Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Acts 5:8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
Genesis 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Hosea 6:7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Joshua 7:11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and…
Genesis 3:7-8 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 31:33–end
We have here Job's protestation against three more sins, together with his general appeal to God's bar and his petition for a hearing there, which, it is likely, was intended to conclude his discourse (and therefore we will consider it last), but that another particular sin occurred, from which he thought it requisite to acquit himself. He clears himself from the charge,
I. Of dissimulation and hypocrisy. The general crime of which his friends accused him was that, under the cloak of a profession of religion, he had kept up secret haunts of sin, and that really he was as bad as other people, but had the art of concealing it. Zophar insinuated (Job 20:12) that he hid his iniquity under his to…
Adam--translated by UMBREIT, "as men do" (Hos 6:7, where see Margin). But English Version is more natural. The very same word for "hiding" is used in Gen 3:8, Gen 3:10, of Adam hiding himself from God. Job elsewhere alludes to the flood. 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 (Pro 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. This disproves the translation, "as men"; for it is from their fellow men that "men" are chiefly anxious…
If I covered my transgressions as Adam,.... Job could not be understood, by this account he had given of the holiness of his life, that he thought himself quite free from sin; he had owned himself to be a sinner in several places before, and disclaimed perfection; and here he acknowledges he was guilty of transgressing the law of God, and that in many instances; for he speaks of his "transgressions" in the plural number; but then he did not seek to cover them from the of God or men, but frankly and ingenuously confessed them to both; he did not cover them, palliate, excuse, and extenuate them, as Adam did his, by laying the blame to his wife; and as she by charging it on the serpent; and tho…
The Church Fathers
"If after to have. sin deliberately, I hid my sin. Our sins have been voluntary since we knew the truth (1).
"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.
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? Who would not be in some measure tempted by his mere merits alone being so many in number, so that if at any time as being but man he went wrong, he would not have his transgression made known to men; and would account it as trivial if he did any thing wrong in lesser things; and would rather prefer to cover his offence by silence than disclose it by the voice of confession? For it often comes to pass that the mind being lifted up by virtuous attainments, when it knows that many good things are scattered abroad concerning it in the esteem of neighbours, does not wish it to be known, if there is any thing that it does deserving of blame. Which same darkness of mistaking the mind is for this reason exposed to, because high-swelling clogs the eye of the heart. For these are the proofs of true humility, both for a man to ascertain his own wickedness, and on being ascertained to discover it by the voice of confession; but on the contrary it is the accustomed evil practice of man's race, at once to commit sin keeping himself hidden from sight, and when committed to hide it by denying, and when brought home to him, to multiply it by standing up for it. For from that fall of the first man we draw these accessions of wickedness, from which we also draw the very original of sin. For thus he, when he had touched the forbidden tree, hid himself from the face of the Lord amidst the trees of Paradise. In which hiding, because surely he could not escape the eye of God, it is not the effecting of self-concealing that is related, but the affecting thereof is betokened. Who when he was charged by the Lord, how that he had touched of the forbidden tree, thereupon answered; The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. The woman likewise on being asked, answered, saying, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. For to this end they were enquired of, that the sin, which by transgressing they had been guilty of, they might by confessing wipe out. Whence too the serpent, that prompter, inasmuch as he was not to be brought back to pardon, was not asked concerning the sin. Thus man was asked the question 'where he was,' that he might review the offence committed, and by…
Dictionary and topics
Adam · .Temptation and sin ofGe 3; — .Temptation and sin ofGe 3;
Falsehood · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Sin · Guilt of concerning — Guilt of concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
33 If I have hidden my wickedness like Adam,
Concealing my guilt in my bosom,
34 Because I feared the great multitude
And the contempt of families affrighted me,
So that I acted secretly, went not out of the door. -
Most expositors translate כּאדם: after the manner of men; but appropriate as this meaning of the expression is in Psa 82:7, in accordance with the antithesis and the parallelism (which see), it would be as tame here, and altogether expressionless in the parallel passage Hos 6:7 -
(Note: Pusey also (The Minor Prophets with Commentary, P. i. 1861) improves "like men" by translating "like Adam.")
the passage which comes mainly under consideration here - since the force of the prop…
never turned away a stranger: The Old Testament values hospitality (Gen 18:1-13; 19:2-3; Judg 19:20-21), and the New Testament commands it (Matt 25:35; Rom 12:13; 1 Tim 3:2; Heb 13:2; 1 Pet 4:9).
