Job33chapter 33

Job 33:14

“HOW persevering is Divine love! "God speaks once." I have heard many a father say to his child, "Do not let me have to speak to you again." But the great Father has to speak again and when it is written, "God speaks once, yes twice, yet man perceives it not," we see how great is the stubbornness of the human heart! And we also see the gentleness of Divine love. When Elihu said, "God speaks once, yes twice," he meant that the Lord speaks repeatedly. Divine loving kindness has many voices. God often speaks to us in our childhood.”

Job 33:14

“Translate, "Yet, man regardeth it not"; or rather, as UMBREIT, "Yea, twice (He repeats the warning)--if man gives no heed" to the first warning. Elihu implies that God's reason for sending affliction is because, when God has communicated His will in various ways, man in prosperity has not heeded it;”

Job 33:14

“This he does once, yea, twice, that is, again and again; when one warning is neglected he gives another, not willing that any should perish. Precept must be upon precept, and line upon line; it is so, that sinners may be left inexcusable.”

Job 33:15

“In a dream, in a vision of the night, when sleep falleth upon men, and they sleep on their bed. What is meant by the word of God being made known to us in a dream, except that we do not learn the secret things of God, if we are kept awake by worldly desires? For in a dream the outward senses are at rest, and inward objects are discerned. If we wish then to contemplate things within, let us rest from outward engagements.”

Job 33:15

“In a dream - This was one of the methods by which the will of God was made known in the early periods of the world; see the notes at Job 4:12-17. And for a fuller account of this method of communicating the divine will, see the introduction to Isaiah, Section 7 (2). In a vision of the night - Notes, Job 4:13; compare the introduction to Isaiah, Section 7 (4). When deep sleep falleth upon men - This may be designed to intimate more distinctly that it was from God.”

Job 33:16

“III. By secret Inspirations Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth, etc. - A dream or a vision simply considered is likely to do no good; it is the opening of the understanding, and the pouring in of the light, that make men wise to salvation.”

Job 33:16

“Literally, "sealeth (their ears) to Himself by warnings," that is, with the sureness and secrecy of a seal He reveals His warnings [UMBREIT]. To seal up securely (Job 37:7).”

Job 33:17

“That He may withdraw man from the things that he has done, and may deliver him from pride. For what has man done of himself but sin? And it is written, Pride is the beginning of all sin. It is rightly said, then, that when man is withdrawn from what he has done, he is freed from pride. To transgress the commands of our Creator by sin, is to be haughty against Him; because a man casts off, as it were, the yoke of His authority, to Whom he scorns to submit by obedience.”

Job 33:17

“That he may withdraw a man from his purpose,.... Or "work" (m), his wicked work, as the Targum; either which he has begun upon, or which he designed to do.”

Job 33:17

“Particularly, God does, by this means, hide pride from man, that is, hide those things from him which are the matter of his pride, and take his mind off from dwelling upon them, by setting before him what reason he has to be humble. That he may take away pride from man (so some read it), that he may pluck up that root of bitterness which is the cause of so much sin.”

Job 33:18

“Rescuing his soul from corruption, and his life from passing to the sword. For every sinner, in consequence of his corruption by sin here, is compelled to pass thither to the sword of punishment; that he may be justly punished in that world, by the very sins in which he delighted in this. We must observe therefore, that God, speaking to us in a dream, delivers us first from corruption, and afterwards from the sword: because in truth He delivers the 'life' of that person from avenging punishment there, whose mind He here withdraws from the allurement of sin.”

Job 33:19

“He chastens him also with pain upon his bed, and makes all his bones to waste away. By bed, or pallet, or couch in holy Scripture, is understood, sometimes carnal pleasure, sometimes a resting in good works, sometimes temporal rest; for what is meant by what our Lord said in the Gospel to a certain one who was healed, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house, except that bodily pleasure is signified by bed?”

Job 33:19

“He is chastened also with pain - As another means of checking and restraining him from the commission of sin. When the warnings of the night fail, and when he is bent on a life of sin, then God lays him on a bed of pain, and he is brought to reflection there. There he has an opportunity to think of his life, and of all the consequences which must follow from a career of iniquity. This involves the main inquiry before the disputants. It was, why people were afflicted.”

