---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Job 33"
description: "CHAPTER 33   :-. ADDRESS TO
JOB, AS ( :-) TO THE
FRIENDS. 2. mouth—rather, \"palate,\"
whereby the taste discerns. Every man speaks with his mouth,
but few,"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/job/33"
---

CHAPTER 33

. ADDRESS TO
JOB, AS () TO THE
FRIENDS.

**2. mouth**—rather, "palate,"
whereby the taste *discerns.* Every man speaks with his mouth,
but few, as Elihu, *try* their words *with discrimination*
first, and only say what is really good ([Job 6:30](../../../kjv/job/6/30);
[Job 12:11](../../../kjv/job/12/11)).
**hath spoken**—rather,
"proceeds to speak."

**3.** I will speak according to my
inward conviction.
**clearly**—rather,
"purely"; sincerely, not distorting the truth through
passion, as the friends did.

**4. The Spirit of God hath made me**—as
He did thee: latter clause of ([Genesis 2:7](../../../kjv/genesis/2/7)). Therefore thou
needest not fear me, as thou wouldest God ([Job 33:7](../../../kjv/job/33/7);
[Job 9:34](../../../kjv/job/9/34)). On the other hand,
"the breath of the Almighty hath *inspired* me" (as
[Job 32:8](../../../kjv/job/32/8)); not as *English
Version,* "given me life"; therefore "I am
according to thy wish ([Job 9:32](../../../kjv/job/9/32);
[Job 9:33](../../../kjv/job/9/33)) in God's stead" to
thee; a "daysman," umpire, or mediator, between God and
thee. So Elihu was designed by the Holy Ghost to be a type of Jesus
Christ ([Job 33:23-26](../../../kjv/job/33/23-26)).

**5.** Images from a court of
justice.
**stand up**—alluding to
Job's words ([Job 30:20](../../../kjv/job/30/20)).

**6.** (See on ; [Job 31:35](../../../kjv/job/31/35); [Job 13:3](../../../kjv/job/13/3);
[Job 13:20](../../../kjv/job/13/20); [Job 13:21](../../../kjv/job/13/21)).
**formed**—Though acting as
God's representative, I am but a creature, like thyself. *Arabic,*
"pressed together," as a mass of clay by the potter, in
forming a vessel [UMBREIT].
*Hebrew,* "cut off," as the portion taken from the
clay to form it [MAURER].

**7. hand**—alluding to Job's
words ([Job 13:21](../../../kjv/job/13/21)).

**8. thy words**— ([Job 10:7](../../../kjv/job/10/7);
[Job 16:17](../../../kjv/job/16/17); [Job 23:11](../../../kjv/job/23/11);
[Job 23:12](../../../kjv/job/23/12); [Job 27:5](../../../kjv/job/27/5);
[Job 27:6](../../../kjv/job/27/6); [Job 29:14](../../../kjv/job/29/14)).
In [Job 9:30](../../../kjv/job/9/30); [Job 13:23](../../../kjv/job/13/23),
Job had acknowledged sin; but the general *spirit* of his words
was to maintain himself to be "clean," and to charge God
with injustice. He went too far on the opposite side in opposing the
friends' false charge of hypocrisy. Even the godly, though willing to
confess themselves sinners in *general,* often dislike sin in
particular to be brought as a charge against them. Affliction is
therefore needed to bring them to feel that sin *in them*
deserves even worse than they suffer and that God does them no
injustice. Then at last humbled under God they find, *affliction is
for their real good,* and so at last it is taken away either here,
or at least at death. To teach this is Elihu's mission.

**9. clean**—spotless.

**10. occasions**—for hostility;
literally, "enmities" ([Job 13:24](../../../kjv/job/13/24);
[Job 16:9](../../../kjv/job/16/9); [Job 19:11](../../../kjv/job/19/11);
[Job 30:21](../../../kjv/job/30/21)).

**11.** ().
**marketh**—narrowly
watches ([Job 14:16](../../../kjv/job/14/16); [Job 7:12](../../../kjv/job/7/12);
[Job 31:4](../../../kjv/job/31/4)).

**12. in this**—view of God and
His government. It cannot be that God should jealously "watch"
man, though "spotless," as an "enemy," or as one
afraid of him as an equal. For "God is greater than man!"
There must be sin in man, even though he be no hypocrite, which needs
correction by suffering for the sufferer's good.

**13.** ().
**his matters**—ways. Our
part is, not to "strive" with God, but to *submit.* To
believe it is right because He does it, not because *we see all the
reasons* for His doing it.

