28 He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit, My life shall see the light.'
Let the stars of the twilight of it be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, Neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, And his life to the destroyers.
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw light.
"Why is light given to him who is in misery, Life to the bitter in soul,
You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you. Light shall shine on your ways.
He keeps back his soul from the pit, And his life from perishing by the sword.
He shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.
But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, But I will trust in you.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined.
Behold, [it was] for [my] peace [that] I had great bitterness: But you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; For you have cast all my sins behind your back. For Sheol can't praise you, death can't celebrate you: Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.
I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 33
Commentary on Job 33 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 33
Pompous prefaces, like the teeming mountain, often introduce poor performances; but Elihu's discourse here does not disappoint the expectations which his preface had raised. It is substantial, and lively, and very much to the purpose. He had, in the foregoing chapter, said what he had to say to Job's three friends; and now he comes up close to Job himself and directs his speech to him.
Job 33:1-7
Several arguments Elihu here uses to persuade Job not only to give him a patient hearing, but to believe that he designed him a good office, and to take it kindly, and be willing to receive the instructions he was now about to give him. Let Job consider,
Job 33:8-13
In these verses,
Job 33:14-18
Job had complained that God kept him wholly in the dark concerning the meaning of his dealings with him, and therefore concluded he dealt with him as his enemy. "No,' says Elihu, "he speaks to you, but you do not perceive him; so that the fault is yours, not his; and he is designing your real good even in those dispensations which you put this harsh construction upon.' Observe in general,
In these verses he shows how God teaches and admonishes the children of men by their own consciences. Observe,
Job 33:19-28
God has spoken once to sinners by their own consciences, to keep them from the paths of the destroyer, but they perceive it not; they are not aware that the checks their own hearts give them in a sinful way are from God, but they are imputed to melancholy or the preciseness of their education; and therefore God speaks twice; he speaks a second time, and tries another way to convince and reclaim sinners, and that is by providences, afflictive and merciful (in which he speaks twice), and by the seasonable instructions of good ministers setting in with them. Job complained much of his diseases and judged by them that God was angry with him; his friends did so too: but Elihu shows that they were all mistaken, for God often afflicts the body in love, and with gracious designs of good to the soul, as appears in the issue. This part of Elihu's discourse will be of great use to us for the due improvement of sickness, in and by which God speaks to men. Here is,
Job 33:29-33
We have here the conclusion of this first part of Elihu's discourse, in which,