Job 33:4
in Job 33The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The Spirit of God hath made me, And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life.
KJV
The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
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This verse in Job 33
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThe Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Intending to subjoin truth, he first uttered boastful words, and being about to state the sound opinions he held, he first made known how huge was his swelling. The minds of the arrogant are doubtless so very mad, that even in what they think rightly, they are disfigured by the deformity of their pride. And hence even their sound opinions do not instruct their hearers, because in truth they lead them by their haughty sentiments not to reverence but to despise them.
This site's exposition
O Job, hear my speech
on Job 33:1-4
“But now, O Job, hear my speech” addresses Job by name, the first speaker in the book to do so. Gill reads “My words are from an upright heart” as sincerity against the friends' speeches. Henry notes that Elihu asks only the honest hearing Job had asked of his friends.
This site's exposition
the breath of the Almighty
Clarke hears Genesis 2:7 in this verse. The Hebrew for breath is nishmath, the breath God breathed into the first man. Henry adds that the young speaker is the work of the same hand as his elders.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
He shows the source of such confidence in clearly explaining the truth saying, "The Spirit of God made me," and therefore, it is no wonder that he moves his creature and perfects his product, and he explains this continuing, "and the breath of the Most …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
He owns himself unfit to enter into the lists with his seniors, yet he desires they will not despise his youth, for that he is God's workmanship as well as they, made by the same hand, endued with the same noble powers and faculties, and designed for the same great end; and therefore why may not the God that made him make use of his as an instrument of good to Job?
The Spirit of God hath made me,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The Spirit of God hath made me - Another plain allusion to the account of the creation of man, Gen 2:7, as the words נשמת nishmath, the breath or breathing of God, and תחיני techaiyeni, hath given me life, prove: “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and he became a living soul.”
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
On the other hand, "the breath of the Almighty hath inspired me" (as Job 32:8); not as English Version, "given me life"; therefore "I am according to thy wish (Job 9:32, 33) in God's stead" to thee; a "daysman," umpire, or mediator, between God and thee. So Elihu was designed by the Holy Ghost to be a type of Jesus Christ (Job 33:23-26).
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The Spirit of God hath made me; - see the notes at Job 32:8. There is an evident allusion in this verse to the mode in which man was created, when God breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living being; Gen 2:7. But it is not quite clear why Elihu adverts here to the fact that God had made him, or what is the bearing of this fact on what he proposed to say. The most probable supposition is, that he means to state that he is, like Job, a man; that both were formed in the same way - from the same breathing of the Almighty, and from the same clay Job 33:6; and that although he bad undertaken to speak to Job in God’s stead Job 33:6, yet Job had no occasion to fear that he would be overawed and confounded by the Divine Majesty. He had dreaded that, if he should be permitted to bring his case before him (Notes, Job 33:7), but Elihu says that now he would have no such thing to apprehend. Though it would be in fact the same thing as carrying the matter before God - since he came in his name, and meant to state the true principles of his government, yet Job would be also really conducting the cause with a man like himself, and might, unawed, enter with the utmost freedom into the statement of his views.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רֽוּחַ־ | ruach- | [the] spirit of | H7307 → | 378 times |
| אֵ֥ל | ʾel | God | H410 → | 241 times |
| עָשָׂ֑תְנִי | ʾasateni | it has made me | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| וְנִשְׁמַ֖ת | venishmat | and [the] breath of | H5397 → | 24 times |
| שַׁדַּ֣י | shadai | [the] Almighty | H7706 → | 48 times |
| תְּחַיֵּֽנִי׃ | techaiyeni | it gives life me | H2421 → | 282 times |
רֽוּחַ־[the] spirit of
ruach-H7307 →378 times
אֵ֥לGod
ʾelH410 →241 times
עָשָׂ֑תְנִיit has made me
ʾasateniH6213 →2628 times
וְנִשְׁמַ֖תand [the] breath of
venishmatH5397 →24 times
שַׁדַּ֣י[the] Almighty
shadaiH7706 →48 times
תְּחַיֵּֽנִי׃it gives life me
techaiyeniH2421 →282 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 2:7Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 12:7
before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- 1 Corinthians 15:45
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
- Isaiah 64:8
But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
- Acts 17:25
Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
- 1 Corinthians 15:47
The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7
Through
1 Corinthians 15:45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
it leads to
- Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- John 5:21
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.
- Genesis 2:7
Through
Job 32:8But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
it leads to
- Job 38:36
Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?
- Job 38:36
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.