Verses 15-16 can best be treated as a unit. Verse 15 is made of two negative statements, and 16 goes beyond them in degree.
Behold, God has put no trust in his holy ones: line a is identical in Hebrew to 4.18a except that this verse has “his holy ones” and 4.18a has “his servants.” Both refer to members of God’s heavenly council. For Behold see 1.12. 4.18b has “angels” in parallel with “servants,” meaning the same heavenly beings. Accordingly Good News Translation says “Why, God does not trust even his angels.” This line may be translated, for example, “It is true that God does not trust even his angels,” or “Indeed, God does not trust even his messengers,” or “… the holy ones who serve him.”
And the heavens are not clean in his sight: 25.5 says “The stars are not clean in his sight.” Scholars disagree about the meaning of heavens in verse 15. Good News Translation “even they are not pure” makes heavens refer to his holy ones or “angels” mentioned in the previous line. Good News Translation has based its translation on the assumption of parallelism of meaning, but no other modern version agrees. In a number of passages in the Psalms, the heavens are addressed as a person, but nowhere do they appear to be identified with angels. In 25.5b, where the same expression occurs, Good News Translation translates “stars,” not “angels.” It would be best, therefore, to render this line as “even the heavens are not pure in God’s sight.”
How much less one who is abominable and corrupt: Eliphaz begins the comparison with a Hebrew expression which can mean either “how much more” or “how much less.” It is the latter in the present context. God, who was not named in verse 15, is likewise the implied actor in verse 16 who trusts even less. Abominable translates a word meaning “something which produces disgust, or which horrifies.” It is often used of something that is physically revolting, repulsive to the senses. Corrupt translates a word found only here and in Psalm 14.3; 53.3, where it is used in the moral sense of corruption, “depraved” (Revised Standard Version). Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, which translates the two lines of verse 15 as “if” clauses, renders verse 16 as a consequence of comparison: “If even the angels do not merit his confidence … how much less mankind, corrupt and disgusting!” New English Bible also translates verse 15 with an “if” clause and renders verse 16 “how much less so is man, who is loathsome and rotten.” This line may also be expressed “God will trust even less a human who is worthless and does evil deeds.”
A man who drinks iniquity like water: the point of this metaphor is that people do evil deeds with the ease with which they take a drink of water. Some commentators suggest that the mention of water rather than strong drink suggests that they do their evil in large doses, but this may be questioned. This line may be rendered, for example, “This is a person who does evil as easily as he drinks a cup of water,” “a human being who likes to do evil as much as he likes to drink water,” or “a person who fills himself with evil as easily as he fills his stomach with water.”
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 .