Job 15:15-16

15:15 If God places no trust in his holy ones, ¹ 

if even the heavens ²  are not pure in his eyes,

15:16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, ³ 

who drinks in evil like water! ⁴ 

[15:15]  ¹ tn Eliphaz here reiterates the point made in Job 4:18.

[15:15]  ² sn The question here is whether the reference is to material “heavens” (as in Exod 24:10 and Job 25:5), or to heavenly beings. The latter seems preferable in this context.

[15:16]  ³ tn The two descriptions here used are “abominable,” meaning “disgusting” (a Niphal participle with the value of a Latin participle [see GKC 356-57 §116.e]), and “corrupt” (a Niphal participle which occurs only in Pss 14:3 and 53:4), always in a moral sense. On the significance of the first description, see P. Humbert, “Le substantif toáe„ba„ et le verbe táb dans l’Ancien Testament,” ZAW 72 [1960]: 217ff.). On the second word, G. R. Driver suggests from Arabic, “debauched with luxury, corrupt” (“Some Hebrew Words,” JTS 29 [1927/28]: 390-96).

[15:16]  ⁴ sn Man commits evil with the same ease and facility as he drinks in water – freely and in large quantities.