Job 14:4

Job 14:4 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
• New International Version (NIV)Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!
• English Standard Version (ESV)Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!

Context of Job 14:4

2Like a flower he comes forth and withers; He also flees like a shadow and does not remain. 3You also open Your eyes upon him And bring him into judgment with Yourself. Who can make a clean thing out of the unclean? No one! 5Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with You [in Your control], And You have made his limits so he cannot pass [his allotted time]. 6[O God] turn your gaze from him so that he may rest, Until he fulfills his day [on earth] like a hired man.

Job 14:4 word by word

מִֽי־יִתֵּ֣ן טָ֭הוֹר מִטָּמֵ֗א לֹ֣א אֶחָֽד׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Who can bringנָתַןnâthan · to give: giveH5414
• a cleanטָהוֹרţâhôr ţâhôr · pureH2889
• out of an uncleanטָמֵאţâmê' · uncleanH2931
• not oneאֶחָד'echâd · oneH259

Cross-references for Job 14:4

• Job 15:14What is man, that he should be pure and clean, Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous and just?
• Job 25:4How then can man be justified and righteous with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be pure and clean?
• Genesis 5:3When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
• Psalms 51:5I was brought forth in [a state of] wickedness; In sin my mother conceived me [and from my beginning I, too, was sinful].
• Psalms 90:5You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep [forgotten as soon as they are gone]; In the morning they are like grass which grows anew—
• John 3:6That which is born of the flesh is flesh [the physical is merely physical], and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
• Romans 5:12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all people [no one being able to stop it or escape its power], because they all sinned.
• Romans 8:8and those who are in the flesh [living a life that caters to sinful appetites and impulses] cannot please God.
• Ephesians 2:3Among these [unbelievers] we all once lived in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by the sinful self], indulging the desires of human nature [without the Holy Spirit] and [the impulses] of the [sinful] mind. We were, by nature, children [under the sentence] of [God’s] wrath, just like the rest [of mankind].
• Luke 1:35Then the angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you [like a cloud]; for that reason the holy (pure, sinless) Child shall be called the Son of God.

Commentaries on Job 14:4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 4Who 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…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 4Who 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. Probably, however, it is designed as a plea of mitigation for his conscious frailties and infirmities. He could not but admit that he had faults. But he asks, how could it be expected to be otherwise? He belonged to a race that was sinful and depraved. Connected with such a race, how could it be otherwise than that he…Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 44. A plea in mitigation. The doctrine of original sin was held from the first. "Man is unclean from his birth, how then can God expect perfect cleanness from such a one and deal so severely with me?"Read the comment

Topics related to Job 14:4

• Depravity of Man
• Heredity
• Readings, Select
• Sin
• Wicked (People)

In the dictionaries

• Awake
• Born
• Change
• Clean
• Plow
• Raise
• Sew
• Stock
• Wait
• Waste

Commentaries on Job 14

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings