Job 33:10-20

10 For God found quarrels in me, therefore he deemed me (an) enemy to himself. (But for God found quarrels with me, and so he judged me as an enemy to himself.)

11 He hath set my feet in a stock (He hath put my feet in the stocks); he kept (watch over) all my paths.

12 Therefore this thing it is, in which thou art not made just (And so it is this in which thou art wrong); I shall answer to thee, that God is more than man.

13 Thou, Job, strivest against God, that not at all thy words [he] answered to thee. (Thou, Job, complainest against God, for he answered not any of thy words to thee.)

14 God speaketh once, and the second time he rehearseth not the same thing. (For God speaketh once, and he repeateth not the same thing a second time.)

15 God speaketh by a dream in the vision of (the) night, when sleep falleth on men, and when they sleep in their bed. (God speaketh in a dream in the vision of the night, when sleep falleth on men, and they sleep in their beds.)

16 Then he openeth the ears of men, and he teacheth them, and teacheth prudence, or discipline;

17 (so) that he turn away a man from these things which he made, and deliver him from pride;

18 and that he deliver his soul from corruption, and his life, that it go not into sword. (and so that he deliver his soul from corruption, and that he die not by the sword.)

19 Also God blameth a man by sorrow in his bed, and he maketh all the bones of him for to wax rotten. (And God correcteth a person by sending sickness to him in his bed, and he maketh all his bones to grow rotten.)

20 Bread is made abominable to him in his life, and the meat, that before was to him desirable, loathed to his soul after. (And so for him, bread is made abominable, and the food, which he desired before, is now loathed by his soul.)

Job 33:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

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.