Job 15:16

How much more abominable and filthy [is] man,.... In his natural, corrupt, and unregenerate estate; man, as a creature, was not abominable, but becoming sinful he is; he is so in himself, cast out to

How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? Filthy - in Arabic, sour (Psalms 14:3; Psalms 53:3); corrupted from his original purity.

Who, besides his natural proneness to sin, hath contracted habits and customs of sinning, and sinneth as freely and easily, as greedily and delightfully, as frequently and abundantly, as men, especially in those hot countries, used to drink up water. But this did not Job; and therefore though the things delivered by him and the rest be true in the general, yet they commit a great error in misapplying them to Job, for which therefore they are afterwards reproved.

Job 15:16 How much more abominable and filthy [is] man, which drinketh iniquity like water?Ver. 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man?] And therefore abominable because filthy, or stinking and noisome, as putrefied meat is to the nose and palate. Now this is every man’ s case by nature, Psalms 14:3, there being never a barrel of better herring, but all in a pickle, though few believe it. Kακοικενθριπεςκακοιδεκαιιπες. Prov. Circumcision of old taught them, that that which was begotten by that part deserved, in like sort, as abominable and accursed, to be cut off and thrown away by God. And what else doth baptism still teach us? See Colossians 2:11-13 1 Peter 3:21. David compareth man to the beasts that perish, pecoribus morticinis, to beasts that die of the murrain, and so become carrion, and are good for nothing, Psalms 49:20 (Tremel.). He lieth rotting in the graves of sin, wrapt up in the winding sheet of hardness of heart, and (as the carcass crawleth with worms) swarming with noisome lusts, such as God’ s soul abhorreth. This is his nature; and for his life, He drinketh iniquity like water] He is as it were altogether steeped and soaked in sin; he sucks it in with delight, as an ox doth water, or a drunkard wine, who prefer that you take away his life as his liquor, and could find in his heart to be drowned in a butt of Malmsey; as George, duke of Clarence, was in the Tower of London, and, as some say, by his own election. Sure it is that a draught of sin is the only merry-go-down to a carnal man; he drinks it frequently and abundantly, even till he swelleth therewith. One observeth here, that Eliphaz saith not, Man eateth, but, drinketh iniquity; because to eat a man must chew, and this taketh up some time, and leaveth a liberty to spit out what he liketh not; but drink goeth down without delay, and we usually drink oftener than we eat; so here.

(16) How much more abominable and filthy is man . . .—This strong language, thus couched in general terms, is doubtless intended to reflect on Job, otherwise it would not need to have been so strong.

Verse 16. How much more abominable and filthy is man] As in the preceding verse it is said, he putteth no trust in his saints, it has appeared both to translators and commentators that the original words, אף כי aph ki, should be rendered how much LESS, not how much MORE: How much less would he put confidence in man, who is filthy and abominable in his natures and profligate in his practice, as he drinks down iniquity like water? A man who is under the power of sinful propensities commits sin as greedily as the thirsty man or camel drinks down water. He thinks he can never have enough. This is a finished character of a BAD man; he hungers and thirsts after SIN: on the contrary, the GOOD man hungers and thirsts after RIGHTEOUSNESS.

16. According to the Hebrew punctuation the verse runs, How much less the abominable and corrupt, Man, which drinketh in iniquity like water. The word “corrupt,” only here and Psalms 14:3 (Psalms 53:3), occurs in Arab. in the sense of “turned,” sour, of milk; it is used in Heb. only in a moral sense (A. V. filthy). “Man” here is said, of course, of mankind, not specially of Job, and Eliphaz declares that his greedy avidity for evil is like that of a thirsty man for water. The words strongly indicate to Job the view which Eliphaz takes of him and his sufferings, and thus naturally form the transition to the second half of his speech.

How much more abominable and filthy is man - How much more than the angels, and than the heavens. In Job 4:19, the image is somewhat different.

16. How much more — Much less is he, the abominable and filthy man, that drinketh iniquity like water. Man’s pollution seems the greater by contrast. Abominable — πϊςα. Man is a being detestable because of his corruption.