DEUT1700 What is prerequisite to a person's repentance? I say it is possible for him to repent only after he knows [the following] seven things. … 4. He must know that [his misdeed] is held against him and recorded in the book of his demerits, and that it will not be overlooked, forgotten, or laid aside, as it says: “Is it not stored up with Me, sealed up in My treasures?” (Devarim 32:34); “Each person signs with his own hand, that every man may know his deeds” (Iyov 37:7). For if he thinks that it is dropped and not held against him, he will neither regret it nor ask forgiveness for it, since his punishment is slow in coming, as it says: “Because the sentence for an evil deed is not carried out immediately, they are therefore emboldened to do evil” (Koheles 8:11).