how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?
Parallel translations
- WEB how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
- KJV How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
- NKJV How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!
- NASB How much less one who is detestable and corrupt: A person who drinks malice like water!
- NLT How much less pure is a corrupt and sinful person with a thirst for wickedness!
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 concludes that sinful man drinks iniquity like water. He paints humanity, and especially Job, as utterly corrupt.
Overview
Eliphaz closes that 'one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water' is far less clean than the heavens. He depicts humanity as eagerly sinful and implies Job is among the worst. Though the depravity of fallen man is a real biblical theme, Eliphaz weaponizes it against an innocent sufferer, missing the grace that meets such corruption in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 34:7What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water?
- Prov 19:28A corrupt witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.
- Titus 3:3For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- Rom 3:9–19What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.
- Ps 53:3All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
- Rom 1:28–30Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- Job 42:6Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
- Job 20:12Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
- Ps 14:1–3For the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.
- Job 4:19how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
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 15:16 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
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