Job 33

Elihu Rebukes Job

1 "But now, please hear my speeches, Job, and hear all my words.

2 Please look, I open my mouth; my tongue in my mouth speaks.

3 My words [declare] my heart's uprightness, and my lips sincerely speak {what my lips know}.

4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of Shaddai gives life to me.

5 "If you are able, answer me. Present [your argument] {before me}; take your stand.

6 Look, before God {I am like you}; I myself was also formed from clay.

7 Look, dread of me should not terrify you, and my hand will not be heavy upon you.

8 "Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard [the] sound of [your] words:

9 'I [am] clean, without transgression; I [am] pure, and [there is] no guilt in me.

10 Look, he finds fault against me; he reckons me as his enemy;

11 he puts my feet in the block; he watches all my paths.'

12 "Look, [in] this you are not right--I will answer you: Indeed, God is greater than a human being.

13 Why do you contend against him, that he will not answer all a person's words?

14 Indeed, God speaks in one [way], even in two, [yet] [someone] does not perceive it.

15 "In a dream, a vision of [the] night, when a deep sleep falls on men slumbering on [their] bed,

16 then he opens [the] ear of men, and {he frightens them with a warning}

17 to turn human beings aside [from their] deeds, and he keeps man from pride.

18 He spares his life from [the] pit and his life from passing over the river [of death].

19 "And he is reproved with pain on his bed, even [with] the strife of his bones continually,

20 {so that} his life loathes bread, and his inner self [loathes] {appetizing food}.

21 His flesh is wasted away from sight, and his bones, [which] are invisible, are bared.

22 And {he} draws near to the pit and his life to the killers.

23 "If there is a messenger beside him, a mediator, one of a thousand, to declare to a human being his uprightness

24 {so that} he is gracious [to] him, and he says, 'Deliver him from descending into [the] pit; I have found a ransom.'

25 His flesh is renewed with [his] youth; he returns to [the] days of his youthful strength.

26 He prays to God, then he accepts him, and he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he repays to the human being his righteousness.

27 "He will sing to men, and he will say, 'I have sinned and have perverted [what is] right, and it was not paid back to me.

28 He redeemed my life from going down into the pit, so {I will enjoy the light}.'

29 Look, God does all these [things] twice, three times with a person

30 to bring his life back from [the] pit {so that he may enjoy the light of life}.

31 "Listen attentively, Job; listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.

32 If {you have anything to say}, {answer me}; speak, for I desire {to justify you}.

33 If not, you listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom."

Job 33 Commentary

Chapter 33

Elihu offers to reason with Job. (1-7) Elihu blames Job for reflecting upon God. (8-13) God calls men to repentance. (14-18) God sends afflictions for good. (19-28) Elihu entreats Job's attention. (29-33)

Verses 1-7 Job had desired a judge to decide his appeal. Elihu was one according to his wish, a man like himself. If we would rightly convince men, it must be by reason, not by terror; by fair argument, not by a heavy hand.

Verses 8-13 Elihu charges Job with reflecting upon the justice and goodness of God. When we hear any thing said to God's dishonour, we ought to bear our testimony against it. Job had represented God as severe in marking what he did amiss. Elihu urges that he had spoken wrong, and that he ought to humble himself before God, and by repentance to unsay it. God is not accountable to us. It is unreasonable for weak, sinful creatures, to strive with a God of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. He acts with perfect justice, wisdom, and goodness, where we cannot perceive it.

Verses 14-18 God speaks to us by conscience, by providences, and by ministers; of all these Elihu discourses. There was not then, that we know of, any Divine revelation in writing, though now it is our principal guide. When God designs men's good, by the convictions and dictates of their own consciences, he opens the heart, as Lydia's, and opens the ears, so that conviction finds or forces its way in. The end and design of these admonitions are to keep men from sin, particularly the sin of pride. While sinners are pursuing evil purposes, and indulging their pride, their souls are hastening to destruction. That which turns men from sin, saves them from hell. What a mercy it is to be under the restraints of an awakened conscience!

