Job 14:17

17 "My transgression is ¹sealed up in a bag, And You wrap up my iniquity.

Job 14:17 Meaning and Commentary

Job 14:17

My transgression [is] sealed up in a bag
Denoting either the concealment of it, as in ( Hosea 13:12 ) ; not from God; nor in such sense sealed up as sin is by the sacrifice and satisfaction of Christ, who has thereby removed it out of the sight of divine justice; so that when it is sought for it shall not be found, nor any more seen, which is the sense of the phrase in ( Daniel 9:24 ) ; where the words, "to make an end of sin", may be rendered, to "seal [them] up"; but this Job would not have complained of; he means it was hid as in a bag from himself, or he knew not what it was; the transgression was sealed up from him, he was entirely ignorant of and unacquainted with what it was for which he was severely afflicted: or else his sense is, that God had taken strict notice of his transgressions, and had, as it were, put them up in a bag, and set a seal upon it, that none might be lost, but might be ready to be produced against him another day; in allusion, as it is thought, to bills of indictment put up in bags sealed, to be brought into courts of judicature at a proper time, for which they are reserved:

and thou sewest up mine iniquity;
in the bag in which it is sealed; not only did he seal up the bag, but sewed a cloth over it thus sealed, for greater security: or "thou sewest to mine iniquity" ^F13, or adds iniquity to iniquity, as in ( Psalms 69:27 ) ; as arithmeticians do, who add one number to another until it becomes a great sum; thus God, according to Job, tacked and joined one sin to another, till it became one large heap and pile, reaching to the heavens, and calling for vengeance; or, as Sephorno interprets it, joined sins of ignorance to sins of presumption; or rather sewed or added the punishment of sin to sin, or punishment to punishment; the Targum is,

``my transgression is sealed up in a book of remembrances, and thou hast joined it to my iniquities.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (ynwe le lpjtw) "assuis iniquitati meae", Piscator; "et adjungis ad iniquitatem meam", Beza.

Job 14:17 In-Context

15 "You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.

16 "For now You number my steps, You do not observe my sin.

17 "My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And You wrap up my iniquity.

18 "But the falling mountain crumbles away, And the rock moves from its place;

19 Water wears away stones, Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth; So You destroy man's hope.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 32:32-34

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "plaster;" or "glue together"