Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 15:14

What [is] man, that he should be clean? and [he which is] born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

14. What is there to justify such passion thy pretended innocence? What is man that he should be clean? cf. ch. Job 14:1. Eliphaz recurs again to his principles formerly enunciated, ch. Job 4:17 seq., for his former speech is in his mind throughout.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

What is man that he should be clean? – The object of Eliphaz in this is to overturn the positions of Job that he was righteous, and had been punished beyond his deserts. He had before maintained Job 4:7, that no one ever perished being innocent, and that the righteous were not cut off. This was with him a favorite position; and indeed the whole drift of the argument maintained by him and his friends was, to prove that uncommon calamities were proof of uncommon guilt. Job had insisted on it that he was a righteous man, and had not deserved the calamities which had come upon him – a position which Eliphaz seems to have regarded as an assertion of innocence. To meet this he now maintains that no one is righteous; that all that are born of women are guilty; and in proof of this he goes back to the oracle which had made so deep an impression on his mind, and to the declaration then made to him that no one was pure before God; Job 4: He does not repeat it exactly as the oracle was then delivered to him, but adverts to the substance of it, and regards it as final and indisputable. The meaning is, What are all the pretensions of man to purity, when even the angels are regarded as impure and the heavens unclean?

He which is born of a woman – Another mode of denoting man. No particular argument to maintain the doctrine of mans depravity is couched in the fact that he is born of a woman. The sense is, simply, how can anyone of the human family be pure?

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Job 15:14-16

What is man that he should be clean?

Original sin

Of all the truths acknowledged and assumed in this ancient book, we find none more clearly or readily confessed than that of mans original sin and native corruption. What is man that he should be clean? When a question is asked in argument and left unanswered, it is the strongest possible form of denial. It is more than saying no man is clean or righteous. It represents such a supposition as mans priority or holiness to be preposterous and absurd. Man, as man, and as born of woman by natural descent, is necessarily imperfect and impure. God is Himself the pure and perfect one, and nothing is pure or perfect but what is in God. All other purity and perfection is therefore comparative. Man may be pure and perfect as a man, while he is still very far from the purity and holiness of God. God has other and higher beings than man. Compare man with these. By saints here are meant the holy angels. God is said not to put trust in them. Their perfection is derived and comparative, not absolute. Contemplate man as he actually is; take the positive side of the charge brought against him in the text. II he is not clean, and cannot be righteous in Gods sight, then what is he? How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water. It might be urged that this is the representation made of the case by an angry and unscrupulous disputant, only anxious to establish his own position. But does not Job himself allow much the same? Is he not brought to say, Behold, I am vile. I abhor myself? Such representations abound in Scripture. Away, then, with all human maxims and all worldly opinions, which only throw a false gloss over the heart, and conceal its hidden corruption without touching it. Let us always look at ourselves in the looking glass of Gods Word, and not in the deceitful mirror of our own judgment, or the flattering worlds opinion. (W. E. Light, M. A.)

Holiness imperfect in the best men

Archbishop Usher was once asked to write a treatise upon sanctification; this he promised to do, but six months rolled away and the good Archbishop had not written a sentence. He said to a friend, I have not begun the treatise, yet I cannot confess to a breach of my promise, for to tell you the truth I have done my best to write upon the subject; but when I came to look into my own heart I saw so little of sanctification there, and found that so much which I could have written would have been merely by rote as a parrot might have talked, that I had not the face to write it. Yet if ever there was a man renowned for holiness it was Archbishop Usher; if ever there was a saintly man who seemed to be one of the seraphic spirits permitted to stray beyond the companionship of his kind among poor earthworms here, it was Usher, yet this is the confession he makes concerning himself. Where, then, shall we hide our diminished heads? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 14. What is man, that he should be clean?] mah enosh; what is weak, sickly, dying, miserable man, that he should be clean? This is the import of the original word enosh.

And – born of a woman, that he should be righteous?] It appears, from many passages in the sacred writings, that natural birth was supposed to be a defilement; and that every man born into the world was in a state of moral pollution. Perhaps the word yitsdak should be translated, that he should justify himself, and not that he should be righteous.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

What is man, Heb. frail, or sick, or wretched man? his mean original and corrupt nature showeth him to be unclean.

Which is born of a woman; from whom he derives infirmity, and corruption, and guilt, and the curse consequent upon it.

