Ayub 25:5-6

25:5 If even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned, ¹ 

25:6 how much less a mortal man, who is but a maggot ²  –

a son of man, who is only a worm!”

Amsal 20:9

20:9 Who can say, ³  “I have kept my heart clean; ⁴ 

I am pure ⁵  from my sin”?

[25:5]  ¹ tn Heb “not pure in his eyes.”

[25:6]  ² tn The text just has “maggot” and in the second half “worm.” Something has to be added to make it a bit clearer. The terms “maggot” and “worm” describe man in his lowest and most ignominious shape.

[20:9]  ³ sn The verse is a rhetorical question; it is affirming that no one can say this because no one is pure and free of sin.

[20:9]  ⁴ tn The verb form זִכִּיתִי (zikkiti) is the Piel perfect of זָכָה (zakhah, “to be clear; to be clean; to be pure”). The verb has the idea of “be clear, justified, acquitted.” In this stem it is causative: “I have made my heart clean” (so NRSV) or “kept my heart pure” (so NIV). This would be claiming that all decisions and motives were faultless.

[20:9]  ⁵ sn The Hebrew verb translated “I am pure” (טָהֵר, taher) is a Levitical term. To claim this purity would be to claim that moral and cultic perfection had been attained and therefore one was acceptable to God in the present condition. Of course, no one can claim this; even if one thought it true, it is impossible to know all that is in the heart as God knows it.