How then can man be righteous before God?: Bildad now uses the argument of Eliphaz in 4.17-19. The wording of this question is identical with Job’s own question in 9.2b. See 9.2 for exegesis and translation comments. Good News Translation translates 9.2b “But how can a man win his case against God?” but it renders the identical question here “Can anyone be righteous…?” It would be better to keep the sense of this question the same in both places. Therefore translators should refer to the way they have translated 9.2b. In 14.1 man is described as being “born of a woman,” and that expression is repeated in line b and in 15.14 as a sign of human frailty or weakness. The word translated man is not man in contrast to woman, but humanity in contrast to God, and in some languages it will be better translated “human being,” as Bible en français courant says, “And how can a human being pretend to be pure?”

How can he who is born of woman be clean?: for clean see comments on 15.14. To be clean is to be free from ritual contamination. Since giving birth caused a woman and her child to be unclean, impure, they had to be ritually cleansed. Good News Translation has shortened and combined both lines of verse 4: “Can anyone be righteous or pure in God’s sight?” “In God’s sight” has been shifted from line a.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .