Job 25:4 kjv
How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
Job 25:4 nkjv
How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?
Job 25:4 niv
How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
Job 25:4 esv
How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?
Job 25:4 nlt
How can a mortal be innocent before God?
Can anyone born of a woman be pure?
Job 25 4 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Psa 14:3 | All have turned aside; together they have become corrupt... | Universal human depravity. |
| Rom 3:23 | For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. | All humanity is in sin. |
| Rom 3:10-12 | As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one..." | No one is righteous. |
| Eccl 7:20 | Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. | No human is perfectly righteous. |
| Isa 64:6 | We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. | Human righteousness is as defiled rags. |
| Psa 51:5 | Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. | Inherited sinfulness from birth. |
| Job 4:17-19 | Can mortal man be more righteous than God?... | Eliphaz questioning human righteousness. |
| Job 9:2 | Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be righteous before God? | Job's own earlier acknowledgement. |
| Job 15:14-16 | What is man, that he should be clean? Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? | Eliphaz echoes same rhetorical question. |
| Hab 1:13 | You are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong... | God's absolute holiness. |
| Lev 11:44-45 | For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy... | God's command to be holy based on His nature. |
| 1 Pet 1:15-16 | ...But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct... | Command for holiness echoing God's nature. |
| Rom 1:17 | For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith... | Righteousness is revealed by faith. |
| Rom 3:21-22 | But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law...through faith in Jesus Christ. | Righteousness given through faith in Christ. |
| 2 Cor 5:21 | For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. | Righteousness is a gift through Christ. |
| Phil 3:9 | ...and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes | Human righteousness is rejected for God's. |
| Psa 51:10 | Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. | Prayer for God's cleansing. |
| Heb 9:14 | How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself...cleanse your conscience. | Christ's blood provides cleansing. |
| Tit 2:14 | ...who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own. | Christ redeems and purifies His people. |
| 1 Jn 1:7 | But if we walk in the light...the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. | Christ's blood continually cleanses. |
| Jer 23:6 | ...And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ | The Lord (Messiah) is our righteousness. |
Job 25 verses
Job 25 4 Meaning
Job 25:4 presents a rhetorical question from Bildad the Shuhite, emphatically stating the absolute impossibility of any human being attaining righteousness or purity before a holy God through their own merit or effort. It underscores the vast, unbridgeable chasm between divine perfection and inherent human sinfulness.
Job 25 4 Context
Job 25:4 is part of Bildad's third and shortest speech to Job. Coming after Eliphaz's second speech and Job's extensive replies (chapters 23-24), Bildad’s discourse in chapter 25 is notably brief and devoid of personal accusations against Job. Instead, he simply reasserts traditional wisdom about God's overwhelming majesty and the inherent uncleanness and insignificance of humanity. He describes God's power over the celestial bodies (Job 25:2-3) to underscore the vast qualitative difference between the Creator and the created. This general principle serves as an indirect rebuke to Job's self-justification, suggesting that if even celestial bodies are not pure in God's sight, how much less can a mortal man, "born of a woman," stand righteous or clean before Him? Historically, the perspective of God's unapproachable holiness and humanity's inherent defilement was a cornerstone of ancient Near Eastern monotheistic thought, reflecting an accurate understanding of the divine-human gap. Bildad's words echo arguments already made by his friends (and even Job himself at times), failing to offer new insight or address Job's unique predicament of suffering.
Job 25 4 Word analysis
- How: This opening word translates the Hebrew particle מָה (mah), which here introduces a rhetorical question implying an absolute impossibility. It strongly suggests there is "no way" or "by what means?" a human could achieve the stated condition.
- then: This is not explicitly present in the Hebrew but implied by the flow of argument. It connects the current question to the preceding verses (25:2-3) about God's cosmic power and majesty, indicating a logical consequence: "If God is so great, then..."
- can man: The Hebrew term is אֱנוֹשׁ ('enôsh), frequently used in Scripture to denote humanity in its frail, mortal, and perishing state, emphasizing weakness and limitation. It stands in stark contrast to the eternal and powerful God. The term highlights man's ephemeral nature.
- be righteous: Translates the verb צָדַק (tsadaq), meaning "to be just," "to be righteous," "to be vindicated," or "to be innocent." In a legal or moral sense, it means meeting a perfect standard of rightness before a divine judge. The question asks if humanity can achieve this perfect alignment with God's flawless standard.
- before God?: The Hebrew is לִפְנֵי אֵל (liphne 'El). לִפְנֵי (liphne) means "in the face of," "in the presence of," or "before," indicating direct confrontation or assessment by. אֵל ('El) is a general term for God, often associated with strength, might, and supreme power, emphasizing His absolute authority and standard.
- Or how: This reiterates the previous rhetorical question, intensifying the assertion of human inability. It emphasizes the complete lack of any path to self-justification.
- can he be clean: The Hebrew verb is יִזַּכֶּה (yithzakkeh), derived from the root זָכָה (zakhah), meaning "to be pure," "to be clean," "to be innocent," or "to be justified." This term refers to moral or ceremonial purity. It asks if a human can purge themselves of defilement to meet God's stainless nature.
- that is born of a woman?: This phrase, יְלוּד אִשָּׁה (y’lûd ‘ishah), is a common Biblical idiom used to refer to all humanity, specifically highlighting its natural origin and the inherent limitations and weaknesses associated with being conceived and born in the flesh. In a theological sense, it implicitly refers to humanity's fallen state from birth, inheriting sin and its consequences, thereby underlining the impossibility of achieving intrinsic purity before God. It emphasizes universal human frailty and the inherited human condition.
Job 25 4 Bonus section
This verse highlights a key polemic against ancient Near Eastern myths that sometimes elevated certain humans or kings to divine status, or suggested that humanity could intrinsically ascend to deity through specific rituals or practices. Bildad’s question, drawing on established Israelite understanding, definitively asserts that there is an unbridgeable ontological and moral gap between Creator and created. No ritual, no personal moral striving, and certainly no human birth could ever render a mortal righteous enough to stand as God’s peer or equal. This underscores God's singular transcendence and humanity's inherent dependence on His grace. The emphasis on "born of a woman" often implicitly reminds the audience of the mortality and fallenness inherent in the human condition since Adam.
Job 25 4 Commentary
Job 25:4 powerfully encapsulates a fundamental theological truth: humanity's inherent inability to achieve righteousness or purity before a holy God through its own efforts. Bildad, in his final and briefest speech, uses a rhetorical question to affirm the traditional, foundational doctrine of divine transcendence and human inadequacy. The verse serves as a crucial bridge, highlighting the absolute gulf between the infinitely perfect God and the morally flawed "man born of a woman." The phrase "man born of a woman" specifically denotes universal human origin, signifying not only frailty and mortality but also, in light of broader biblical theology, the inherited sin nature. Thus, no human being, by virtue of their birth or subsequent actions, can measure up to God's spotless standard of righteousness or cleanliness. This declaration, though true in itself, was part of Bildad's friends' misguided counsel, as they applied it to Job as a condemnation rather than acknowledging God's unique redemptive ways. Ultimately, the New Testament reveals the solution to this dilemma: righteousness and cleansing are not achieved by human effort but are graciously imputed and imparted by God through faith in Jesus Christ, whose sacrificial death provides perfect atonement and enables believers to be declared righteous and made clean in God's sight.