Job 33

Elihu Rebukes Job

33“But now, please hear my speeches,^a Job,

and hear^b all my words.

²Please look, I open my mouth;

my tongue in my mouth speaks.

³My words declare my heart’s uprightness,

and my lips sincerely speak what my lips know.^c

⁴The Spirit of God has made me,

and the breath of Shaddai gives life to me.

⁵“If you are able, answer me.

Present your argument before me;^d take your stand.

⁶Look, before God I am like you;^e

I myself was also formed from clay.

⁷Look, dread of me should not terrify you,

and my hand will not be heavy upon you.

⁸“Surely you have spoken in my ears,

and I have heard the sound of your words:^f

⁹‘I am clean, without transgression;

I am pure, and there is no guilt in me.

¹⁰Look, he finds fault against me;

he reckons me as his enemy;

¹¹he puts my feet in the block;

he watches all my paths.’

¹²“Look, in this you are not right—I will answer you:

Indeed, God is greater than a human being.

¹³Why do you contend against him,

that he will not answer all a person’s words?

¹⁴Indeed, God speaks in one way,

even^g in two,^h yet someone does not perceive it.

¹⁵“In a dream, a vision of the night,

when a deep sleep falls on men slumbering on their bed,

¹⁶then he opens the ear of men,

and he frightens them with a warningⁱ

¹⁷to turn human beings aside from their deeds,

and he keeps man from pride.

¹⁸He spares his life from the pit

and his life from passing over the river of death.

¹⁹“And he is reproved with pain on his bed,

even^j with the strife of his bones continually,

²⁰so that^k his life loathes bread,

and his inner self^l loathes appetizing food.^m

²¹His flesh is wasted away from sight,

and his bones, which are invisible, are bared.

²²And heⁿ draws near to the pit

and his life to the killers.

²³“If there is a messenger beside him, a mediator, one of a thousand,^o

to declare to a human being his uprightness

²⁴so that^p he is gracious to him, and he says,

‘Deliver him from descending into the pit;

I have found a ransom.’

²⁵His flesh is renewed with his youth;

he returns to the days of his youthful strength.

²⁶He prays to God, then he accepts him,

and he sees his face with a shout of joy,

and he repays to the human being his righteousness.

²⁷“He will sing to men, and he will say,

‘I have sinned and have perverted what is right,

and it was not paid back to me.

²⁸He redeemed my life from going down into the pit,

so^q I will enjoy the light.’^r

²⁹Look, God does all these things

twice, three times^s with a person

³⁰to bring his life back from the pit

so that he may enjoy the light of life.^t

³¹“Listen attentively, Job; listen to me;

be silent, and I will speak.

³²If you have anything to say,^u answer me;^v

speak, for I desire to justify you.^w

³³If not, you listen to me;

be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”