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Saturday, August 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Job 14:17

My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and You would cover over my iniquity.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Judgment;   Sin;   Thompson Chain Reference - Iniquities, Our;   Our Iniquities;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Seal, Sealing;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Job;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Seal;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Decrees of God;   Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Bags;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Bag;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Bag, Purse, Wallet;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Purse;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Bag;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Justice;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bag;   Forge;   Job, Book of;   Omniscience;   Seal;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Bag;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My rebellion would be sealed up in a bag,and you would cover over my iniquity.
Hebrew Names Version
My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
King James Version
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.
English Standard Version
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
New Century Version
My wrongs will be closed up in a bag, and you will cover up my sin.
New English Translation
My offenses would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sin.
Amplified Bible
"My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And You cover my wickedness [from Your view].
New American Standard Bible
"My wrongdoing is sealed up in a bag, And You cover over my guilt.
World English Bible
My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Mine iniquitie is sealed vp, as in a bagge, and thou addest vnto my wickednesse.
Legacy Standard Bible
My transgression is sealed up in a bag,And You cover up my iniquity.
Contemporary English Version
you would put them in a bag, tie it tight, and toss them away.
Complete Jewish Bible
You will seal up my crime in a bag and cover over my iniquity.
Darby Translation
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou heapest up mine iniquity.
Easy-to-Read Version
It would be as if you had sealed my sins in a bag. It would be as if you had covered my guilt with plaster.
George Lamsa Translation
My transgressions are sealed up in a bag, and thou removest from me my sins.
Good News Translation
You will forgive them and put them away; you will wipe out all the wrongs I have done.
Lexham English Bible
My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and you would cover over my guilt.
Literal Translation
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover over my iniquity.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thou hast sealed vp myne offences, as it were in a bagg: but be mercifull vnto my wickednesse.
American Standard Version
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And thou fastenest up mine iniquity.
Bible in Basic English
My wrongdoing is corded up in a bag, and my sin is shut up safe.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and Thou heapest up mine iniquity.
King James Version (1611)
My transgression is sealed vp in a bagge, and thou sowest vp mine iniquitie.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Myne iniquitie is sealed vp as it were in a bagge, and thou addest [punishement] vnto my wickednesse.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
An thou hast sealed up my transgressions in a bag, and marked if I have been guilty of any transgression unawares.
English Revised Version
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou fastenest up mine iniquity.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thou hast seelid as in a bagge my trespassis, but thou hast curid my wickidnesse.
Update Bible Version
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And you fasten up my iniquity.
Webster's Bible Translation
My transgression [is] sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up my iniquity.
New King James Version
My transgression is sealed up in a bag,And You cover [fn] my iniquity.
New Living Translation
My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt.
New Life Bible
My sin is locked up in a bag. You cover my wrong-doing.
New Revised Standard
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Sealed up in a bag, is my transgression, and thou hast glued over mine iniquity.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Thou hast sealed up my offences as it were in a bag, but hast cured my iniquity.
Revised Standard Version
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and thou wouldest cover over my iniquity.
Young's Literal Translation
Sealed up in a bag [is] my transgression, And Thou sewest up mine iniquity.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And You wrap up my iniquity.

Contextual Overview

16For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin. 17My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and You would cover over my iniquity.18But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place, 19as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a man's hope. 20You forever overpower him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away. 21If his sons receive honor, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he is unaware. 22He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

sealed up: Job 21:19, Deuteronomy 32:34, Hosea 13:12

Reciprocal: Job 40:2 - he that reproveth Psalms 139:3 - compassest Jeremiah 2:22 - yet thine iniquity Jeremiah 32:10 - and sealed James 5:3 - Ye have

Cross-References

Judges 11:34
And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.
1 Samuel 18:6
As the troops were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs, and with tambourines and other musical instruments.
2 Samuel 18:18
During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King's Valley, for he had said, "I have no son to preserve the memory of my name." So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom's Monument.
Proverbs 14:20
The poor man is hated even by his neighbor, but many are those who love the rich.
Proverbs 19:4
Wealth attracts many friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.
Hebrews 7:1
This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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" m, 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.''

m ותטפל על עוני "assuis iniquitati meae", Piscator; "et adjungis ad iniquitatem meam", Beza.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My transgression is sealed up - The verb rendered sealed up (חתם châtham) means to seal, to close, to shut up; see the notes at Isaiah 8:16; compare the notes at Job 9:7. It was common with the ancients to use a seal where we use a lock. Money was counted and put into a bag, and a seal was attached to it. Hence, a seal might be put to a bag, as a sort of certificate of the amount, and to save the necessity of counting it again.

In a bag - - בצרור bı̂tserôr. So Jerome, “in sacculo.” So the Septuagint, ἐν βαλαντίῳ en balantiō. The word צרור tserôr means usually a “bundle” 1 Samuel 25:29; Song of Solomon 1:13, or anything bound up (compare Job 26:8; Hosea 13:12; Exodus 12:34; Proverbs 26:8; Isaiah 8:16; Genesis 42:35; Song of Solomon 1:13; Proverbs 7:20); but here it is not improperly rendered a bag. The idea is, that they were counted and numbered like money, and then sealed up and carefully put away. God had made an accurate estimate of their number, and he seemed carefully to guard and observe them - as a man does bags of gold - so that none might be lost. His sins seemed to have become a sort of valuable treasure to the Almighty, none of which he allowed now to escape his notice.

And thou sewest up mine iniquity - Noyes renders this, “and thou addest unto mine iniquity.” Good, “thou tiest together mine iniquity.” The word used here טפל ṭâphal means properly to patch; to patch together; to sew to join together as carpenters do their work; and then to devise or forge - as a falsehood; - to join a malicious charge to a person. Thus, in Psalms 119:69, “The proud have “forged a lie” (שׁקר טפלוּ ṭâphalô sheqer) against me,” that is, they have joined a lie to me, or devised this story about me. So in Job 13:4, “Ye are forgers of lies.” The word does not occur elsewhere. The Greeks have a similar expression in the phrase ῥάπτειν ἔπη raptein epē - from where the word ῥαψῳδὸς rapsōdos. The word here, it seems to me, is used in the sense of sewing up money in a bag, as well as sealing it. This is done when there are large sums, to avoid the inconvenience of counting it. The sum is marked on the bag, and a seal affixed to it to authenticate it, and it is thus passed from one to another without the trouble of counting. If a seal is placed on the bag, it will circulate for its assigned value, without being opened for examination. It is usual now in the East for a bag to contain five hundred piastres, and hence, such a sum is called “a purse,” and amounts are calculated by so many “purses;” see Harmer, ii. 285, Chardin, and Pict. Bible in loc. The sense here is, that God had carefully numbered his sins, and marked them, and meant that none of them should escape. He regarded them as very great. They could now be referred to in the gross, without the trouble of casting up the amount again. The sins of a man’s past life are summed up and marked with reference to the future judgment.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 14:17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag — An allusion to the custom of collecting evidence of state transgressions, sealing them up in a bag, and presenting them to the judges and officers of state to be examined, in order to trial and judgment. Just at this time (July, 1820) charges of state transgressions, sealed up in a GREEN BAG, and presented to the two houses of parliament, for the examination of a secret committee, are making a considerable noise in the land. Some suppose the allusion is to money sealed up in bags; which is common in the East. This includes two ideas:

1. Job's transgressions were all numbered; not one was passed by.

2. They were sealed up; so that none of them could be lost. These bags were indifferently sewed or sealed, the two words in the text.


 
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