Job 14:17

17 Sealed up in a bag [is] my transgression, And Thou sewest up mine 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.''


FOOTNOTES:

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

Job 14:17 In-Context

15 Thou dost call, and I -- I answer Thee; To the work of Thy hands Thou hast desire.
16 But now, my steps Thou numberest, Thou dost not watch over my sin.
17 Sealed up in a bag [is] my transgression, And Thou sewest up mine iniquity.
18 And yet, a falling mountain wasteth away, And a rock is removed from its place.
19 Stones have waters worn away, Their outpourings wash away the dust of earth, And the hope of man Thou hast destroyed.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.