Bible Strands
Job 31:33
if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks this conditional vow to his friends and to God during his final defense, immediately after describing his hospitality to travelers and before explaining his silence out of fear of human contempt.
The words — The Hebrew כִּסִּיתִי (kiṣittî) means "I have concealed," and חֻבִּי (ḥubbî) translates to "my guilt." Job uses these terms to describe the act of burying his own moral failures rather than exposing them.
The thread — The pattern of hidden guilt appears in Proverbs 28:13, which states that concealing sins blocks prosperity, and aligns with the account in Genesis 3:12 where Adam hides his transgression after eating the forbidden fruit.
Why it lands — The text demands that a reader reject self-protective silence and choose open acknowledgment of wrongdoing. It requires a plain commitment to expose moral failure rather than preserve a false reputation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
Cross-references
- Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- Acts 5:8 “Tell me,” said Peter, “is this the price you and your husband got for the land?” “Yes,” she answered, “that is the price.”
- Genesis 3:12 And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
- Hosea 6:7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.
- 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Joshua 7:11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed My covenant that I commanded them, and they have taken some of what was devoted to destruction. Indeed, they have stolen and lied, and they have put these things with their own possessions.
- Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.