Righteous, to wit, in his own eyes, as thou, O Job, art.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

14. Eliphaz repeats therevelation (Job 4:17) insubstance, but using Job’s own words (see on Job14:1, on “born of a woman”) to strike him with his ownweapons.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

What [is] man, that he should be clean?…. Frail, feeble, mortal man, or woeful man, as Mr. Broughton renders it; since he is sinful, whereby he is become such a weak and dying creature: this question, as well as the following, is put by way of contempt, and as lessening man in a comparative sense, and in order to abate any high conceit of himself; who is not naturally clean, but the reverse, being conceived and born in sin; nor can he be so of himself, nor by any means he is capable of; and however clean he may be in his own eyes, or in the eyes of others, yet is not clean in the sight of God, and still less pure than him, his Maker, as in Job 4:17; and indeed cannot be clean at all, but through the grace of God, and blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin:

and [he which is] born of a woman; a periphrasis of man, Job 14:1;

that he should be righteous? as no man is naturally; there is none righteous, no, not one; though man originally was made righteous, yet sinning he lost his righteousness, and all his posterity are without any; nor can they become righteous of themselves, or by any works of righteousness done by them; and though they may trust in themselves that they are righteous, and may appear outwardly so before men, yet by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified or accounted righteous in the sight of God, and much less be more just than he, as in Job 4:17; nor can any of the sons of men be made or reckoned righteous but by the obedience of Christ, or by that justifying righteousness that is in him: what Eliphaz here says concerning the impurity, imperfection, and unrighteousness of men, are very great truths; but if he aims at Job, as he seems to do he misses his mark, and mistakes the man, and it is in vain with respect to him, or as a refutation of any notions of his; for Job asserts the corruption and depravity of human nature as strongly as it is expressed here,

Job 14:4; nor does he ever claim, but disclaims, sinless perfection, Job 9:20; nor did he expect to be personally justified before God by any righteousness of his own, the imperfection of which he was sensible of, but by the righteousness of his living Redeemer, Job 9:30; but what he pleaded for was the integrity and uprightness of his heart in opposition to hypocrisy he was charged with; and the holiness and righteousness of his life and conversation, in opposition to a course of living in sin, or to his being guilty of some notorious sin or sins for which he was afflicted, as was insinuated. Eliphaz here recurs to his oracle, Job 4:17; and expresses it much to the same sense.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

14 What is mortal man that he should be pure,

And that he who is born of woman should be righteous?

15 He trusteth not His holy ones,

And the heavens are not pure in His eyes:

16 How much less the abominable and corrupt,

Man, who drinketh iniquity as water!

The exclamation in Job 15:14 is like the utterance: mortal man and man born flesh of flesh cannot be entirely sinless. Even “the holy ones” and “the heavens” are not. The former are, as in Job 5:1, according to Job 4:18, the angels as beings of light (whether signifies to be light from the very first, spotlessly pure, or, vid., Psalter, i. 588f., to be separated, distinct, and hence exalted above what is common); the latter is not another expression for the (Targ.), the “angels of the heights,” but is the word used for the highest spheres in which they dwell (comp. Job 25:5); for the angels are certainly not corporeal, but, like all created things, in space, and the Scriptures everywhere speak of angels and the starry heavens together. Hence the angels are called the morning stars in Job 38:7, and hence both stars and angels are called and (vid., Genesis. S. 128). Even the angels and the heavens are finite, and consequently are not of a nature absolutely raised above the possibility of sin and contamination.

Eliphaz repeats here what he has already said, Job 4:18.; but he does it intentionally, since he wishes still more terribly to describe human uncleanness to Job (Oetinger). In that passage was merely the sign of an anti-climax, here is quanto minus. Eliphaz refers to the hereditary infirmity and sin of human nature in Job 15:14, here (Job 15:16) to man’s own free choice of that which works his destruction. He uses the strongest imaginable words to describe one actualiter and originaliter corrupted. denotes one who is become an abomination, or the abominated = abominable (Ges. 134, 1); , one thoroughly corrupted (Arabic alacha , in the medial VIII conjugation: to become sour, which reminds one of , Rabb. , as an image of evil, and especially of evil desire). It is further said of him (an expression which Elihu adopts, Job 34:7), that he drinks up evil like water. The figure is like Pro 26:6, comp. on Psa 73:10, and implies that he lusts after sin, and that it is become a necessity of his nature, and is to his nature what water is to the thirsty. Even Job does not deny this corruption of man (Job 14:4), but the inferences which the friends draw in reference to him he cannot acknowledge. The continuation of Eliphaz’ speech shows how they render this acknowledgment impossible to him.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(14) What is man?This is the ceaseless burden.(See Job. 4:17; Job. 9:2; Job. 25:4, &c.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14. Born of a woman The words of Job are now turned upon him, and give point to the citations Eliphaz makes from his wonderful revelation, Job 4:17. Job’s admission “born of a woman,” (see note Job 14:1,) justifies Eliphaz in seizing again his fallen weapon “Job a sinner.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eliphaz Accuses Job of Impiety

v. 14. What is man that he should be clean, and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous? Eliphaz here takes up a point which he had broached in his first discourse, 4:17-20, and which Job himself had conceded, 14:1-4. If Job admitted man’s mortality and frailty in general, he should also concede his own particular wickedness.

v. 15. Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints, not even in His holy angels, because they are finite and beneath Him in dignity; yea, the heavens, the very home of bliss, are not clean in His sight, they do not measure up to the essential purity of God’s nature.

v. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man, or, “much less, then, is the utterly corrupt man,” which drinketh iniquity like water? The characteristic of natural man is that he is so desirous for wickedness in one form or other that he pants for it like a thirsty person. After this sharp arraignment of Job, Eliphaz attempts a more objective form of rebuke.

v. 17. I will show thee, hear me, giving Job the information which he needed; and that which I have seen, what he has gained by experience, I will declare,

v. 18. which wise men have told from their fathers and have not hid it, setting it forth without concealment, without deception, without hypocrisy or hidden meanness;

v. 19. unto whom alone the earth was given, their tribe alone inhabited the land where they first settled, and no stranger passed among them, the purity of their race had been maintained from the earliest times, a fact which was considered the sign of the highest nobility. Eliphaz now sets forth this doctrine of the moral order of the world, in order to convince Job of the justice of his sufferings.

v. 20. The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, writhing, twisting, and trembling in torments of one form or other, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor, rather, a definite number of years is set aside for the tyrant, the one who commits violence in any manner.

v. 21. A dreadful sound is in his ears, noises that fill him with terror; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him, falling upon him in the midst of peace, when he is expecting no such evil.

v. 22. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, he despairs of ever being relieved of his misfortune, and he is waited for of the sword, marked out, destined for its attack and for destruction by it.

v. 23. He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? In the midst of plenty the miser is tortured by anxiety concerning his food. He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand, namely, to seize him and to thrust him into punishment of the most severe kind.

v. 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid, fill him with terror, anguish, find alarm; they shall prevail against him, overpower, overthrow him, as a king ready to the battle, the rush of the sudden attack sweeping over him and leaving him prostrate and beaten,

v. 25. For he, the wicked one, stretcheth out his hand against God, in a bold show of rebellion, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty, boasting himself in proud insolence.

v. 26. He runneth upon him, even on his neck, that is, with his neck rigid, with all the muscles of his body taut for the attack, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers, as the leader of a whole army of rebels he rushes forward with his weapons of offense and of defense,

v. 27. because he covereth his face with his fatness, a mark of his unbounded greed, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks, having gathered lumps of fat upon his loins as a result of his immoderate indulgence.

v. 28. And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps, about to fall into ruins. The description is that of a tyrant who sets aside all regard for the opinion of men, living even among the ruins of an accursed city. The result of such unparalleled insolence is now shown.

v. 29. He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, his wealth would have no stability, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth, literally, “not bow down to the earth the gains of such”; that is, even if the wicked succeed in having the finest stand of grain, the ears do not fill out; they may have a show of opulence, but it is not substantial.

v. 30. He shall not depart, not escape, out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, a parching heat withering his shoots, destroying his hopes for new gains, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away, the Lord Himself sending the last great catastrophe upon him.

v. 31. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity, rather, let him not trust in vanity, he deceives himself; for vanity shall be his recompense, everyone who trusts in the vain possessions of this world will find himself rewarded with their hollow emptiness.

v. 32. It shall be accomplished before his time, before his appointed time has run its course, the fulfillment of the evil will strike him, and his branch shall not be green, the picture of a decaying, palm-tree being applied to the wicked person.

v. 33. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, losing his gains before he has had any enjoyment of them, and shall cast off his flower as the olive. As the olive-tree, every other year, casts its blossoms without bearing fruit, so the godless will not realize their hopes, which are directed entirely upon vanity.

v. 34. For the congregation of hypocrites, the company of the wicked and profligate, shall be desolate, barren, having no lasting good fortune, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery, the fire of God’s judgment devours the dwellings of those who build up their substance on bribery and wickedness.

