Job 14:17

My offenses would be sealed up ¹  in a bag; ²  you would cover over ³  my sin.

My offences will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.

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

My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover over my iniquity.

My sins will be stuffed in a sack and thrown into the sea--sunk in deep ocean.

My wrongdoing is corded up in a bag, and my sin is shut up safe.

my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And You cover my iniquity.

My offenses would be sealed up ¹  in a bag; ²  you would cover over ³  my sin.

¹ tn The passive participle חָתֻם (khatum), from חָתַם (khatam, “seal”), which is used frequently in the Bible, means “sealed up.” The image of sealing sins in a bag is another of the many poetic ways of expressing the removal of sin from the individual (see 1 Sam 25:29). Since the term most frequently describes sealed documents, the idea here may be more that of sealing in a bag the record of Job’s sins (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 334).

² tn The idea has been presented that the background of putting tally stones in a bag is intended (see A. L. Oppenheim, “On an Operational Device in Mesopotamian Bureaucracy,” JNES 18 [1959]: 121-28).

³ tn This verb was used in Job 13:4 for “plasterers of lies.” The idea is probably that God coats or paints over the sins so that they are forgotten (see Isa 1:18). A. B. Davidson (Job, 105) suggests that the sins are preserved until full punishment is exacted. But the verse still seems to be continuing the thought of how the sins would be forgotten in the next life.