Some scholars believe that verse 4 does not fit the context, because it is not clear whether verse 4 refers back to the uncleanness implied in verse 1. It is omitted in one Hebrew manuscript. Some translators delete it, and New English Bible places it in a footnote. Most modern translations keep it, and users of this Handbook should do likewise.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?: Who can bring is literally “Who can give,” which is an idiom used a number of times in Job. It is used to express a strong wish such as “How I wish someone could…!” but this does not fit the context, and if the translator wishes to keep the question form, it is best to follow something like Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation uses a negative statement, “Nothing….” Clean and unclean have been understood in three way. Some hold that clean refers to being morally good, and unclean to being evil. This thought is held to be Job’s paraphrase of Eliphaz’s question in 4.17, “Can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his maker?” In Gordis’ view Job is now saying “You, God, should have no difficulty in telling the pure man apart from the impure, since you created men and know their nature and limitations.”

A second interpretation is that clean refers to being innocent of guilt in a legal sense, and unclean refers to being guilty.

A third understanding is that unclean refers to ritual impurity resulting from childbirth. In this view Job may assume the traditional teaching that “if a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days” (Lev 12.2b; see also Psa 51.5). This view is reinforced in 15.14 and 25.4b. In both of these references uncleanliness is associated with birth. This is the view preferred by the Handbook. However, in many languages the words used to translate clean and unclean will not necessarily be associated with ritual impurity. That is acceptable, since the translator may prefer to avoid associating unclean with ritual impurity as described in the third interpretation.

The concept of ritual purity is difficult to express in some languages. In some cases this notion can best be expressed in terms of defilement or taboo; for example, “Who can cause something that is defiled to be undefiled?” “Can a person who is taboo be made free of taboo?” or “Can a person who is ritually forbidden be made free of what is forbidden?” Bible en français courant retains the rhetorical question, and answers it: “But who can bring out something pure from what is impure? Nobody on earth!” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy uses a statement to say “Nobody can get purity out of impurity.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “You must know therefore that he is unclean, and that nothing clean comes out of him.”

Translators will often find this line difficult to make clear, since clean and unclean do not seem to describe anything. Therefore it will often be necessary to translate something similar to Good News Translation: “Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as man” or “A human who is ritually unclean cannot give birth to one who is ritually clean.”

There is not one: this short line is in no way balanced with line a, which is part of the reason some scholars delete the entire verse. However, short lines often serve the purpose of creating a striking imbalance in structure in order to call attention to themselves and their message. Line b is the reply given to the rhetorical question in line a; and it may also be expressed in that way in translation; that is, “Nobody!”

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 .