Job 15 · a question people ask

Eliphaz asks how anyone born of a woman could be righteous. Does other Scripture say the same?

In the text

Eliphaz asks, "What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?" (15:14). Other Scripture asks the same kind of question. "Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin”?" (Proverbs 20:9), where I have made … pure is the verb of 15:14's clean (tap clean). A psalm says, "They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one" (Psalm 14:3), where become corrupt is the verb of 15:16's corrupt (tap corrupt). Paul writes, "There is no one righteous; no, not one" (Romans 3:10), and "for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Job has said the like himself: "how can man be just with God?" (9:2), and "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one" (14:4); his "Man, who is born of a woman" (14:1) has, in Hebrew, the two words of Eliphaz's born of a woman. What Eliphaz does with his question comes next: "how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!" (15:16), and then the wicked man's end (15:20-35). The book has told you that the LORD called Job "a blameless and an upright man" (1:8). What the book says of the friends' words is 42:7, and it doesn't say which words it means. These notes set the verses side by side and add no verdict of their own on Eliphaz.

The verses

“What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!”
Job 15:14-16 · World English Bible
“Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin”?”
Proverbs 20:9 · World English Bible
“They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.”
Psalm 14:3 · World English Bible
“As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.”
Romans 3:10 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 15

Job 15: Your own mouth condemns you

Eliphaz's "Your own mouth condemns you" (15:6) is nearly Job's own "my own mouth will condemn me" (9:20), and his "he puts no trust in his holy ones" (15:15) is nearly what the voice in the night had said (4:18), now said by Eliphaz himself.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions