New Living Translation
Job 9:30
30Even if I were to wash myself with soap and clean my hands with lye,
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 would still dread all the pain, for I know you will not find me innocent, O God. 29Whatever happens, I will be found guilty. So what’s the use of trying? Even if I were to wash myself with soap and clean my hands with lye, 31you would plunge me into a muddy ditch, and my own filthy clothing would hate me. 32“God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.
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 wash my hands to declare my innocence. I come to your altar, O Lord,
- Proverbs 28:13People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
- Isaiah 1:16Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways.
- Jeremiah 2:22No amount of soap or lye can make you clean. I still see the stain of your guilt. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!
- Jeremiah 4:14O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart that you may be saved. How long will you harbor your evil thoughts?
- Romans 10:3For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.
- 1 John 1:8If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
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
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