to loathe · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
filthy
וְֽנֶאֱלָ֑חve.ne.'e.Lach
H444
to muddle · conjunction + verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
man
אִישׁ'ish-
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
drinketh
שֹׁתֶ֖הsho.Teh
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
iniquity
עַוְלָֽה'av.Lah
H5766
(moral) evil · noun, common feminine singular absolute
water
כַמַּ֣יִםkha.Ma.yim
H4325
water · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 34:7 What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?
Proverbs 19:28 An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.
Psalms 53:3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Romans 3:9-19 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful,…
Job 4:19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
Job 20:12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 15:1-16
Eliphaz here falls very foul upon Job, because he contradicted what he and his colleagues had said, and did not acquiesce in it and applaud it, as they expected. Proud people are apt thus to take it very much amiss if they may not have leave to dictate and give law to all about them, and to censure those as ignorant and obstinate, and all that is naught, who cannot in every thing say as they say. Several great crimes Eliphaz here charges Job with, only because he would not own himself a hypocrite.
I. He charges him with folly and absurdity (Job 15:2, Job 15:3), that, whereas he had been reputed a wise man, he had now quite forfeited his reputation; any one would say that his wisdom had depar…
filthy--in Arabic "sour" (Psa 14:3; Psa 53:3), corrupted from his original purity.
drinketh-- (Pro 19:28).
John Gill on Job 15:16
How much more abominable and filthy is man,.... In his natural, corrupt, and unregenerate estate; man, as a creature, was not abominable, but becoming sinful he is; he is so in himself, cast out to the loathing of his person, being full of wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores, yea, like a dead corrupted carcass, for he is dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2:1; and he appears to be corrupt by the abominable works done by him, as all the works of the flesh are; yea, he is abominable to himself, when made sensible of his state and case; he then abhors himself, and repents of his sins, he loathes his sins, and himself for them; and must be much more so in the sight of God, who is of purer…
14 What is mortal man that he should be pure,
And that he who is born of woman should be righteous?
15 He trusteth not His holy ones,
And the heavens are not pure in His eyes:
16 How much less the abominable and corrupt,
Man, who drinketh iniquity as water!
The exclamation in Job 15:14 is like the utterance: mortal man and man born flesh of flesh cannot be entirely sinless. Even "the holy ones" and "the heavens" are not. The former are, as in Job 5:1, according to Job 4:18, the angels as beings of light (whether קדשׁ signifies to be light from the very first, spotlessly pure, or, vid., Psalter, i. 588f., to be separated, distinct, and hence exalted above what is common); the latter is not an…
The Church Fathers
"He will drink iniquity like water." The author says these words in order to show that [human beings] enjoy uttering blasphemies.
Ver. 16. How much more abominable and useless is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? He who first said it was impossible that man should of himself be clean from sin, and righteous, calls him 'abominable' and 'useless;' 'abominable' on account of the uncleanness of his stain, but 'useless' on account of the unrighteousness of an imperfect life; who however may be understood as 'abominable and useless' in another sense. For often a bad man seems to do some things rightly, but by those things which are wrong, even those which are right belonging to him are brought to nought; and because the evil ones are very displeasing to God, neither are those pleasing which seem to be good. And so he, that is 'abominable' before God in his evil things, is 'useless' in the good; in that whilst he shews himself an object of execration to God by wicked deeds, neither is that which seems right proceeding from him well-pleasing. And it is well said, Which drinketh iniquity like water. For what is eaten is swallowed not without delay, seeing that it is chewed in order to be swallowed; but what is drunk has no hindrance to be swallowed, in proportion as it hath again no need to be chewed. And so because sin is committed by the foolish man without any drawing back, iniquity is drunk like water. For because he does unlawful things without fear, he swallows the draught of iniquity without let or hindrance.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Eliphaz — God his strength. (1.) One of Job’s “three friends” who visited him in his affliction (4:1). He was a “Temanite”, i.e., a native of Teman, in Idumea. He first enters into debate with Job. His…
Sin — Is “any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God” (1 John 3:4; Rom. 4:15), in the inward state and habit of the soul, as well as in the outward conduct of the life, whether by…
Depravity Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fall Of Man, The · Man in consequence of: Abominable — Man in consequence of: Abominable
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The heavens, traditionally associated with purity (Exod 24:10), were not absolutely pure; they had been defiled, perhaps by rebellious angels (Job 1:6-7).
Rashi on Job 15:16
Surely Heb. אף, how much more.
and impure Heb. ונאלח, abominable and mixed. Similarly (Ps. 53: 4), “Are they all dross, altogether filthy (נאלחו)?”