Job 33:19

“When man does not heed warnings of the night, he is chastened, &c. The new thought suggested by Elihu is that affliction is disciplinary (Job 36:10); for the good of the godly. multitude--so the Margin, Hebrew (Keri). Better with the text (Chetib), "And with the perpetual (strong) contest of his bones"; the never-resting fever in his bones (Ps 38:3) [UMBREIT].”

Job 33:20

“His life abhorreth bread - These expressions strongly and naturally point out that general nausea, or loathing which sick persons feel in almost every species of disorder.”

Job 33:20

“This is a good reason why we should not be desirous of dainties, because they are deceitful meat, Prov. xxiii. We may be soon made as sick of them as we are now fond of them; and those who live in luxury when they are well, if ever they come, by reason of sickness, to loathe dainty meat, may, with grief and shame, read their sin in their punishment.”

Job 33:21

“His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen - He wastes away. His flesh, once vigorous, beautiful, and fair, now disappears. This is not a mere description of the nature of his sickness, but it is a description of the disciplinary arrangements of God. It is an important part of his affliction, as a part of the discipline, that his flesh vanishes, and that his appearance is so changed that he becomes repulsive to the view. And his bones that were not seen, stick out - His bones were before invisible.”

Job 33:21

“His flesh once prominent "can no more be seen." His bones once not seen now appear prominent. stick out--literally, "are bare." The Margin, Hebrew (Keri) reading. The text (Chetib) reads it a noun "(are become) bareness." The Keri was no doubt an explanatory reading of transcribers.”

Job 33:22

“His soul shall draw near to corruption, and his life to the destroyers. For the soul of every just man when tempted is said to draw near to corruption, when, for fear his virtue should elate him, he is compelled by the rod to feel what he is in his own natural infirmity. He approaches, in truth, to corruption, because he learns that by his own strength he is not far from destruction, in order that he may ascribe not to himself but to the Lord, that he is far from that destruction.”

Job 33:22

“His soul draweth near unto the grave - נפש nephesh, soul, is here taken for the immortal spirit, as it is distinguished from חיה chaiyah, the animal life. The former draws near to the pit, שחת shachath, corruption; perhaps he meant dissipation, considering it merely as the breath. The latter draws near לממתים lamemithim, to the dead; i.e., to those who are already buried.”

Job 33:23

“If there shall be an Angel, speaking for him one of like things to shew the righteousness of man, he will pity him. For who is this Angel, but He who is called by the Prophet, The Angel of mighty counsel? [Is. 9, 6. lxx.] For because to declare is called 'evangelize' in Greek, the Lord in announcing Himself to us is called 'Angel.' [as Is. 63, 9] And he well says, If there shall be a messenger [or Angel] speaking for him; [Rom. 8, 26] because, as the Apostle says, He even intercedes for us.”

Job 33:23

“If there be a messenger with him - This part of the speech of Elihu has given rise to scarcely less diversity of opinion, and to scarcely less discussion, than the celebrated passage in Job 19:25-27. Almost every interpreter has had a special view of its meaning, and of course it is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine its true sense.”

Job 33:23

“WHEN God has distinct and definite purposes of mercy towards an individual, He often begins with stern discipline and brings him low by affliction and sorrow. As the good farmer cuts down the trees and makes a clearance of the soil before he sows the grain and prepares for a harvest, so does our God cut down all our goodly cedars, our pleasures, and our pride in order that the heart may be afterwards plowed, broken, harrowed and made ready to receive the good seed of the Word. Elihu describes this preparatory breaking-up process as being brought about by sickness.”

Job 33:23

"One among a thousand" is a man rarely to be found. So Jesus Christ (So 5:10). Elihu, the God-sent mediator of a temporal deliverance, is a type of the God-man Jesus Christ the Mediator of eternal deliverance: "the messenger of the covenant" (Mal 3:1).

Job 33:23

“One, &c. - A person rightly qualified for this great and hard work, such as there are but very few. To shew - To direct him to the right way how he may please God, and procure that mercy which he thirsts after; which is not by quarrelling with God, but by an humble confession. and supplication for mercy through Christ the redeemer.”

