Job 15:16
How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
Study Note
Study Note
'How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water' — Eliphaz's second speech deploys rhetorical hyperbole to reinforce his doctrine of universal human corruption as the explanation for Job's suffering. The 'drinking iniquity like water' metaphor suggests compulsive, natural, and insatiable appetite for sin — an image later echoed in Proverbs 26:6 and reversed positively in Amos 5:24 ('let justice roll down like waters'). While Eliphaz's dogmatic retributionism is ultimately condemned by God in Job 42:7, this specific observation about human corruption finds resonance in the broader biblical anthropology of Psalm 51:5 and Romans 3:23.
Other Translations
How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!
Also--surely abominable and filthy Is man drinking as water perverseness.
How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water!
Cross References
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed …
Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not …
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there …
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, …
An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that …