Job33chapter 33

Job 33:1-4

Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches opens Elihu's direct address to Job by name, the first time in the whole book any speaker addresses him so plainly to his face. He grounds his claim to speak in creation rather than in age, the Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life, answering his own line at 32:8 that inspiration, not years, gives understanding. Gill reads verse 3 as Elihu's pledge of sincerity, my words shall be of the uprightness of my heart, set against the friends' speeches Job has just spent thirty chapters answering. Henry notes that Elihu asks nothing of Job that Job has not already asked of his friends, an honest hearing before judgment.

Job 33:5-7

If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up invites the very reply Job could never draw from God directly, and Elihu offers himself as a substitute party to the case. I also am formed out of the clay claims common ground with Job against any charge of standing above him as a judge. My terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee answers Job's old complaint at 9:34 and 13:21, that no daysman is available and God's hand lies too heavy to argue with. Barnes reads the offer as Elihu positioning himself as the very daysman Job wished for at 9:33, a claim the rest of the speech will not fully sustain.

Job 33:8-12

Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing begins Elihu's quotation of Job's own case back to him, I am clean without transgression, I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me. He credits Job with a real complaint, God findeth occasions against me and counteth me for his enemy, before he answers it plainly, that Job is in the wrong here, I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Wesley reads verse 12 as the speech's thesis stated early, a claim about God's greatness rather than an argument yet, with the argument still to come. Henry notes Elihu's quotation is fair to Job's actual words rather than a caricature, unlike some of the friends' summaries of his case.

Job 33:13-15

Elihu answers Job's demand for an audit with a flat denial that God owes one, for he giveth not account of any of his matters. His own argument opens instead: for God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not, and the first way is named, in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed. Delitzsch reads this as Elihu's first correction of Job, not that God is silent but that Job has not recognized the forms his speech already takes. Gill notes the dream and vision are ordinary means in the patriarchal world of this book, not a claim to new revelation on Elihu's own part.

Job 33:16-18

Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction continues the first way God speaks, a dream's purpose rather than its mechanism. That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man names correction as the aim, redirecting a man before he acts rather than punishing him after. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword states the goal in the same rescue language the chapter will use again at verse 30. Henry reads these verses as Elihu's account of a mercy already operating in Job's life that Job has not credited, God speaking to prevent rather than only to punish.

Job 33:19-22

He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain introduces the second way God speaks, chastening through suffering itself rather than through a dream. Elihu describes it in a sickbed's own terms, his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat, his flesh consumed away that it cannot be seen, language close enough to Job's own boils to land as direct address. His soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers pushes the description to its worst point before the crux verses answer it. Barnes reads chastening here as communication rather than payment, pain read as a message rather than a bill, which is Elihu's whole argument in miniature.

Job 33:23-24

If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness is the chapter's crux, and the readings on the interpreter divide across the bench. Gregory and the older writers who follow him, Henry among them, read the messenger as the Angel of the covenant, Christ himself standing between the sufferer and God; others read an ordinary angel or a human intercessor without pressing the identification further. What every reading holds in common is the verse's own claim: then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. Delitzsch notes the word for ransom joins the vocabulary the book has been reaching for since the daysman of 9:33 and the witness in heaven of 16:19, the same ladder that rises to the redeemer of 19:25.

Job 33:25-28

His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth describes the restoration that follows the ransom, a renewal Elihu pictures in the body itself. He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy answers the isolation the chapter opened with, prayer restored and reception secured. He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not gives the restored man's own confession, the words Job has refused to speak about himself through the whole debate. Gill reads verse 28 as the outcome named twice for emphasis, he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light, the same rescue promised at verse 18 now delivered.

Job 33:29-30

Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man summarizes the two ways of speaking, dream and pain alike, as one pattern repeated rather than a single event. To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living restates the chapter's aim in its own closing words, life and light rather than the death Job has courted through his complaint. Henry reads oftentimes as Elihu's quiet correction of Job's singular case, that God's dealings with any man are a repeated pattern of mercy, not a one time verdict to be read off a single trial.

Job 33:31-33

Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I will speak closes the first argument by asking for the same silence Job has been demanding of others. If thou hast any thing to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee offers Job a real opening, though the chapters that follow show Elihu doing most of the talking himself. Clarke reads the closing hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom as courteous in its wording and confident in its claim at once, a young man's promise that his elders in chapter 32 had already doubted.