A CLOSED CIRCLE — the confidential session, the inner deliberation, and by extension the secret discussed there. Jeremiah's test for a prophet is entirely built on it: 'who has stood in the sod of Jehovah?' (23:18), and 'if they had stood in my sod, they would have turned my people back' (23:22). Scripture only ever glimpses that circle — the sons of God presenting themselves with the Adversary among them (Job 1:6), Micaiah seeing the host of heaven debating who will entice Ahab (1 Kings 22:19-22), Amos's flat rule that God does nothing without disclosing his sod to the prophets (3:7). KJV renders it 'counsel,' ASV 'council,' NWT 'the intimate group'; the word is a ROOM, not an opinion. Its ordinary human sense is the same: the huddle of friends (Psalm 55:14), or the gossip that leaks out of one (Proverbs 11:13). → first discussed at Jer 23:18