Job 33

This chapter belongs to the speeches of Elihu, which run from chapter 32 through chapter 37 of the Book of Job. In Job 32, Elihu explained why he, a young man, was stepping forward to speak. In this chapter he addresses Job directly for the first time and rebuts his complaints.

Outline

• Verses 1–7 Elihu asks Job to listen to him. He says that he too was formed out of the clay and that the Spirit of God gives him life. He therefore will not overwhelm Job with any show of authority.
• Verses 8–11 Elihu summarizes and restates Job's words: "I am clean without transgression" and "he counteth me for his enemy."
• Verses 12–13 He replies that Job is not right in saying this, because God is greater than man. No one can contend with God simply because He does not explain all His doings.
• Verses 14–18 God speaks again and again through dreams and visions of the night. He does this so that a person may put away pride and not fall into the pit (death).
• Verses 19–22 God also chastens people through pain on a sickbed. Elihu describes how the sufferer loses his appetite and wastes away until he draws near to death.
• Verses 23–28 If an angel, one among a thousand, stands beside the sufferer as an interpreter and shows him the right way, God says, "I have found a ransom," and delivers him. The restored person prays, confesses his sin, and sings.
• Verses 29–30 God does these things two or three times, bringing the soul back to the light of life.
• Verses 31–33 Elihu tells Job to answer if he has anything to say, and if not, to keep silent and listen.

Key Verses

• Job 33:4 "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." This confession that life comes from the breath of God is often read together with Genesis 2:7.
• Job 33:14 "For God speaketh once, yea twice." This is Elihu's answer to Job's lament that God is silent.
• Job 33:24 "I have found a ransom." This verse locates the basis for the sufferer's deliverance on God's side.

Characters and Places

• Elihu: A young man introduced as the son of Barachel the Buzite (Job 32:2). He speaks after Job's three friends have finished.
• Job: In this chapter he does not speak but listens.
• Angel: Mentioned as the "interpreter" in verse 23.

Points for Reflection

• Verse 11 quotes almost verbatim what Job said in Job 13 ("Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks"). However, the phrase "without transgression" in verse 9 is Elihu's own summary of Job's protest of innocence.
• The three friends generally regarded suffering as the result of sin. Elihu also explains suffering as instruction and chastening intended to turn a person back. On this basis, some interpreters see Elihu as a figure who prepares the way for God's speech (Job 38). Others, noting that God does not mention Elihu in Job 42, regard him as not substantially different from the friends.
• The "interpreter" (also translated "mediator") and the "ransom" in verses 23–24 connect with the mediator Job longed for in Job 9:32–33. In Christian tradition these words are sometimes read, in light of 1 Timothy 2:5–6 and Matthew 20:28, as foreshadowing Christ. Because the text itself speaks of mediation by an angelic being, other interpreters read it strictly within its immediate context.