BLOT

blot (mum, contracted from me'um, "spot"): Occurs in the sense of scorn (Proverbs 9:7). In Job 31:7 (the King James Version) it is used figuratively of a moral defect; the Revised Version (British and American) has "spot." Blot out (machah, "to wipe out," exaleipho, "to smear out"), to obliterate or destroy: "That a tribe be not blotted out" (the King James Version "destroyed," Judges 21:17). To blot men out of God's book is to cut them off by an untimely death (Exodus 32:32).

Figuratively: "To blot out sin" is to forgive sin fully (Psalm 51:1, 9 Acts 3:19 Colossians 2:14). Not to blot out sin is to reserve for punishment (Nehemiah 4:5). The names of those who inherit eternal life are not blotted out of the "book of life" (Revelation 3:5).

See BOOK OF LIFE; BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE; FORGIVENESS.

L. Kaiser