God’s Word Translation
Job 9:30
30If I wash myself with lye soap and cleanse my hands with bleach,
Job 9:30 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
- New International Version (NIV)Even if I washed myself with soap and my hands with cleansing powder,
- English Standard Version (ESV)If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
- New King James Version (NKJV)If I wash myself with snow water, And cleanse my hands with soap,
Context of Job 9:30
28I ⌞still⌟ dread everything I must suffer. I know that you won’t declare me innocent. 29I’ve already been found guilty. Why should I work so hard for nothing? If I wash myself with lye soap and cleanse my hands with bleach, 31then you would plunge me into a muddy pit, and my own clothes would find me disgusting. 32A human like me cannot answer God, ‘Let’s take our case to court.’
Read all of Job 9Job 9:30 word by word
אִם־הִתְרָחַ֥צְתִּי בְמֵי שָׁ֑לֶג וַ֝הֲזִכּ֗וֹתִי בְּבֹ֣ר כַּפָּֽי׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 9:30
- Psalms 26:6I will wash my hands in innocence. I will walk around your altar, O Lord,
- Proverbs 28:13Whoever covers over his sins does not prosper. Whoever confesses and abandons them receives compassion.
- Isaiah 1:16“Wash yourselves! Become clean! Get your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing evil.
- Jeremiah 2:22Even if you wash with detergent and use a lot of soap, I would still see the stains from your wickedness,” declares the Almighty Lord.
- Jeremiah 4:14Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart so that you may be rescued. Don’t continue making evil plans.
- Romans 10:3They don’t understand ⌞how to receive⌟ God’s approval. So they try to set up their own way to get it, and they have not accepted God’s way for receiving his approval.
- 1 John 1:8If we say, “We aren’t sinful” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Commentaries on Job 9:30
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 30If I wash myself with snow water - Supposed to have a more detergent quality than common water; and it was certainly preferred to common water by the ancients. Of this we find an example in an elegant but licentious author: Tandem ergo discubuimus, pueris Alexandrinis Aquam in manus Nivatam infundentibus, aliisque insequentibus ad pedes - Petr. Satyr., cap. xxxi. "At length we sat down, and had snow water poured on our hands by lads of Alexandria," etc…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 30If I wash myself with snow water - If I should make myself as pure as possible, and should become, in my view, perfectly holy. Snow water, it seems, was regarded as especially pure. The whiteness of snow itself perhaps suggested the idea that the water of melted snow was better than other for purification. Washing the hands formerly was an emblem of cleansing from guilt. Hence Pilate, when he gave up the Savior to death, took water and washed his hands…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 25-35Verses 25-35 What little need have we of pastimes, and what great need to redeem time, when it runs on so fast towards eternity! How vain the enjoyments of time, which we may quite lose while yet time continues! The remembrance of having done our duty will be pleasing afterwards; so will not the remembrance of having got worldly wealth, when it is all lost and gone. Job's complaint of God, as one that could not be appeased and would not relent, was the…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 30wash myself: Job talked about using the strongest soap (lye) to represent removing all sin (1:5; compare Psalm 26:6; Matthew 27:24).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 3030. snow water--thought to be more cleansing than common water, owing to the whiteness of snow (Psa 51:7; Is 1:18). never so clean--Better, to answer to the parallelism of the first clause which expresses the cleansing material, "lye:" the Arabs used alkali mixed with oil, as soap (Psa 73:13; Jr 2:22).Read the comment
Topics related to Job 9:30
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 9
- 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
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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