15:14 What is man that he should be pure,
or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
15:16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, 1
who drinks in evil like water! 2
1 tn The two descriptions here used are “abominable,” meaning “disgusting” (a Niphal participle with the value of a Latin participle [see GKC 356-57 §116.e]), and “corrupt” (a Niphal participle which occurs only in Pss 14:3 and 53:4), always in a moral sense. On the significance of the first description, see P. Humbert, “Le substantif toáe„ba„ et le verbe táb dans l’Ancien Testament,” ZAW 72 [1960]: 217ff.). On the second word, G. R. Driver suggests from Arabic, “debauched with luxury, corrupt” (“Some Hebrew Words,” JTS 29 [1927/28]: 390-96).
2 sn Man commits evil with the same ease and facility as he drinks in water – freely and in large quantities.