How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
Job 25:4 belongs to the long debate between Job and his three friends about his afflictions, extending through Job 4–31, a discussion concerned with human suffering. Within that debate it occurs in Bildad's third and final speech, which sets forth God's majesty and perfection. That final effort was aimed to convince Job that he was a sinner and deserved his suffering. The verse asks how any person born of a woman can be justified or made right with God and be clean or pure before Him.
The question implies a contrast with humanity before the fall, when people were upright and righteous through obedience to God's law and were perfect in nature. Statements by Job's friends can be true in general yet wrongly applied to Job, so suffering does not prove that the sufferer is under God's displeasure. Because Job 25 stands among the friends' misguided speeches, its statements should not be treated as reliable teaching about God or Job unless they are supported by inspired Scripture.
Job 25:4 belongs to the long debate between Job and his three friends about his afflictions, extending through Job 4–31, a discussion concerned with human suffering. Within that debate it occurs in Bildad's third and final speech, which sets forth God's majesty and perfection. That final effort was aimed to convince Job that he was a sinner and deserved his suffering. The verse asks how any person born of a woman can be justified or made right with God and be clean or pure before Him.
The question implies a contrast with humanity before the fall, when people were upright and righteous through obedience to God's law and were perfect in nature. Statements by Job's friends can be true in general yet wrongly applied to Job, so suffering does not prove that the sufferer is under God's displeasure. Because Job 25 stands among the friends' misguided speeches, its statements should not be treated as reliable teaching about God or Job unless they are supported by inspired Scripture.