23 If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness:
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
Then spake Haggai the LORD's messenger in the LORD's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.
Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
Yet ye say, The way of the LORD is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.
And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction; Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.
Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.
That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
Therefore hearken unto me ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 33
Commentary on Job 33 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 33
Job 33:1-33. Address to Job, as (Job 32:1-22) TO THE Friends.
2. mouth—rather, "palate," whereby the taste discerns. Every man speaks with his mouth, but few, as Elihu, try their words with discrimination first, and only say what is really good (Job 6:30; 12:11).
hath spoken—rather, "proceeds to speak."
3. I will speak according to my inward conviction.
clearly—rather, "purely"; sincerely, not distorting the truth through passion, as the friends did.
4. The Spirit of God hath made me—as He did thee: latter clause of Job 33:6 (Ge 2:7). Therefore thou needest not fear me, as thou wouldest God (Job 33:7; Job 9:34). 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).
5. Images from a court of justice.
stand up—alluding to Job's words (Job 30:20).
6. (See on Job 33:4; Job 31:35; 13:3, 20, 21).
formed—Though acting as God's representative, I am but a creature, like thyself. Arabic, "pressed together," as a mass of clay by the potter, in forming a vessel [Umbreit]. Hebrew, "cut off," as the portion taken from the clay to form it [Maurer].
7. hand—alluding to Job's words (Job 13:21).
8. thy words—(Job 10:7; 16:17; 23:11, 12; 27:5, 6; 29:14). In Job 9:30; 13:23, Job had acknowledged sin; but the general spirit of his words was to maintain himself to be "clean," and to charge God with injustice. He went too far on the opposite side in opposing the friends' false charge of hypocrisy. Even the godly, though willing to confess themselves sinners in general, often dislike sin in particular to be brought as a charge against them. Affliction is therefore needed to bring them to feel that sin in them deserves even worse than they suffer and that God does them no injustice. Then at last humbled under God they find, affliction is for their real good, and so at last it is taken away either here, or at least at death. To teach this is Elihu's mission.
9. clean—spotless.
10. occasions—for hostility; literally, "enmities" (Job 13:24; 16:9; 19:11; 30:21).
11. (Job 13:27).
marketh—narrowly watches (Job 14:16; 7:12; 31:4).
12. in this—view of God and His government. It cannot be that God should jealously "watch" man, though "spotless," as an "enemy," or as one afraid of him as an equal. For "God is greater than man!" There must be sin in man, even though he be no hypocrite, which needs correction by suffering for the sufferer's good.
13. (Isa 45:9).
his matters—ways. Our part is, not to "strive" with God, but to submit. To believe it is right because He does it, not because we see all the reasons for His doing it.
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; God therefore must try what affliction will effect (Joh 15:2; Ps 62:11; Isa 28:10, 13).
15. slumberings—light is opposed to "deep sleep." Elihu has in view Eliphaz (Job 4:13), and also Job himself (Job 7:14). "Dreams" in sleep, and "visions" of actual apparitions, were among the ways whereby God then spake to man (Ge 20:3).
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).
17. purpose—Margin, "work." So Job 36:9. So "business" in a bad sense (1Sa 20:19). Elihu alludes to Job's words (Job 17:11). "Pride," an open "pit" (Job 33:18) which God hides or covers up, lest man should fall into it. Even the godly need to learn the lesson which trials teach, to "humble themselves under the mighty hand of God."
18. his soul—his life.
the pit—the grave; a symbol of hell.
perishing by the sword—that is, a violent death; in the Old Testament a symbol of the future punishment of the ungodly.
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].
20. life—that is, the appetite, which ordinarily sustains "life" (Job 38:39; Ps 107:18; Ec 12:5). The taking away of desire for food by sickness symbolizes the removal by affliction of lust, for things which foster the spiritual fever of pride.
soul—desire.
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.
22. destroyers—angels of death commissioned by God to end man's life (2Sa 24:16; Ps 78:49). The death pains personified may, however, be meant; so "gnawers" (see on Job 30:17).
