If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
Parallel translations
- WEB if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
- BSB if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,
- NKJV If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,
- NASB “Have I covered my wrongdoings like a man, By hiding my guilt in my shirt pocket,
- NLT “Have I tried to hide my sins like other people do, concealing my guilt in my heart?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job swears he did not, like Adam, cover his transgressions by hiding iniquity in his heart. He affirms that he did not conceal his sins hypocritically.
Overview
Job denies the habit of Adam, who hid from God after sinning, insisting he did not bury his guilt in secret concealment. The comparison to Adam highlights the universal human tendency to hide rather than confess. The gospel answers this concealment, for the One who covers sin is God himself through Christ, so that those who confess their sins find them not hidden but forgiven and cleansed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 28:13He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
- Acts 5:8And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
- Gen 3:12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
- Hos 6:7But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
- Josh 7:11Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
- 1 Jn 1:8–10If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Gen 3:7–8And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 31:33 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.