**14.** Translate, "Yet, man
*regardeth* it not"; or rather, as UMBREIT,
"Yea, twice (He repeats the warning)—if man gives no heed"
to the first warning. Elihu implies that God's reason for sending
affliction is because, when God has communicated His will in various
ways, man in prosperity has not heeded it; God therefore must try
what affliction will effect ([John 15:2](../../../kjv/john/15/2);
[Psalms 62:11](../../../kjv/psalms/62/11); [Isaiah 28:10](../../../kjv/isaiah/28/10);
[Isaiah 28:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/28/13)).

**15. slumberings**—light is
opposed to "deep sleep." Elihu has in view Eliphaz (), and also Job himself (). "Dreams" in sleep, and "visions" of
actual apparitions, were among the ways whereby God then spake to man
([Genesis 20:3](../../../kjv/genesis/20/3)).

**16.** Literally, "sealeth
(their ears) to Himself by warnings," that is, with the sureness
and secrecy of a seal He reveals His warnings [UMBREIT].
To seal up securely ([Job 37:7](../../../kjv/job/37/7)).

**17. purpose**—*Margin,*
"work." So [Job 36:9](../../../kjv/job/36/9).
So "business" in a bad sense ([Job 36:9](../../../kjv/job/36/9)). Elihu alludes to Job's words ([Job 36:9](../../../kjv/job/36/9)). "Pride," an open "pit" ([Job 36:9](../../../kjv/job/36/9)) which God hides or covers up, lest man should fall into
it. Even the godly need to learn the lesson which trials teach, to
"*humble* themselves under the mighty hand of God."

**18. his soul**—his life.
**the pit**—the grave; a
symbol of hell.
**perishing by the sword**—that
is, a violent death; in the Old Testament a symbol of the future
punishment of the ungodly.

**19.** When man does not heed
warnings of the night, he is chastened, c. The new thought suggested
by Elihu is that affliction is *disciplinary* () *for the good* of the godly.
**multitude**—so the
*Margin, Hebrew* (*Keri*). Better with the text (*Chetib*),
"And with the perpetual (strong) *contest* of his bones";
the never-resting fever in his bones () [UMBREIT].

**20. life**—that is, the
appetite, which ordinarily sustains "life" ([Job 38:39](../../../kjv/job/38/39);
[Psalms 107:18](../../../kjv/psalms/107/18); [Ecclesiastes 12:5](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/12/5)).
The taking away of desire for food by sickness symbolizes the removal
by affliction of lust, for things which foster the spiritual fever of
pride.
**soul**—desire.

**21.** His flesh once prominent
"can no more be seen." His bones once not seen now appear
prominent.
**stick out**—literally,
"are bare." The *Margin, Hebrew* (*Keri*)
reading. The text (*Chetib*) reads it a noun "(are become)
bareness." The *Keri* was no doubt an explanatory reading
of transcribers.

**22. destroyers**—angels of death
commissioned by God to end man's life ([2 Samuel 24:16](../../../kjv/2-samuel/24/16);
[Psalms 78:49](../../../kjv/psalms/78/49)). The *death pains*
personified may, however, be meant; so "gnawers" (see on
[Job 33:3](../../../kjv/job/33/3)).

**23.** Elihu refers to himself as
the divinely-sent ([Job 32:8](../../../kjv/job/32/8);
[Job 33:6](../../../kjv/job/33/6)) "messenger,"
the "interpreter" to explain to Job and vindicate God's
righteousness; such a one Eliphaz had denied that Job could look for
([Job 5:1](../../../kjv/job/5/1)), and Job ([Job 5:1](../../../kjv/job/5/1)) had wished for such a "daysman" or umpire between
him and God. The "messenger" of good is antithetical to the
"destroyers" ([Job 5:1](../../../kjv/job/5/1)).
**with him**—if there be
vouchsafed *to the sufferer.* The office of the interpreter is
stated "to show unto man *God's* uprightness" in His
dealings; or, as UMBREIT,
"man's upright course towards God" ([Job 5:1](../../../kjv/job/5/1)). The former is better; Job maintained his own "uprightness"
([Job 16:17](../../../kjv/job/16/17); [Job 27:5](../../../kjv/job/27/5);
[Job 27:6](../../../kjv/job/27/6)); Elihu on the contrary
maintains God's, and that man's true uprightness lies in submission
to God. "One among a thousand" is a man rarely to be found.
So Jesus Christ ([Song of Solomon 5:10](../../../kjv/song-of-solomon/5/10)).
Elihu, the God-sent mediator of a *temporal* deliverance, is a
type of the God-man Jesus Christ the Mediator of *eternal*
deliverance: "the *messenger* of the covenant" ([Song of Solomon 5:10](../../../kjv/song-of-solomon/5/10)). This is the wonderful work of the Holy Ghost, that persons
and events move in their own sphere in such a way as unconsciously to
shadow forth Him, whose "testimony is the Spirit of prophecy";
as the same point may be center of a small and of a vastly larger
concentric circle.

