Job 9:30

Modern

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

Traditional

If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;

Literal

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

Latin

Si lotus fuero quasi aquis nivis, et fulserint velut mundissimæ manus meæ,

Hebrew

English

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

wash myself: Job talked about using the strongest soap (lye) to represent removing all sin (1:5; compare Psalm 26:6; Matthew 27:24).

Job answered Bildad by describing God's universal and legal power. His speech resembles a complex legal case.

It includes:

A summons and response (9:3, 14–16, 19b, 32).
The risk of proving himself guilty (9:20).
A "mediator" (9:33–34).
A question of accusation (9:12).
A legal sentence (9:22).
A declaration of guilt (9:28–30).

Jeremiah 2:22
Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
Psalm 26:6
I wash my hands in innocence that I may go about Your altar, O LORD,
1 John 1:8
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Isaiah 1:16–18
Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!
Job 31:7
If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,
Jeremiah 4:14
Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
Romans 10:3
Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.