Sanskrit
नादत्ते कस्यचित्पापं न चैव सुकृतं विभुः । अज्ञानेनावृतं ज्ञानं तेन मुह्यन्ति जन्तवः ॥
nādatte kasyacit pāpaṃ na caiva sukṛtaṃ vibhuḥ ajñānenāvṛtaṃ jñānaṃ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ
Translation
The Lord accepteth neither the evil-doing nor yet the well-doing of any. Wisdom is enveloped by unwisdom; therewith mortals are deluded.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Following directly from the previous verse, this closes the loop: the all-pervading Self (vibhu) takes on neither anyone’s evil nor their merit, so the moral residue of action never actually touches it. The delusion of ordinary beings is explained structurally rather than morally — jñāna, innate wisdom, is āvṛta, covered over, the way cloud cover doesn’t destroy sunlight but blocks it from reaching the ground. That covering metaphor is doing real work: it implies the corrective isn’t acquiring something new but removing an obstruction, which is exactly the sun simile the next verse reaches for.