Verse Lens · Context pointer
Job 14:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Job 14:4 advances the thought unit with the words “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” Job states “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” as one poetic claim in Job Pleads for Rest in a Brief and Troubled Life.
Read It With
- Job 14:1–14:6
Read Job 14:4 with 14:1–14:6. Read alone, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Job describes mortals as short-lived, flower-like, shadowy, and impure, then asks God to turn aside so a laborer's day can finish.
Why It Needs Context
Job 14:4 depends on 14:1–14:6; isolating “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” would detach a poetic premise, image, response, or transition from Job and “Job Pleads for Rest in a Brief and Troubled Life.”
Read Job 14:1–6 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 14:1–14:6 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Job Pleads for Rest in a Brief and Troubled Life.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 1. 1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Verse 2. 2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Verse 3. 3 And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?
Verse 4. 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Verse 5. 5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
Verse 6. 6 Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 14:1–14:6 — Job Pleads for Rest in a Brief and Troubled LifeSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 14:1–14:6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 14:1–14:6
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