Sheol is naked before God: the thought here, as in Psalm 139.8, is that God’s presence is everywhere. Job expressed the wish to be hidden in Sheol (14.13), but such a thought is contrary to the idea of the God who is everywhere, and thus even the darkness of Sheol is not hidden from him. Good News Translation, which has combined Abaddon from line b with Sheol, translates “The world of the dead lies open to God.” This line will sometimes have to be expressed differently in translation; for example, “God sees the place of the dead called Sheol,” “God knows all about the place of the dead called Sheol,” or “God sees all of Sheol as he sees all of a naked person.”

And Abaddon has no covering: Abaddon is used for Sheol in 28.22; 31.12; Proverbs 15.11; 27.20; and Psalm 88.11. In Revelation 9.11 this name is written in Greek. Abaddon is a noun formed from the verb meaning “to perish.” In Psalm 88.11 Good News Translation translates it “the place of destruction.” Has no covering has the literal meaning of “unveiled.” The parallelism means “Abaddon is uncovered, unveiled, exposed (to the eyes of God).” Bible en français courant translates “No veil hides the abyss from his eyes.” Since Sheol and Abaddon have the same meaning here, translators may wish to follow Good News Translation and not mention Abaddon as a noun in line b. The line may be rendered, for example, “and it is exposed to his eyes” or “and he sees all of it.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .