Job 33
BSB
Elihu Rebukes Job
1“But now, O Job, hear my speech,
and listen to all my words.
2Behold, I will open my mouth;
my address is on the tip of my tongue.
3My words are from an upright heart,
and my lips speak sincerely what I know.
4The Spirit of God has made me,
and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
5Refute me if you can;
prepare your case and confront me.
6I am just like you before God;
I was also formed from clay.
7Surely no fear of me should terrify you;
nor will my hand be heavy upon you.
8Surely you have spoken in my hearing,
and I have heard these very words:
9‘I am pure, without transgression;
I am clean, with no iniquity in me.
10Yet God finds occasions against me;
He counts me as His enemy.
11He puts my feet in the stocks;
He watches over all my paths.’
12Behold, you are not right in this matter.
I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
13Why do you complain to Him
that He answers nothing a man asks?
14For God speaks in one way and in another,
yet no one notices.
15In a dream,
in a vision in the night,
when deep sleep falls upon men
as they slumber on their beds,
16He opens their ears
and terrifies them with warnings
17to turn a man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
18to preserve his soul from the Pit
and his life from perishing by the sword.
19A man is also chastened on his bed
with pain and constant distress in his bones,
20so that he detests his bread,
and his soul loathes his favorite food.
21His flesh wastes away from sight,
and his hidden bones protrude.
22He draws near to the Pit,
and his life to the messengers of death.
23Yet if there is a messenger on his side,
one mediator in a thousand,
to tell a man what is right for him,
24to be gracious to him and say,
‘Spare him from going down to the Pit;
I have found his ransom,’
25then his flesh is refreshed like a child’s;
he returns to the days of his youth.
26He prays to God and finds favor;
he sees God’s face and shouts for joy,
and God restores His righteousness
to that man.
27Then he sings before men
with these words:
‘I have sinned and perverted what was right;
yet I did not get what I deserved.
28He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,
and I will live to see the light.’
29Behold, all these things God does to a man,
two or even three times,
30to bring back his soul from the Pit,
that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
31Pay attention, Job, and listen to me;
be silent, and I will speak.
32But if you have something to say, answer me;
speak up, for I would like to vindicate you.
33But if not, then listen to me;
be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.”
Introduction
Job 33
Pompous prefaces, like the teeming mountain, often introduce poor performances; but Elihu's discourse here does not disappoint the expectations which his preface had raised. It is substantial, and lively, and very much to the purpose. He had, in the foregoing chapter, said what he had to say to Job's three friends; and now he comes up close to Job himself and directs his speech to him. I. He bespeaks Job's favourable acceptance of what he should say, and desires he would take him for that person whom he had so often wished for, that would plead with him, and receive his plea on God's behalf (Job 33:1-7). II. He does, in God's name, bring an action against him, for words which he had spoken, in the heat of disputation, reflecting upon God as dealing hardly with him (Job 33:8-11). III. He endeavours to convince him of his fault and folly herein, by showing him, 1. God's sovereign dominion over man (Job 33:12, Job 33:13). 2. The care God takes of man, and the various ways and means he uses to do his soul good, which we have reason to think he designs when he lays bodily afflictions upon him (Job 33:14). (1.) Job had sometimes complained of unquiet dreams, Job 7:14. "Why," says Elihu, "God sometimes speaks conviction and instruction to men by such dreams," (Job 33:15-18). (2.) Job had especially complained of his sicknesses and pains; and, as to these, he shows largely that they were so far from being tokens of God's wrath, as Job took them, or evidences of Job's hypocrisy, as his friends took them, that they were really wise and gracious methods, which divine grace took for the increase of his acquaintance with God, to work patience, experience, and hope (Job 33:19-30). And, lastly, he concludes with a request to Job, either to answer him or give him leave to go on (Job 33:31-33).
Cross-references: Job 33:1 · Job 33:8 · Job 33:12 · Job 33:13 · Job 33:14 · Job 7:14 · Job 33:15 · Job 33:19 · Job 33:31