Job 33:23

“His business at such a time is to show unto man his uprightness, that is, God's uprightness, that in faithfulness he afflicts him and does him no wrong, which it is necessary to be convinced of in order to our making a due improvement of the affliction: or, rather, it may mean man's uprightness, or rectitude.”

Job 33:24

“Then he is gracious to him,.... To the sick man; either the messenger or the minister that is with him, who pities his case and prays for him; and by some the following words are supposed to be a prayer of his, "deliver me", &c. since one find in the Gospel there is a ransom for such persons.”

Job 33:24

“Then he is gracious unto him - He exercises mercy towards fallen man, and gives command for his respite and pardon. Deliver him from going down to the pit - Let him who is thus instructed, penitent, and afflicted, and comes to me, find a pardon; for: - VI. By an Atonement I have found a ransom - כפר copher, an atonement. Pay a ransom for him, פדעהו pedaehu, that he may not go down to the pit - to corruption or destruction, for I have found out an atonement.”

Job 33:24

LET it never be forgotten that in all that God does, He acts from good reasons. You observe that the text, speaking of the sick man, represents God as saying, "Deliver him from going down to the Pit: I have found a ransom." If I understand the passage as relating solely to a sick man and take the words just on the natural common level where some place them, I would still say that the Lord, here, gives a reason why He suspends the operations of pain and disease and raises up the sufferer—"I have found a ransom."

Job 33:24

“Jesus Christ could not but have found it, but still His seeking it was needed [BENGEL], (Lu 15:8). God the Father, is the Finder (Ps 89:19). Jesus Christ the Redeemer, to whom He saith, Redeem (so Hebrew) him from going, &c.”

Job 33:24

“A ransom - Although I might justly destroy him, yet I will spare him, for I have found out a way of ransoming sinners from death, which is the death of my son, the redeemer of the world, and with respect to which I will pardon them that repent and sue for mercy. Observe how God glories in the invention! I have found, I have found a ransom; a ransom for poor, undone sinners!”

Job 33:24

“Jesus Christ is that 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 put upon souls that nothing less would redeem them, and so great the injury 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.”

Job 33:25

“His flesh is consumed by punishments, let him return to the days of his youth. For when that first man fell from God, we were driven from the joys of Paradise, and were involved in the miseries of this mortal life; [Gen. 3, 23. 24.] and we feel, by the pain of our punishment, what a grievous fault we committed by the persuasion of the serpent. For having fallen into this state, we have found nothing, out of God, except affliction.”

Job 33:25

“His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s - Margin, “childhood.” The meaning is obvious. He would be restored again to health. The calamity which had been brought upon him for purposes of discipline, would be removed. This was the theory of Elihu in regard to afflictions, and he undoubtedly meant that it should be applied to Job. If he would now, understanding the nature and design of affliction, turn to God, he would be recovered again, and enjoy the health and rigor of his youth.”

Job 33:25

“This is not always the consequence of a sick man's repentance and return to God, but sometimes it is; and recovery from sickness is a mercy indeed when it arises from the remission of sin; then it is in love to the soul that the body is delivered from the pit of corruption when God casts our sins behind his back, Isa. xxxviii.”

Job 33:26

“He shall pray unto God, and He will be favourable unto him. He says that the Messenger implores first, and man afterwards; for did not the Lord first intercede with the Father through His Incarnation, and pray for our life, our insensibility would never rouse itself to ask for those things which are eternal. But the entreaty of His Incarnation came first, that our awakening from sloth might afterwards follow.”

Job 33:26

“He shall pray unto God - Being now adopted into the heavenly family, and become a new creature, he shall have the spirit of prayer, which is indeed the very breath and language of the new or spiritual life. He will be favorable unto him - He shall manifest his good will to him; he shall live under the influences of Divine grace.”

Job 33:26

“Render - He will deal with him as with one reconciled to him through the mediator, and turning from sin to righteousness.”

