Job 31:33
in Job 31if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If like Adam I have covered my transgressions, By hiding mine iniquity in my bosom,
KJV
If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
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This verse in Job 31
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
If I covered my transgressions as Adam - That is, if I have attempted to hide or conceal them; if, conscious of guilt, I have endeavored to cloak my sins, and to appear righteous. There has been great variety of opinion about the meaning of this expression. The margin reads it, “After the manner of men.” Luther, renders it, “Have I covered my wickedness as a man” - Habe ich meine Schalkheit wie ein Menseh gedecht.
This site's exposition
I have covered my transgressions like Adam
on Job 31:33-34
The oath “if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart” names Adam as the pattern of concealed sin. Henry takes this rare reference back to Genesis 3 by name as proof that Job knew the Genesis account as shared history.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Because I did not turn away," he says, "from the great multitude of my people," that is, away from my subjects, from those who were aware, who knew even the character itself of my fault. This is real wisdom. "First of all confess spontaneously your sins in order to be justified." So I took nobody as a witness of my good works, because I wanted everybody to be aware of my faults and errors. That is the summit of wisdom, that is the rule of virtue: to hide one's good work and to expose one's faults in public. But the people of today just do the opposite.
The Medieval Church2 voices
He further shows the perfection of his virtue by excluding undue anxiety. Men usually hide a crime because of the fear of embarrassment, and they sometimes do this against justice, either by denying it, which he excludes from himself saying, "If I hid like a …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXII · Written before 604.
proposed
If I covered my transgression as man, and did hide mine iniquity in my bosom. But who would not account himself to be a holy man in the midst of such heights of his virtues?
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), I never covered my transgression as Adam, never palliated a sin with frivolous excuses, nor made fig-leaves the shelter of my shame, nor ever hid my iniquity in my bosom, as a fondling, a darling, that I could by no means part with, or as stolen goods which I dreaded the discovery of." It is natural to us to cover our sins; we have it from our first parents.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
If I covered my transgressions as Adam,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
So he might easily know of the fall, through the two links which connect Adam and Abraham (about Job's time), namely, Methuselah and Shem. Adam is representative of fallen man's propensity to concealment (Pr 28:13). It was from God that Job did not "hide his iniquity in his bosom," as on the contrary it was from God that "Adam" hid in his lurking-place.
If I covered my transgressions as Adam - Here is a most evident allusion to the fall. Adam transgressed the commandment of his Maker, and he endeavored to conceal it; first, by hiding himself among the trees of the garden: “I heard thy voice, and went and Hid myself;” secondly, by laying the blame on his wife: “The woman gave me, and I did eat;” and thirdly, by charging the whole directly on God himself: “The woman which Thou Gavest Me to be with me, She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” And it is very likely that Job refers immediately to the Mosaic account in the Book of Genesis. The spirit of this saying is this: When I have departed at any time from the path of rectitude, I have been ready to acknowledge my error, and have not sought excuses or palliatives for my sin.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| כִּסִּ֣יתִי | kisiti | I have concealed | H3680 → | 152 times |
| כְאָדָ֣ם | kheadam | like Adam | H121 → | |
| פְּשָׁעָ֑י | peshaai | transgressions my | H6588 → | 93 times |
| לִטְמ֖וֹן | litmon | by hiding | H2934 → | 31 times |
| בְּחֻבִּ֣י | bechubi | in bosom my | H2243 → | |
| עֲוֹֽנִי׃ | ʾavoni | iniquity my | H5771 → | 233 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
כִּסִּ֣יתִיI have concealed
kisitiH3680 →152 times
כְאָדָ֣םlike Adam
kheadamH121 →
פְּשָׁעָ֑יtransgressions my
peshaaiH6588 →93 times
לִטְמ֖וֹןby hiding
litmonH2934 →31 times
בְּחֻבִּ֣יin bosom my
bechubiH2243 →
עֲוֹֽנִי׃iniquity my
ʾavoniH5771 →233 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 28:13He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
it leads to
- 1 John 1:8–10
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Psalms 32:3–5
When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Luke 15:18–24
I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
- Jeremiah 3:12–13
Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be…
- Psalms 51:1–5
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
- 1 John 1:8–10
Through
Genesis 3:12And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
it leads to
- Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- James 1:13–15
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
- Proverbs 28:13
Through
Hosea 6:7But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.
it leads to
- Genesis 3:11
“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
- Genesis 3:11
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies5
About Job
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:32-34A; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.