Why are the Sins of Ephraim (Hos 13,12) and Job (Job 14,17) Bundled? * Two verses in the Hebrew Bible describe sins as tied in a bundle 1: wOt)+@fxa hnfw%pc; MyIrfp;)e NwO(j rw%rcf The sin of Ephraim is bundled up, his iniquity is stored away. (Hos 13,12) yniwO(j_l(a lpo%+;t@iwA y(i#$;$p%i rwOrc;b@i Mtuxf My transgression is sealed up in a bundle, and You smear over my in- iquity. (Job 14,17) This study interprets the shared image in the two verses in light of a previously overlooked legal practice attested in Neo-Babylonian trial records. These texts show that, in preliminary actions, adjudicating au- thorities would tie up and seal evidence in order to preserve it for the ac- tual trials that would take place subsequently. In much the same way, when the sins are bundled up, they are preserved for later use in God’s trial against Ephraim and Job. Seeking a court-procedural interpretation of the imagery in these two verses is motivated by the Hebrew Bible’s descriptions of the role that sins play in God’s judgment. In the divine courtroom, where God the judge pre- sides over trials of humans, sins serve as the evidence against the people standing trial. Thus, the divine legal lexicon refers to sins with the same ter- minology that is used to describe evidentiary actions in trials between human litigants: sins are said to “testify against” or “accuse” (b h_n_() Israel 2. * Versions of this article were presented at a Yeshiva College Junior Fa- culty Working Papers talk and at the 2011 annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, in a session of the biblical law section. I am grateful to the audiences at these forums, as well as to family members and colleagues, at Yeshiva University and elsewhere, who assisted my research and writing. All translations are my mine, made in consultation with published translations. 1 Qimhi, in his commentary to Hos 13,12, already connects the two ver- ses, and numerous modern commentators have followed. 2 Isa 59,12 and Jer 14,7. Compare Gen 30,33 where Jacob’s “righteous- ness” (hqdc) is the subject of the same locution. For the use of the locution in litigation between humans, see, for example, Exod 20,13 and Deut 19,16.18. For discussion, see the references to the locution in the index to P. BOVATI, Re-Establishing Justice. Legal Terms, Concepts and Procedures in the Hebrew Bible (JSOTSS 105; Sheffield 1994) 470. BIBLICA 93.1 (2012) 107-115