23. Elihu refers to himself as the divinely-sent (Job 32:8; 33:6) "messenger," the "interpreter" to explain to Job and vindicate God's righteousness; such a one Eliphaz had denied that Job could look for (Job 5:1), and Job (Job 9:33) had wished for such a "daysman" or umpire between him and God. The "messenger" of good is antithetical to the "destroyers" (Job 33:23).
with him—if there be vouchsafed to the sufferer. The office of the interpreter is stated "to show unto man God's uprightness" in His dealings; or, as Umbreit, "man's upright course towards God" (Pr 14:2). The former is better; Job maintained his own "uprightness" (Job 16:17; 27:5, 6); Elihu on the contrary maintains God's, and that man's true uprightness lies in submission to God. "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). This is the wonderful work of the Holy Ghost, that persons and events move in their own sphere in such a way as unconsciously to shadow forth Him, whose "testimony is the Spirit of prophecy"; as the same point may be center of a small and of a vastly larger concentric circle.
24. Apodosis to Job 33:23.
he—God.
Deliver—literally, "redeem"; in it and "ransom" there is reference to the consideration, on account of which God pardons and relieves the sufferers; here it is primarily the intercession of Elihu. But the language is too strong for its full meaning to be exhausted by this. The Holy Ghost has suggested language which receives its full realization only in the "eternal redemption found" by God in the price paid by Jesus Christ for it; that is, His blood and meritorious intercession (Heb 9:12). "Obtained," literally, "found"; implying the earnest zeal, wisdom, and faithfulness of the finder, and the newness and joyousness of the finding. 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. (2Co 5:19).
ransom—used in a general sense by Elihu, but meant by the Holy Ghost in its strict sense as applied to Jesus Christ, of a price paid for deliverance (Ex 21:30), an atonement (that is, means of selling at once, that is, reconciling "two" who are estranged), a covering, as of the ark with pitch, typical of what covers us sinners from wrath (Ge 6:14; Ps 32:1). The pit is primarily here the grave (Isa 38:17), but the spiritual pit is mainly shadowed forth (Zec 9:11).
25-28. Effects of restoration to God's favor; literally, to Job a temporal revival; spiritually, an eternal regeneration. The striking words cannot be restricted to their temporal meaning, as used by Elihu (1Pe 1:11, 12).
his flesh shall be fresher than a child's—so Naaman, 2Ki 5:14, spiritually, Joh 3:3-7.
26. Job shall no longer pray to God, as he complains, in vain (Job 23:3, 8, 9). True especially to the redeemed in Jesus Christ (Joh 16:23-27).
he—Job.
shall see his face—or, God shall make Job to see His face [Maurer]. God shall no longer "hide His face" (Job 13:24). True to the believer now (Joh 14:21, 22); eternally (Ps 17:15; Joh 17:24).
his—God's
righteousness—God will again make the restored Job no longer ("I perverted … right," Job 33:27) doubt God's justice, but to justify Him in His dealings. The penitent justifies God (Ps 51:4). So the believer is made to see God's righteousness in Jesus Christ (Isa 45:24; 46:13).
27. he looketh—God. Rather, with Umbreit, "Now he (the restored penitent) singeth joyfully (answering to "joy," Job 33:26; Ps 51:12) before men, and saith," &c. (Pr 25:20; Ps 66:16; 116:14).
perverted—made the straight crooked: as Job had misrepresented God's character.
profited—literally, "was made even" to me; rather, "My punishment was not commensurate with my sin" (so Zophar, Job 11:6); the reverse of what Job heretofore said (Job 16:17; Ps 103:10; Ezr 9:13).
28. (See on Job 33:24); rather, as Hebrew text (English Version reads as the Margin, Hebrew, Keri, "his soul, his life"), "He hath delivered my soul … my life." Continuation of the penitent's testimony to the people.
light—(Job 33:30; Job 3:16, 20; Ps 56:13; Ec 11:7).
29. Margin, "twice and thrice," alluding to Job 33:14; once, by visions, Job 33:15-17; secondly, by afflictions, Job 33:19-22; now, by the "messenger," thirdly, Job 33:23.
30. Referring to Job 33:28 (Ps 50:13).
32. justify—to do thee justice; and, if I can, consistently with it, to declare thee innocent. At Job 33:33 Elihu pauses for a reply; then proceeds in Job 34:1.