26 He makes his prayer to God, and he has mercy on him; he sees God's face with cries of joy; he gives news of his righteousness to men;
Let your voice come up to me in the day of trouble; I will be your saviour, so that you may give glory to me.
O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping will be ended; he will certainly have mercy on you at the sound of your cry; when it comes to his ear, he will give you an answer.
They say, He has an evil disease, which will not let him go: and now that he is down he will not get up again. Even my dearest friend, in whom I had faith, who took bread with me, is turned against me. But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, lifting me up, so that I may give them their punishment. By this I see that you have pleasure in me, because my hater does not overcome me.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to give you a place in his glory, free from all evil, with great joy,
And the Lord said to him, Get up, and go to the street which is named Straight, and make search at the house of Judas for one named Saul of Tarsus: for he is at prayer;
You have made me see the ways of life; I will be full of joy when I see your face.
He who gives honour to a prophet, in the name of a prophet, will be given a prophet's reward; and he who gives honour to an upright man, in the name of an upright man, will be given an upright man's reward. And whoever gives to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will not go without his reward.
Then Jonah made prayer to the Lord his God from the inside of the fish, and said, In my trouble I was crying to the Lord, and he gave me an answer; out of the deepest underworld I sent up a cry, and you gave ear to my voice. For you have put me down into the deep, into the heart of the sea; and the river was round about me; all your waves and your rolling waters went over me. And I said, I have been sent away from before your eyes; how may I ever again see your holy Temple? The waters were circling round me, even to the neck; the deep was about me; the sea-grass was twisted round my head. I went down to the bases of the mountains; as for the earth, her walls were about me for ever: but you have taken up my life from the underworld, O Lord my God.
Let your cry come to me, and I will give you an answer, and let you see great things and secret things of which you had no knowledge.
I have given my love to the Lord, because he has given ear to the voice of my cry and my prayer. He has let my request come before him, and I will make my prayer to him all my days. The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow. Then I made my prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, take my soul out of trouble. The Lord is full of grace and righteousness; truly, he is a God of mercy. The Lord keeps the simple; I was made low, and he was my saviour.
When his cry comes up to me, I will give him an answer: I will be with him in trouble; I will make him free from danger and give him honour.
And mercy, O Lord, is yours, for you give to every man the reward of his work.
May the light of the Lord's face be shining on you in grace: May the Lord's approval be resting on you and may he give you peace.
Lord, by your grace you have kept my mountain strong: when your face was turned from me I was troubled. My voice went up to you, O Lord; I made my prayer to the Lord. What profit is there in my blood if I go down into the underworld? will the dust give you praise, or be a witness to your help? Give ear to me, O Lord, and have mercy on me: Lord, be my helper. By you my sorrow is turned into dancing; you have taken away my clothing of grief, and given me robes of joy;
May the Lord be praised, because he has given ear to the voice of my prayer.
<Of David.> My cry goes up to you, O Lord, my Rock; do not keep back your answer from me, so that I may not become like those who go down into the underworld. Give ear to the voice of my prayer, when I am crying to you, when my hands are lifted up to your holy place.
You will make clear to me the way of life; where you are joy is complete; in your right hand there are pleasures for ever and ever.
<To the chief music-maker on corded instruments, on the Sheminith. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, do not be bitter with me in your wrath; do not send punishment on me in the heat of your passion. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am wasted away: make me well, for even my bones are troubled. My soul is in bitter trouble; and you, O Lord, how long? Come back, O Lord, make my soul free; O give me salvation because of your mercy. For in death there is no memory of you; in the underworld who will give you praise? The voice of my sorrow is a weariness to me; all the night I make my bed wet with weeping; it is watered by the drops flowing from my eyes. My eyes are wasting away with trouble; they are becoming old because of all those who are against me. Go from me, all you workers of evil; for the Lord has given ear to the voice of my weeping. The Lord has given ear to my request; the Lord has let my prayer come before him.
And now, take seven oxen and seven sheep, and go to my servant Job, and give a burned offering for yourselves, and my servant Job will make prayer for you, that I may not send punishment on you; because you have not said what is right about me, as my servant Job has. And Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the Lord had said. And the Lord gave ear to Job.
So that the cry of the poor might come up to him, and the prayer of those in need come to his ears.
For then you will have delight in the Ruler of all, and your face will be lifted up to God. You will make your prayer to him, and be answered; and you will give effect to your oaths.
And the prayer which he made to God, and how God gave him an answer, and all his sin and his wrongdoing, and the places where he made high places and put up pillars of wood and images, before he put away his pride, are recorded in the history of the seers.
And crying out to the Lord his God in his trouble, he made himself low before the God of his fathers, And made prayer to him; and in answer to his prayer God let him come back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh was certain that the Lord was God.
Then, turning his face to the wall, he made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping. Now before Isaiah had gone out of the middle of the town, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, The Lord, the God of David your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping; see, I will make you well: on the third day you will go up to the house of the Lord.
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.