v. 35. They conceive mischief, pregnant with misery, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit, bearing it, bringing it forth, as a child of their wickedness. The point of this speech of Eliphaz is, of course, directed against Job, whom he wants to include in the category of such wicked and godless people as he has here described. The same bad habit of drawing unwarranted conclusions and placing innocent men under suspicion is employed to this day. and believers must guard most carefully against the practise of judging and condemning others.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

(14) What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? (15) Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. (16) How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

Separating these words, for a moment, from any connexion with either Job or his friends, what strong and forcible truths do they contain. How sure and certain? How just and humbling? But, Reader! do not overlook what sweet testimonies they carry with them to the truth of the gospel! If men be unclean; if saints can find no trust from GOD; if the heavens are not clean in GOD’S sight; judge, Reader, the vast necessity and importance of a righteousness in which GOD will put trust. And where shall we find that, or in whom, but in JESUS? Make one observation more on this interesting passage. Though JEHOVAH puts no trust in angels, yet, in JESUS his dear and ever blessed Son, as the sinners’ Surety, he doth; and while the heavens are not clean in his sight, he saith concerning JESUS, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Reader! do not overlook this, I beseech you. I know not what your feelings are; but I can tell you for myself, I have, upon numberless occasions, found great comfort, and an holy joy, when going to GOD my FATHER in prayer, I have been enabled to tell him of the purity and spotlessness of JESUS, and his righteousness as my covering.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job 15:14 What [is] man, that he should be clean? and [he which is] born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Ver. 14. What is man, that he should be clean? ] Eliphaz hath now done chiding (it is but time he should), and falls to reasoning; wherein nevertheless he showeth himself an empty and troublesome disputer, urging again the same arguments as before, Job 14:17-19 , and not resting satisfied in a sufficient answer. Did Job ever assert himself clean? Said he not the clean contrary in many places? See Job 14:4 . Only as washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of his God, 1Co 6:11 , he discoursed of his integrity and righteousness; not denying himself otherwise tainted with original sin, and guilty of actual; which he begged pardon for; according to the tenour of the covenant of grace. And therefore Eliphaz might have spared these words, and better bestowed his pains in comforting Job, and exhorting him to patience. The Jesuits have at this day a device in handling texts of Scripture by their nice distinctions to perplex and obscure the clearest places; and for those that are doubtful, not at all to distinguish or illustrate them. Again, in points of controversy they make a great putter about that which we deny not, but say little or nothing to the main business.

Haec quae desperant renitescere posse relinquunt.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

man = a mortal. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14. See note on Job 14:1.

clean = pure.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

is man: Job 9:2, Job 14:4, Job 25:4-6, 1Ki 8:46, 2Ch 6:36, Psa 14:3, Psa 51:5, Pro 20:9, Ecc 7:20, Ecc 7:29, Joh 3:6, Rom 7:18, Gal 3:22, Eph 2:2, Eph 2:3, 1Jo 1:8-10

Reciprocal: Gen 5:3 – in his Gen 8:21 – the imagination Lev 12:2 – If a woman Job 4:17 – shall a man Job 11:12 – man be Job 14:1 – born Psa 58:3 – estranged Psa 130:3 – shouldest mark Psa 143:2 – in thy sight Psa 144:3 – what is man Pro 21:8 – way Isa 64:6 – are all Jer 17:9 – General Mat 1:18 – of the Mat 11:11 – born Mar 7:21 – out Luk 11:13 – being Luk 18:19 – General Joh 3:7 – Ye Joh 9:34 – wast Act 4:27 – thy Rom 3:10 – none 1Co 4:4 – yet Phi 3:9 – not Tit 3:5 – by works Heb 2:6 – What

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 15:14-15. What is man? Hebrew, , enosh, frail, weak, imperfect man; that he should be clean? That is, that he should pretend to be so; or, that any should expect to find him so: and he that is born of a woman A sinful woman, from whom he has derived infirmity, corruption, and guilt; that he should be righteous? Just and holy in his own eyes, or in the eyes of others, and especially that he should be such in the sight of the just and holy God? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints That is, in his angels, (see Job 4:18,) who are called his saints or holy ones, Deu 33:2; Dan 4:13; Dan 4:23. Who, though they were created holy, yet many of them fell. Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight The angels that dwell in heaven; heaven being put for its inhabitants. None of these are pure, simply, and perfectly, and comparatively to God. The angels are pure from corruption, but not from imperfection.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

15:14 What [is] man, that he should be clean? and [he which is] born of a woman, that he should {i} be righteous?

(i) His purpose is to prove that Job, as an unjust man and a hypocrite, is punished for his sins, as he did before, Job 4:8.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

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