My transgression would be sealed up in a bag: according to Pope this may refer to an ancient system of keeping inventory on animals. Small stones were dropped into a container or removed from it as the number and kind of animals a person owned changed. The translation of verse 17 will depend on the way verse 16 has been understood. Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and others translate verse 17 as a continuation of the thought of verse 16, so that God would seal up Job’s sins in a bag, that is, keep them out of sight. New English Bible and others take the other view that Job’s sins are put in safe keeping where they can be brought out and used in evidence against him later. The view of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is recommended to translators. In verse 16 God would cease “to notice, pay attention, see” Job’s sins. This line may also be translated, for example, “You will forgive and hide my sins,” “You will take away the wrong I have done,” or, keeping the figurative language, “You will hide my sins like a person hides things in a bag.”

And thou wouldest cover over my iniquity: cover over translates the same verb used in 13.4 and translated “whitewash” (Revised Standard Version). See comments on 13.4. Iniquity has the same meaning as transgression in the previous line. This line may also be expressed, for example, “You will cover up my sins the way a person paints whitewash on a wall” or “You will cover over and hide my sins.”

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 .