Elihu's First Reply to Job. Job's complaint that God displays an arbitrary hostility to him, and refuses to hear any appeal of men is unfounded. god speaks to men in many ways The following may be taken as an outline of the chapter: First, Job 33:1, Elihu in some introductory words bespeaks Job's... [ Continue Reading ]
Elihu, unlike the other speakers, addresses Job by name.... [ Continue Reading ]
Introductory appeal to Job to listen to Elihu, who will speak in all honesty, and who being a man like Job himself may be argued with.... [ Continue Reading ]
The somewhat formal and circumstantial way in which he intimates that he is going to speak indicates his feeling of the importance of what he is going to say, and bespeaks Job's attention.... [ Continue Reading ]
Reiteration of the speaker's sincerity; he possesses what Job had desiderated on the part of his three friends, uprightness (ch. Job 6:25). _my lips shall utter knowledge clearly_ lit. _and the knowledge of my lips they shall utter purely_, with no mixture of falsehood; his lips will express truly... [ Continue Reading ]
On the language of this verse see ch. Job 32:8. The verse seems connected with Job 33:3. Elihu will utter his sincere conviction, and it is a conviction flowing from that spirit of God given him in his creation; this is a guarantee of its worth as well as its sincerity. The appeal is to common reaso... [ Continue Reading ]
Full of this feeling Elihu invites Job to measure himself with this wisdom (Job 33:4). Let the matter be reasoned out as it may be on equal terms, for in Elihu a man like himself Job will have no reason to complain of being overawed and hindered from pleading his cause.... [ Continue Reading ]
_according to thy wish in God's stead_ Rather, as already Cover-dale, BEHOLD, BEFORE GOD I AM EVEN AS THOU; that is, in relation to God in the same position as Job, a man like himself. The words _in God's stead_suggest the false conception that Elihu was in some extraordinary way the representative... [ Continue Reading ]
Job had often complained that the terror and majesty of God overpowered him and made it impossible for him to plead his cause and shew his rectitude; comp. ch. Job 9:34; Job 13:21. _my hand be heavy_ The term _hand_may be an uncommon form of the Heb. word having that sense, or it may perhaps mean _... [ Continue Reading ]
To Job's complaint that God shewed a hostility to him which was arbitrary and without cause Elihu replies that such a thing was unbecoming God and not to be thought of, for God is greater than man.... [ Continue Reading ]
For the expressions cited in this verse comp. ch. Job 9:21; Job 10:7; Job 16:17; Job 23:10; Job 27:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
See ch. Job 10:13 _seq_., Job 13:24; Job 19:11; Job 30:21. _he findeth occasions_ lit. _enmities_, i. e. grounds of enmity or hostility; he "findeth" is almost equivalent to He "invents." Coverdale quaintly, "he hath pyked a quarell agaynst me.... [ Continue Reading ]
See ch. Job 13:27.... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse probably reads, Behold in this thou art not in the right, I will answer thee, For God is greater than man. The words _I will answer thee_are equivalent to, "Behold, _my answer is_, in this thou art not right," &c. The answer to Job's charges which Elihu contents himself with giving mean... [ Continue Reading ]
When Elihu gives the general answer to Job's charges against God that "God is greater than man" he means that the moral loftiness of God's nature made it impossible that He should act in the arbitrary, hostile manner charged against Him by Job (comp. ch. Job 36:5). It was but another form of the sam... [ Continue Reading ]
_yet man perceiveth it not_ Or, WHEN MAN REGARDETH IT NOT.... [ Continue Reading ]
To Job's charge Elihu replies that God speaks to man in many ways, as in dreams and visions of the night, by which He instructs men and seeks to turn them away from doing evil that would destroy them.... [ Continue Reading ]
The language recalls the vision of Eliphaz, ch. Job 4:13 _seq_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_sealeth their instruction_ The instruction is that communicated when the ear is opened, and a revelation given (comp. ch. Job 36:10; Job 36:15; 1 Samuel 9:15; Psalms 40:6); and "to seal" it is to confirm it and give it abiding efficacy. This is done partly by the impressive circumstances and manner... [ Continue Reading ]
The object of this intervention of God is the gracious one of anticipating the sinner in the evil which he meditates and hindering it, and withdrawing him from his sinful purpose, Job 33:17; and the effect of it is that man is preserved from committing deadly sin, which would have brought destructio... [ Continue Reading ]
_multitude of his Bones with strong pain_ Rather, AND WITH A CONTINUAL STRIFE IN HIS BONES the word "strife" meaning "conflict of pain." This is the reading of the Heb. text. The A. V. has adopted the Heb. margin; but if this be taken the sense must be: _while the multitude of his bones is strong_,... [ Continue Reading ]
These verses may describe another instance of God's dealing with man, or a further discipline of the same person (Job 33:15), the result stated Job 33:18 not having been attained. The passage has four steps: (1) The affliction, graphically presented, Job 33:19. (2) The intervention of the Divine m... [ Continue Reading ]
_his life_ Or, DESIRE (appetite, ch. Job 38:39). The words mean lit. _his desire maketh him abhor_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the destroyers_ that is, perhaps, the angels that bring death; 2Sa 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:15; Psalms 78:49.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a messenger_ Or, _angel_. Such an angel is called an _interpreter_, that is, as the last clause of the verse explains, one who interprets to man God's providential treatment of him, and shews him what is right for him to do _his uprightness_, that is, wherein uprightness will consist, and what his... [ Continue Reading ]
The intervention of the heavenly messenger.... [ Continue Reading ]
_then he is gracious_ God is gracious; God, not the angel, is the speaker in the rest of the verse. It is assumed that when the sufferer is shewn what is right (Job 33:23) he follows it; then God is gracious unto him, and commands that he be delivered from his affliction and saved from death. It is... [ Continue Reading ]
His restoration out of his affliction to health is like the freshness of a new childhood and the strength of a new youth.... [ Continue Reading ]
The sufferer's restoration. For the future tenses of A. V. present tenses would be better in these two verses.... [ Continue Reading ]
His restoration to the fellowship of God with its joy. _for he will render_ Rather, AND HE RESTORETH UNTO MAN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. God restores to him his righteous standing before Him with its joys, regards him again as righteous, and admits him to all the blessings of righteousness. The clause gene... [ Continue Reading ]
The restored sinner's thankfulness: 27. He singeth before men and saith, I sinned and perverted that which was right, And it was not requited unto me; 28. He hath redeemed my soul from going into the pit, And my life shall see the light. On account of the construction the sense "singeth" is mo... [ Continue Reading ]
The _light_which the sinner sees is the light of life (Job 33:30), for he is redeemed from the darkness of the pit. The A. V. has followed the Heb. margin and read _his_soul, _his_life. If this reading were adopted the words would be a general statement by Elihu, but this unnaturally anticipates Job... [ Continue Reading ]
Elihu sums up his doctrine regarding the gracious purpose and effect of God's methods of speaking unto man.... [ Continue Reading ]
_mark well_ These words do not mean, _weigh and apply_, but _listen_, namely, to that which Elihu will further say.... [ Continue Reading ]
The speaker requests Job to hear his further arguments (Job 33:31); or if he can reply to what has been said, by all means let him do so, for Elihu desires that he should be in the right (Job 33:32); but if not let him listen and learn wisdom (Job 33:33).... [ Continue Reading ]
_to justify thee_ Elihu could not say that he desired to justify Job in his plea against God; the words must refer to the cause between Job and himself. Elihu would be glad if Job could give such a reply to his arguments that he could say he thought him in the right. The words seem to imply little m... [ Continue Reading ]