Verses 19-28 Job complained of his diseases, and judged by them that God was angry with him; his friends did so too: but Elihu shows that God often afflicts the body for good to the soul. This thought will be of great use for our getting good from sickness, in and by which God speaks to men. Pain is the fruit of sin; yet, by the grace of God, the pain of the body is often made a means of good to the soul. When afflictions have done their work, they shall be removed. A ransom or propitiation is found. Jesus Christ is the Messenger and the Ransom, so Elihu calls him, as Job had called him his Redeemer, for he is both the Purchaser and the Price, the Priest and the sacrifice. So high was the value of souls, that nothing less would redeem them; and so great the hurt done by sin, that nothing less would atone for it, than the blood of the Son of God, who gave his life a ransom for many. A blessed change follows. Recovery from sickness is a mercy indeed, when it proceeds from the remission of sin. All that truly repent of their sins, shall find mercy with God. The works of darkness are unfruitful works; all the gains of sin will come far short of the damage. We must, with a broken and ( 1 John. 1:9 ) confess the fact of sin; and not try to justify or excuse ourselves. We must confess the fault of sin; I have perverted that which was right. We must confess the folly of sin; So foolish have I been and ignorant. Is there not good reason why we should make such a confession?

Verses 29-33 Elihu shows that God's great and gracious design toward the children of men, is, to save them from being for ever miserable, and to bring them to be for ever happy. By whatever means we are kept back from the we shall bless the Lord for them at least, and should bless him for them though they be painful and distressing. Those that perish for ever are without excuse, for they would not be healed.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "my sentences," or "what I have to say"
• [b]. Or "give ear to"
• [c]. Literally "the knowledge of my lips"
• [d]. Literally "to the face of me"
• [e]. Literally "I [am] like your mouth"
• [f]. Or "sentences," or "what [you] say"
• [g]. Hebrew "and"
• [h]. Or "time and again" (NJPS, HCSB)
• [i]. Literally "with their warning he frightens"
• [j]. Hebrew "and"
• [k]. Hebrew "and"
• [l]. Or "soul"
• [m]. Literally "food of desire"
• [n]. Literally "his inner self/soul"
• [o]. That is, "unique," or "one of a kind"
• [p]. Hebrew "and"
• [q]. Hebrew "and"
• [r]. Literally "my life in the light will see"
• [s]. Or "time and again," or "oftentimes" (NASB, NASU), or "several times"
• [t]. Literally "to be lighted with the light of the life"
• [u]. Literally "If there are words," or "If there are sentences"
• [v]. Literally "return to me"
• [w]. Literally "your righteousness"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 33

In this chapter Elihu addresses Job himself, and entreats his attention to what he had to say to him, and offers several things to induce him to it; and recommends himself as one that was according to his wish, in the stead of God, a man like himself, and of whom he had no reason to be afraid, Job 33:1-7; and then he brings a charge against him of things which he himself had heard, of words that had dropped from him in the course of his controversy with his friends; in which he too much and too strongly insisted on his own innocence and purity, and let fill very undue and unbecoming reflections on the dealings of God with him, Job 33:8-11; to which he gives an answer by observing the superior greatness of God to man, and his sovereignty over him, not being accountable to him for anything done by him; and therefore man should be silent and submissive to him, Job 33:12,13; and yet, though he is so great and so absolute, and uncontrollable, and is not obliged to give an account of his affairs to man, and the reasons of them; yet he condescends by various ways and means to instruct him in his mind and will, and even by these very things complained of; and therefore should not be treated as if unkind and unfriendly to men; sometimes he does it by dreams and visions, when he opens the ears of men, and seals instruction to them, and with this view, to restrain them from their evil purposes and doings, and to weaken their pride and humble them, and preserve them from ruin, Job 33:14-18; and sometimes by chastening and afflictive providences, which are described, Job 33:19-22; and which become teaching ones; through the interposition of a divine messenger, and upon the afflicted man's prayer to God, and humiliation before him, God is gracious and favourable to him, and delivers him; which is frequently the design and the use that he makes of chastening dispensations, Job 33:23-30; and the chapter is concluded with beseeching Job to mark and consider well what had been said unto him, and to answer it if he could or thought fit; if not, silently to attend to what he had further to say to him for his instruction, Job 33:31-33.