Job 14:4

“Who can bring a clean [thing] out of an clean? etc.] Either produce a clean person from an unclean one: it is not to be expected that one, perfectly free from sin, should be generated by, or brought out of, one that is defiled with it; which is the case of all men; the first man, though made upright, sinned, and by sinning defiled himself, and all human nature in him: and so those that immediately descended from him were polluted likewise, and so on in all generations, every man being conceived and shaped in iniquity; so that it is not possible that man that is born of a woman, sinful and unclean, should be clean himself, or be free from sin; by which it is manifest, that the sinfulness of…”

“A plea in mitigation. The doctrine of original sin was held from the first. "Man is unclean from his birth, how then can God expect perfect cleanness from such a one and deal so severely with me?"”

“Who can bring a clean - thing “out of an unclean?” This is evidently a proverb or an adage; but its connection here is not very apparent. Probably, however, it is designed as a plea of mitigation for his conscious frailties and infirmities. He could not but admit that he had faults. But he asks, how could it be expected to be otherwise? He belonged to a race that was sinful and depraved. Connected with such a race, how could it be otherwise than that he should be prone to evil? Why then did God follow him with so much severity, and hold him with a grasp so close and so unrelenting? Why did he treat him as if he ought to be expected to be perfectly pure, or as if it were reasonable to suppose…”

“Not one - No man. This is the prerogative of thy grace, which therefore I humbly implore. Job 14:5”

“Who can bring: Heb. Who will give, Job 15:14, Job 25:4-6; Gen 5:3; Psa 51:5, Psa 90:5; Joh 3:6; Rom 5:12, Rom 8:8, Rom 8:9; Eph 2:3 a clean: Luk 1:35 Job 14:5”

“4 Would that a pure one could come from an impure! Not a single one - - 5 His days then are determined, The number of his months is known to Thee, Thou hast appointed bounds for him that he may not pass over: 6 Look away from him then, and let him rest, Until he shall accomplish as a hireling his day. Would that perfect sinlessness were possible to man; but since (to use a New Testament expression) that which is born of the flesh is flesh, there is not a single one pure. The optative מי־יתּן seems to be used here with an acc. of the object, according to its literal meaning, quis det s. afferat, as Job 31:31; Deu 28:67; Psa 14:7. Ewald remarks (and refers to 358, b, of his Grammar) that לא,…”