Verses 17-21 contain the essence of the traditional argument, which is to say that people are mortal and should accept their mortality. In a sense the message, coming after all the suspense, is less than might have been expected. It charges Job with no sin and yet offers him no relief. Since in Hebrew there are no quotation marks, it is not possible to be certain that the voice carries on through verse 21. Most translations assume it does.

Can mortal man be righteous before God?: mortal man renders the Hebrew ʾenosh, a possible play on words, since it means “weak” as well as “man.” Be righteous translates the Hebrew tsadaq, and in the context of Eliphaz’s speech, it is understood by many interpreters to take on the sense of being morally and spiritually right, just, sinless, or perfect. Job himself uses this term in a more legal sense, having the idea of “innocent” or “guiltless.” The word translated “blameless” in 1.8 by Revised Standard Version is a different Hebrew word. Bible en français courant translates “Can a man claim to be blameless…?” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “Can a man be considered just before God?” New Jerusalem Bible “Can a mortal seem upright to God?” The marginal alternative given in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is taken up by New English Bible, “Can mortal man be more righteous than God?” “More righteous than God” and righteous before God are alternative interpretations of the same Hebrew text, which arise from the ambiguity in the Hebrew preposition min. It is unusual for it to have the meaning before or “in the sight of” (Good News Translation), but it is the word generally used when comparing, as in Genesis 38.26 “She is more righteous than I am,” where the same Hebrew verb meaning “to be in the right” is used as here in Job. Good News Translation “in the sight of God” translates the meaning intended by Revised Standard Version. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation provide the alternative rendering in a footnote. Mortal man may be rendered as Good News Translation “anyone,” “a person,” or “an ordinary person.” If the poetic intensification in line b is to be kept, then the step-up will be from “anyone” in line a to something like “greatest person” in line b.

Can a man be pure before his Maker?: this line is parallel to the first. Here the word translated a man is geber. It focuses on male gender in contrast to female and carries the sense of power, force, strength. Job describes himself as a geber whose way has been blocked by God (3.23). Later God challenges Job to gird up his loins and act like a true geber (38.3; 40.7). In its poetic order line a is general, “Can an ordinary man,” and line b is raised by being specific, “Can even a real man.” The Hebrew word translated pure is often used of people, but only in Habakkuk 1.13 of God, “Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil.” In Leviticus 15.13; 22.4 the word for pure refers to being ritually clean in worship of God. In the present context, however, it refers to moral perfection in relation to the creator. The rhetorical question may be shifted to an emphatic denial; for example, “No ordinary person can be more righteous than God, and not even the bravest person can be more pure than the creator.”

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 .