What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Parallel translations
- WEB What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- BSB What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- NKJV “Whatis man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?
- NASB “What is man, that he would be pure, Or he who is born of a woman, that he would be righteous?
- NLT Can any mortal be pure? Can anyone born of a woman be just?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Eliphaz asks how any human, born of woman, could be clean or righteous. He stresses universal human sinfulness.
Overview
Eliphaz asks, 'What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?' The truth he states, that no one is pure before God, is sound and echoes elsewhere in Scripture. Yet he wields it to condemn Job rather than to humble himself, and the gospel answers this need: righteousness comes not from man but as God's gift in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Eccl 7:20For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
- Job 14:4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
- Prov 20:9Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
- Rom 7:18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
- Job 25:4–6How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
- 1 Kgs 8:46If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;
- Ps 14:3They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
- 1 Jn 1:8–10If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Ps 51:5Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
- Job 9:2I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
- Eccl 7:29Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
- Eph 2:2–3Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
- 2 Chr 6:36If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near;
- John 3:6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Gal 3:22But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 15:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.