Job 4:17 Parallel Translations

NASB:

GWT:

Can any mortal be righteous to God? Can any human being be pure to his maker?'(GOD'S WORD®)

KJV:

Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

ASV:

Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

BBE:

May a man be upright before God? or a man be clean before his Maker?

DBY:

Shall mortal man be more just than +God? Shall a man be purer than his Maker?

ERV:

Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

JPS:

'Shall mortal man be just before God? Shall a man be pure before his Maker?

WBS:

Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

WEB:

'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

YLT:

'Is mortal man than God more righteous? Than his Maker is a man cleaner?

Job 4:17 Cross References

XREF:

Job 9:2 "In truth I know that this is so; But how can a man be in the right before God?

Job 25:4 "How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman?

Job 31:15 "Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb?

Job 32:22 "For I do not know how to flatter, Else my Maker would soon take me away.

Job 35:10 "But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night,

Job 36:3 "I will fetch my knowledge from afar, And I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. (NASB ©1995)

Commentaries and Concordances

GSB:

4:17 Shall mortal man be more {l} just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
(l) He proves that if God punished the innocent, the creature would be more just than the creator, which was blasphemy.

WES:

4:17 More just - Pretend more strictly to observe the laws of justice? Shall (enosh) mortal, miserable man (so the word signifies) be thus insolent? Nay, shall geber, the strongest and most eminent man, stand in competition with God? Those that find fault with the directions of the Divine law, the dispensations of the Divine grace, or the disposal of the Divine providence, do make themselves more just and pure than God: who being their maker, is their Lord and owner: and the author of all the justice and purity that is in man.

MHC:

4:12-21 Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our own hearts, and are still, Ps 4:4, then is a time for the Holy Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him, he cannot resist it. Shall such a creature pretend to blame the appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short, and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength, learning, not only cannot secure them from death, but these things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than his Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let him wonder that he is out of hell. Can a man be cleansed without his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from guilt? or will he do so without their having an interest in the righteousness and gracious help of their promised Redeemer, when angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming impunity of men for a short time, though living without God in the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise to consider their latter end.

CONC:

Clean Cleaner Maker Mankind Mortal Pure Purer Righteous Upright

Clean Maker Mankind Mortal Pure Righteous Upright

New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

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