: in Job 1:7 he reports his itinerary ("from roving about on the earth and from walking about in it"); in 1 Peter 5:8 he prowls; in Zechariah 3:1 he stands at Joshua's right hand to accuse him; in Revelation 20:1-3 he is bound. All locomotion verbs — none of them predicates of an omnipresent being. On the doorstep, this verse names what JW speech often quietly grants to Satan but reserves for Jehovah: filling heaven and earth. Restoring Satan to creaturely scale and Yahweh to exclusive omnipresence corrects an implicit dualism that treats Satan as a near-equal contestant.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Satan Is Not Omnipresent — Locomotion, Not Ubiquity](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/satan-functional-omnipresence.md) — Job 1:7 — Going to and fro on the earth [Holy Spirit]
- [Until Now You Have Not Asked in My Name](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john-16-23-26-prayer-trap.md) — John 16:23-26 — the unitarian collapse on prayer [Deity of Christ]