Job 9:31

"If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,"

Key Reflection

In Job 9:31, the phrase "if I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye" suggests an intense effort at purification, highlighting the futility of human attempts to achieve righteousness on one's own. Snow is depicted as exceptionally pure, yet even such rigorous cleansing cannot satisfy God’s demands for holiness.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch -God would treat me as if he should throw me into the gutter, and as if I were wholly defiled and polluted. The meaning is, God would not admit the proofs which I should adduce of my innocence, but would overwhelm me with the demonstrations of my guilt. I doubt not that Job urged this with some degree of impatience, and with some improper feelings. He felt, evidently, that God was so great and powerful, that it was vain to contend with him. But it is true in a higher and more important sense than he seems to have understood it.

More from Job 9

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