Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
Job is answering his friends, and here he turns to God with a question that leaves him no way out. It confesses where he came from, and it raises a further question: does God have an answer Job could not yet see?
The Question and Its Own Answer
Job asks and answers in the same breath. One writer notes that the answer reaches wider than we might first read.
William Kelly"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one." It does not mean, "not one person," but "not one thing." I say this only so that it is understood.
The picture behind the words is a spring and the stream that flows from it.
William KellyThis leads him to a wider view of man's sad and frail condition, but still with his own case clearly before his eyes. If the fountain is corrupt, no one need wonder that its stream is foul.
Why Job Says It Here
Job has just described how short and troubled human life is. Now he adds uncleanness to frailty as a second reason for God to leave him alone.
Samuel RidoutBut how sadly true are verses 1, 2! And will the mighty God enter into judgment with such a frail creature — not only frail but impure by nature! Ah, let Job ponder well his own words. But he passes on in self-pity to beg that he be let alone for a little, until as a hired man he completes his day (verses 3-6).
A Law of Human Descent
Writers read this line as a principle, not a mood. The whole race takes what it has from its head.
Frederick W. GrantThe first man was also, in a very real way, the representative of his race. This was not by any formal covenant made for his descendants, of which Scripture has no trace, but because God Himself made him the head of the race. Scripture states this in the plainest possible way. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" expresses the law. "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." And the Lord affirms the principle in the strongest terms: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
The same law explains why each new child adds to the world's evil — and why that is not the whole story.
Numerical Bible NotesThrough the woman death had come in, and through the woman life comes in, but the life she brings in carries the taint of its origin: "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" asks Job. We must answer with him: by nature, "not one." So the truth taught here is that human increase means human defilement. Every child born into the world only adds to the evil in it. But this does not stand alone: we also see that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."
The One Exception
Job's "not one" holds for every child of Adam. Writers point to one birth where God did what Job said no one could do.
William KellyGod completely shut out the poison that sin had put into human nature in every other case. So the Lord Jesus was born of the woman, not of the man... The power of the Highest overshadowed His mother from the start, and only in this way was "that holy thing" born of her at the right time. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one," Job 14. This, and far more than this, was "that holy thing" which was born of the virgin. With God nothing is impossible.
The same writer sets His birth beside the new birth.
Numerical Bible NotesIn His person human nature was cleansed from its defilement, and God did what Job declared impossible for man — brought forth a clean thing out of an unclean (Job 14:4). At His birth He was what we become at new birth, but without any taint of evil, perfect in all things — yes, the Eternal Life itself.
What Job Could Not Yet See
One writer names what Job's question could not reach:
Leslie M. Grant"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one." This is impossible for any human being. Yet God is able to purify man's hearts, cleansing them through the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 1:7), by faith (Rom. 3:25). But this is found only in the New Testament, so Job did not understand such a marvellous gospel.
Summary
- Source — The verse states a law about origins: a corrupt fountain gives a foul stream. "Not one" means not one thing, not just not one person.
- Reach — The law covers every descendant of Adam, the head God made for the race. Each birth adds to the evil; none takes away from it.
- Deadlock — Job pleads his impurity as a reason for God to look away from him. The plea leaves him with no hope in himself.
- Exception — God did the one thing Job called impossible. By the power of the Highest, "that holy thing" was born of the virgin, untainted, though of a fallen race.
- Outcome — A clean thing did come out of an unclean. So God cleanses hearts through the blood of Jesus Christ, by faith — the gospel Job had not yet been shown.