Job 33:27

“He will look on men, and will say, I have sinned. He would not know himself to be a sinner, if he had not righteousness. For no one detects his own deformity, except when he has begun to be upright. For he who is altogether deformed, cannot perceive what he really is. But he who is conscious that he is a sinner, has begun in some measure to be righteous; and from being righteous, blames his conduct when yet unrighteous.”

Job 33:27

“He looketh upon men - Margin, “or, he shall look upon men, and say, I have sinned.” Umbreit renders this, Nun singt er jubelnd zu den Menschen - “now he sings joyfully among men.” So Noyes, “He shall sing among men, and say.” Prof. Lee “He shall fully consider or pronounce right to men, so that one shall say, I have sinned.” Coverdale, “Such a respect hath he unto men.”

Job 33:28

“For he hath delivered his soul from going onwards to destruction. Because when Divine Grace goes before us in good works, our free will follows it, we, who yield our consent to God Who delivers us, are said to deliver ourselves; and hence Paul when saying, I laboured more abundantly than they all, [1 Cor. 15, 1] for fear he should seem to ascribe his labours to himself, immediately added, Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Job 33:28

“He will deliver his soul from going into the pit,.... Into the pit of the grave; and then the soul is put for the man or for the body; or into the pit of hell or perdition: and his life shall see the light; or he shall live and enjoy outward prosperity here, and the light of eternal happiness hereafter; and so the Targum interprets it of superior light, or the light above, even the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Job 33:28

“He will deliver his soul - He will do that to every individual penitent sinner which he has promised in his word to do for a lost world - he will deliver his soul from going down to the pit of hell. And his life shall see the light - He shall walk in the light, as Christ is in the light; always enjoying a clear sense of his acceptance through the blood of the Lamb. See another mode of paraphrasing these verses at the end of the chapter.”

Job 33:29

“Lo, all these things worketh God - That is, he takes all these methods to warn people, and to reclaim them from their evil ways. Oftentimes - Hebrew as in the margin, twice, thrice. This may be taken either as it is by our translators, to denote an indefinite number, meaning that God takes frequent occasion to warn people, and repeats the admonition when they disregard it, or more probably Elihu refers here to the particular methods which he had specified, and which were three in number. First, warnings in the visions of the night, Job 33:14-”

Job 33:29

“All providences are to be looked upon as God's workings with man, his strivings with him. He uses a variety of methods to do men good; if one affliction do not do the work, he will try another; if neither do, he will try a mercy; and he will send a messenger to interpret both. He often works such things as these twice, thrice; so it is in the original, referring to”

Job 33:30

“That he may recal their souls from corruption, and enlighten them with the light of the living. For that is the light of the dying which we behold with our bodily eyes. But they who still live for this world, are in darkness in the light of the dying.”

Job 33:30

“To bring back his soul from the pit,.... From the pit of the grave; at the mouth or on the brink of which he seemed to be in the apprehension of his friends, and having the sentence of death in himself; see Psa 90:3. Or "to turn away" (x), or "stay his soul from the pit", as Mr. Broughton; prevent his going into it by removing his disorder, and restoring him to health, as in the case of Hezekiah, Isa 38:”

Job 33:30

“To bring back his soul from the pit - Nearly a repetition of the promise in Job 33:28. To be enlightened with the light of the living - An echo of Psa 56:13: “Thou hast delivered my soul from death, that I may walk before God in the light of the living;” and probably quoted from it.”

Job 33:31

“Eliu has uttered great and very powerful words. But it is a characteristic of every boastful person, that, while giving utterance to truths and mysteries, he suddenly blends with them, through pride of heart, some foolish and proud expressions. For he endeavours to please the world without, in that which he thinks with truth; and is soon despoiled of the truth, just as through haughtiness of pride he goes back from what is inward. For, because he seeks to be approved of outwardly as a man of learning, he loses inwardly the fulness of wisdom, in which he was instructed.”

Job 33:33

“If not, hearken to me,.... If he had no objection to make, nor answer to return, then he desires he would attend and listen to what he had further to lay before him: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom. For though Job was a wise and good man, he might become wiser and more knowing; and indeed when instruction is given to a wise man, he will be yet wiser, Pro 9:9; and this may be received sometimes from persons inferior in age and abilities.”