What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Eliphaz speaks a second time, and his tone has hardened. He asks how any human being could be pure before God — a fair question, but he uses it to accuse a man God had already called upright.
Who is speaking, and how to weigh him
The verse is not God's verdict on Job; it is one friend's argument. What he says and what he does with it are two different things.
William KellyThe second round of speeches opens with the appeal of Eliphaz. He now shows more openly what he had felt more and more strongly: that Job must lack integrity. As before, there is weighty truth in what he presses, and he presses it with great force. But applying it to the sufferer had no ground, and so it was unjust in the highest degree.
Why no one "born of a woman" can be clean
The phrase "born of a woman" points to where uncleanness comes from. The problem is not a record of deeds. It is a nature, passed down from the first man.
Frederick W. GrantAs the father of the human race, the first man was charged with the interests of all who would come after him. Because he fell, a corrupt nature became the inheritance of the race. So death and judgment became their appointed portion, and the final outcome was not in doubt... "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one," expresses the law. "What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?" "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The Lord's words in the gospel fully and strongly confirm what these believers of long ago said: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
The measuring line is God's holiness
The next verse supplies the scale Eliphaz is using. He is not comparing man with man. He measures man against a God in whose sight even the heavens fall short.
F. B. HoleHis assertions as to the holiness of God are quite right. Satan's presence defiles the lower heavens, and they are indeed "not pure in His sight." What he says about the filthiness of man is just as true. But he then concluded that Job must be guilty of secret evils, which he "winked at" instead of admitting. That conclusion was wide of the mark.
True in the absolute — false as a charge
Two comparisons are in play here. One measures man against God. The other measures Job against other men.
Leslie M. GrantIn any absolute sense, no man is pure or righteous, as verse 14 implies. But Eliphaz wanted Job to confess to sins that Job had not actually committed. Yet if we think of Job compared to other men, God had said that Job was the most righteous man on earth.
There is a simple test for anyone who presses this truth on others: does he include himself?
Samuel RidoutBut is not Eliphaz one of these, as well as the poor sufferer? Why then apply it to Job as though it proved him a sinner above all others? ... Let Eliphaz take his place beside Job and confess that he too is "abominable and filthy." The poor sufferer might have responded to that.
The question left hanging
Eliphaz asks the question but has no answer for it. Job and Bildad ask it too, and the answer came only much later.
W. W. FeredayTo justify a man is to reckon him righteous... To justify someone who has committed no offence is a simple matter, and every court in the world can do it. But to justify a sinner is another matter altogether; this presents a problem that only God can solve. Both Job and his friend Bildad long ago raised the question, "How can a man be in the right before God?" (Job 9; 25). Both had in mind that man is fallen and guilty. Their question found no definite answer in Old Testament times. Here, as with many another riddle, men had to wait until God sent forth His beloved Son. "But now," says the Apostle, "the righteousness of God has been manifested" (Rom. 3:21).
Summary
- Source. Eliphaz speaks these words in the middle of an argument. The truth is weighty, but it did not fit Job.
- Truth. The statement itself stands. Every person inherits a corrupt nature from the first man, and no clean thing comes out of an unclean.
- Standard. The measure is God's holiness, not human comparison; if the heavens are not pure in His sight, man's case is settled.
- Misuse. A truth about everyone proves nothing against one man. Eliphaz pressed Job to confess sins he had not committed, and never put himself beside him.
- Answer. How can a guilty man be counted righteous? Job's day had no settled answer. The wait ended when God sent His Son and made His righteousness known.