Have you heard God’s warning?
1 So now, O Job, hear my dis course,
listen to everything I say.
2 My words are on the tip of my tongue,
3 words from an upright heart,
words full of knowledge and sincerity.
4 The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.
5 Answer me if you can;
draw up your arguments and take your stand.
6 Like yourself, I too have been taken
by God from the same clay.
7 Thus no fear of me need alarm you,
nor should my presence lie heavy on you.
8 But I heard what you said,
none of your words escaped my hearing:
9 “I am clean and without sin;
I am innocent, guiltless.
10 Yet God has found fault with me
and considers me his enemy;
11 he shackles my feet,
keeps watch of all my paths.”
12 I tell you, you are wrong in this,
for greater than man is God.
13 Why then do you complain
that he will answer none of your words?
14 See God gives a warning
but does not repeat it a second time.
15 In a dream, in a night vision,
when deep sleep falls on people,
while they slumber in their beds,
16 it is then he opens their ears
and gives warning by terrifying them.
17 So he turns man from wrongdoing
and keeps him away from pride,
18 God preserves his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
19 Man is also chastened on his bed by pain
and constant distress upon his frame,
20 so that he finds food repulsive,
even the choicest meal loathsome.
21 His flesh wastes away to naught;
his bones, once unseen, now protrude.
22 His soul draws near to the pit,
and his life to the place of death.
23 Yet if there is an angel by his side –
a mediator, one in a thousand –
to show him what is right for man,
to give him justice once again,
24 God will have mercy on him and say,
“Deliver him from going down to the pit;
I have found for him a ransom.”
25 Then his flesh will be renewed as a child’s,
restored as in the days of his youth.
26 He will pray and find favor with God;
he will see God’s face and rejoice.
27 He will witness to men and say,
“I sinned and perverted what was right,
but I was not punished as I deserved.
28 He rescued my soul from going down into the pit, and gave me life to enjoy the light.”
29 God does all this to man –
twice, even thrice –
30 to turn him back from the pit,
to lead him with the light of life.
31 Pay attention, Job, listen to me;
be silent, and I will continue to speak.
32 But if you have anything to say, say it then;
speak up, for I wish to see you justified.
33 If not, then do listen;
be silent as I teach you wisdom.
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Comments Job, Chapter 33
• 33.1 Elihu says to Job: you think you are innocent, but surely you have not paid attention to God’s warnings. In spite of the fact that God cannot be reached by humans, he communicates through dreams, inspirations, en counters. God also corrects by way of the advice of other people who are his messengers, called here “angels,” “mediators.” We know that angel means messenger. The very one who complains about God fails to see, to listen and to accept the messages God sends through the reprimands and advice given us by others who correct us in a loving way.
Elihu shows how trials are a lesson in humility for all (36:1-21).