Job 14:4

Who can bring a clean [thing] out of an clean?.... Either produce a clean person from an unclean one: it is not to be expected that one, perfectly free from sin, should be generated by, or brought

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. A plea in mitigation. The doctrine of original sin was held from the first.

I do not say, I am clean, as Zophar pretendeth, ; but confess that I am a very unclean creature, and therefore liable to thy justice, if thou wilt deal rigorously with me; but remember that this is not my peculiar case, but the common lot of every man, who, coming from sinful parents, and being infected with original corruption, must unavoidably be unclean. Why then dost thou inflict such peculiar and extraordinary judgments upon me for that which is common to all men? And although my original corruption do not excuse my actual sins, yet I hope it may procure some mitigation to my punishments, and move thy Divine pity, which oft showeth itself upon such occasions. See . Not one, i.e. no man can cleanse himself or any other from all sin. See . This is the prerogative of thy grace, which therefore I humbly implore of thee.

Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean [thing] out of an unclean? not one.Ver. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one] q. d. I confess I am unclean; but what can I do withal? or how can I do otherwise, since I do but my kind? But was this a sufficient plea? David was of another mind when he alleged this as a great aggravation of his bloodguiltiness, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me," Psalms 51:5 : q.d. I have not only fallen into these foul sins, but I have done it out of the venomousness and vitiosity of my nature, commonly called original, and by the apostle inhabiting sin, Romans 7:17, as by the schools peccatum peccans, the sinning sin, as that which is the source and seminary of all actual disobedience. And because this uncleanness is natural to us, therefore it maketh us as loathsome to God as a toad is to us, because poison is in the nature of it. Papists say (but not truly) that original sin is the smallest of all sins, not deserving any more of God’ s wrath than only a want of his blessed presence; and that too without any pain or sorrow of mind from the apprehension of so great a loss. They hold also those motions of the heart not consented to be no sins, but necessary conditions, arising from our constitution, and such as Adam had in his innocence. Contrariwise, Job here grants a birthblot upon all, and lays his hand upon it as the cause of the length of men’ s troubles and shortness of their lives; only he forgetteth himself (saith Mercer here) when he pleadeth that he should rather be pitied than thus sharply punished, because he was naturally inclined to sin, and cannot avoid it. For as Aristotle saith of drunkards, that they deserve double punishments, διπλατατπιτιμια (Ethic. lib. 3, cap. 5); first, for their drunkenness, and then for the sin committed in and by their drunkenness: so do all men deserve double damnation; first, for the corruption of nature (signified by those legal pollutions, by bodily issues), and then for the cursed effects of it, Genesis 6:5 Romans 7:8. But it may be Job here had an eye to that promise made to Noah after the flood, Genesis 8:21, where the Lord moveth himself to mercy by consideration of man’ s native corruption, even from his childhood, for he knoweth our frame, &c., Psalms 103:14, that is (as the Chaldee paraphrast explaineth it), he knoweth our evil figment or thought which impelleth to sin; he knoweth it, and weigheth it. See the like Isaiah 48:8-9.

(4) Who can bring a clean thing . . .—How can man be clean that is born of woman, who is unclean? This question is reiterated by Bildad (Job 25:4). We ought perhaps, however, rather to render “Oh, that the clean could come forth from the unclean! but none can.”

Verse 4. Who can bring a clean thing] This verse is thus rendered by the Chaldee: "Who will produce a clean thing from man, who is polluted with sins, except God, who is one?" By Coverdale thus: Who can make it cleane, that commeth of an uncleane thinge? No body. The text refers to man's original and corrupt nature. Every man that is born into the world comes into it in a corrupt or sinful state. This is called original sin; and is derived from fallen Adam, who is the stock, to the utmost ramifications of the human family. Not one human spirit is born into the world without this corruption of nature. All are impure and unholy; and from this principle of depravity all transgression is produced; and from this corruption of nature God alone can save. The Septuagint, in the Codex Alexandrinus, reads the verse thus: Τιςγαρεσταικαθαρο·αποῥυπου;ουδεεἱς, εανκαιμιαςἡμεραςγενηταιὁβιοςαυτουεπιτηςγης; "Who is pure from corruption? Not one, although he had lived but one day upon the earth."

4. The question of astonishment in Job 14:3 supported by reference to the universal sinfulness of man. The verse reads, Oh that a clean might come out of an unclean! There is not one. The phrase who will give (as margin) is a mere optative expression. Job throws his idea of the universal uncleanness of man, and that there is not one without sin, into the form of a wish that it were otherwise. If the race of men were not universally infected with sin, which each individual inherits by belonging to the race, God’s stringent treatment of the individuals would not be so hard to understand. For similar ideas of the universality of the sinfulness of mankind cf. Genesis 6:5; Isaiah 6:5; Psalms 51:5, also the words of Eliphaz ch. Job 4:17 seq. Job urges the admitted fact as a plea for forbearance on the side of God.

Who can bring a clean - thing “out of an unclean?” This is evidently a proverb or an adage; but its connection here is not very apparent.

4. Who can bring — Literally, who will give. In almost every case in the Old Testament this form of question is idiomatic, and is used (as in Job 14:13) to express a desire.