35 The verse is describing the way God can preserve someone from dying by sending a messenger (translated here as “angel”), who could be human or angelic. This messenger will interpret/mediate God’s will. By “one … out of a thousand” Elihu could have meant either that one of the thousands of messengers at God’s disposal might be sent or that the messenger would be unique (see Eccl 7:28; and cp. Job 9:3).
36 This is a smoother reading. The has “to tell to a man his uprightness,” to reveal what is right for him. The translated this word “duty”; the choice is adopted by some commentaries. However, that is too far from the text, which indicates that the angel/messenger is to call the person to uprightness.
37 This verse seems to continue the protasis begun in the last verse, with the apodosis coming in the next verse.
38 Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
39 The verb is either taken as an anomalous form of פָּדַע (pada’, “to rescue; to redeem,” or “to exempt him”), or it is emended to some similar word, like פָּרַע (para’, “to let loose,” so Wright).
40 This verse and v. 28 should be compared with Ps 49:7–9, 15 (8–10, 16 ) where the same basic vocabulary and concepts are employed.

In other versions

If there be for him an angel,

a mediator, one of the thousand,

to declare to man what is right for him,

and he is merciful to him, and says,

‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;

I have found a ransom;

Yet if there is an angel at their side,

a messenger, one out of a thousand,

sent to tell them how to be upright,

and he is gracious to that person and says to God,

‘Spare them from going down to the pit;

I have found a ransom for them—

If there is an angel on his side,

one mediator out of a thousand,

to tell a person what is right for him

and to be gracious to him and say,

“Spare him from going down to the Pit;

I have found a ransom,”

“But if an angel from heaven appears—

a special messenger to intercede for a person

and declare that he is upright—

he will be gracious and say,

‘Rescue him from the grave,

for I have found a ransom for his life.’

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

to declare to a human being his uprightness

so that he is gracious to him, and he says,

‘Deliver him from descending into the pit;

I have found a ransom.’

If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter,

One among a thousand,

To shew unto man his uprightness:

Then he is gracious unto him, and saith,

Deliver him from going down to the pit:

I have found a ransom.

Public Domain