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To blot out (מָחָה, machah') signifies to obliterate; therefore to blot out living things, or the name or remembrance of any one, is to destroy or to abolish, as in Genesis 7:4, where for "destroy" we should read, as in the margin, "blot out." Also a sinful stain, a reproach, is termed a blot in Job 31:7; Proverbs 9:7. To blot out sin is fully and finally to forgive it (Isaiah 44:22). To blot men out of God's book is to deny them his providential favors, and to cut them off by an untimely death (Exodus 32:32-33; .Psalms 69:28). When Moses says, in the passage referred to above, "Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written," we are to understand the written book merely as a metaphorical expression, alluding to the records kept in the courts of justice, where the deeds of criminals are registered, and which signifies no more than the purpose of God in reference to future events; so that to be cut off by an untimely death is to be blotted out of this book. The not blotting the name of the saints out of the book of life (Revelation 3:5) denotes their final happiness in heaven.