Job 15:14
What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
BSB
ASV
What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
KJV
What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Ver. 14. What is man, that he should be clean? MORAL INTERPRETATION For hereby alone that he is called 'man' he is described as earthly and weak; for man is so named ['homo' from 'humus,' as Hebrew 'Adam'] from the earth. And how is it possible for him to be free from stain, who being made of earth of his own will fell into infirmity? where it is added; And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? For the first piece of unrighteousness the woman proffered to the man in Paradise.
What is he that is born of a woman, a sinful woman, that he should be righteous? Righteousness is cleanness; it makes us acceptable to God and easy to ourselves, Ps. xviii. Man, in his fallen state, cannot pretend to be clean and righteous before God, either to acquit himself to God's justice or recommend himself to his favour.
What is man, that he should be clean? - מה אנוש mah enosh; what is weak, sickly, dying, miserable man, that he should be clean? This is the import of the original word enosh. And - born of a woman, that he should be righteous? - It appears, from many passages in the sacred writings, that natural birth was supposed to be a defilement; and that every man born into the world was in a state of moral pollution. Perhaps the word יצדק yitsdak should be translated, that he should justify himself, and not that he should be righteous.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Ecclesiastes 7:20Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
leads to
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.
Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?
Through
Romans 7:18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
leads to
Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.