If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,
Parallel translations
- WEB if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
- KJV If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
- BSB if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,
- 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 who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
- Acts 5:8Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” She said, “Yes, for so much.”
- Gen 3:12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
- Hos 6:7But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.
- Josh 7:11Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it 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 3:7–8Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.
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.