**24.** Apodosis to .
**he**—God.
**Deliver**—literally,
"redeem"; in it and "ransom" there is reference
to the *consideration,* on account of which God pardons and
relieves the sufferers; here it is primarily the intercession of
Elihu. But the language is too strong for its full meaning to be
*exhausted* by this. The Holy Ghost has suggested language which
receives its *full* realization only in the "eternal
redemption found" by God in the price paid by Jesus Christ for
it; that is, His blood and meritorious intercession (). "Obtained," literally, "found";
implying the earnest zeal, wisdom, and faithfulness of the *finder,*
and the newness and joyousness of the *finding.* Jesus Christ
could not but have *found* it, but still His *seeking* it
was needed [BENGEL], (). God the Father, is the Finder (). Jesus Christ the Redeemer, to whom He saith, *Redeem*
(so *Hebrew*) him from going, c. ().
**ransom**—used in a
general sense by Elihu, but meant by the Holy Ghost in its strict
sense as applied to Jesus Christ, of a *price* paid for
deliverance ([Exodus 21:30](../../../kjv/exodus/21/30)), an
*atonement* (that is, means of selling *at once,* that is,
reconciling "two" who are estranged), *a covering,* as
of the ark with pitch, typical of what covers us sinners from wrath
([Genesis 6:14](../../../kjv/genesis/6/14) [Psalms 32:1](../../../kjv/psalms/32/1)).
The pit is primarily here the *grave* ([Psalms 32:1](../../../kjv/psalms/32/1)), but the spiritual pit is mainly shadowed forth ([Psalms 32:1](../../../kjv/psalms/32/1)).

**25-28.** Effects of restoration to
God's favor; literally, to Job a temporal revival; spiritually, an
eternal *regeneration.* The striking words cannot be restricted
to their temporal meaning, as used by Elihu ([1 Peter 1:11](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/11);
[1 Peter 1:12](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/12)).
**his flesh shall be fresher
than a child's**—so Naaman, [1 Peter 1:12](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/12), spiritually, [1 Peter 1:12](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/12).

**26.** Job shall no longer pray to
God, as he complains, in vain ([Job 23:3](../../../kjv/job/23/3);
[Job 23:8](../../../kjv/job/23/8); [Job 23:9](../../../kjv/job/23/9)).
True especially to the redeemed in Jesus Christ ([Job 23:9](../../../kjv/job/23/9)).
**he**—Job.
**shall see his face**—or,
God shall make Job to see His face [MAURER].
God shall no longer "hide His face" ([Job 23:9](../../../kjv/job/23/9)). True to the believer now ([John 14:21](../../../kjv/john/14/21);
[John 14:22](../../../kjv/john/14/22)); eternally ([Psalms 17:15](../../../kjv/psalms/17/15);
[John 17:24](../../../kjv/john/17/24)).
**his**—God's
**righteousness**—God will
again make the restored Job no longer ("I perverted . . .
right," [Job 33:27](../../../kjv/job/33/27)) doubt
God's justice, but to justify Him in His dealings. The penitent
justifies God ([Psalms 51:4](../../../kjv/psalms/51/4)). So the
believer is made to see God's righteousness in Jesus Christ ([Isaiah 45:24](../../../kjv/isaiah/45/24);
[Isaiah 46:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/46/13)).

**27. he looketh**—God. Rather,
with UMBREIT, "Now he
(*the restored penitent*) *singeth joyfully* (answering to
"joy," [Job 33:26](../../../kjv/job/33/26);
[Psalms 51:12](../../../kjv/psalms/51/12)) before men, and
saith," c. ([Proverbs 25:20](../../../kjv/proverbs/25/20)
[Psalms 66:16](../../../kjv/psalms/66/16); [Psalms 116:14](../../../kjv/psalms/116/14)).
**perverted**—made the
straight crooked: as Job had misrepresented God's character.
**profited**—literally,
"was made even" to me; rather, "My punishment was not
commensurate with my sin" (so Zophar, [Psalms 116:14](../../../kjv/psalms/116/14)); the reverse of what Job heretofore said ([Job 16:17](../../../kjv/job/16/17);
[Psalms 103:10](../../../kjv/psalms/103/10); [Ezra 9:13](../../../kjv/ezra/9/13)).

**28.** (See on ); rather, as *Hebrew* text (*English Version*
reads as the *Margin, Hebrew, Keri,* "his soul, his life"),
"He hath delivered *my* soul . . . *my* life."
Continuation of the penitent's testimony to the people.
**light**— ([Job 33:30](../../../kjv/job/33/30);
[Job 3:16](../../../kjv/job/3/16); [Job 3:20](../../../kjv/job/3/20);
[Psalms 56:13](../../../kjv/psalms/56/13); [Ecclesiastes 11:7](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/11/7)).

**29.** *Margin,* "twice
and thrice," alluding to ; once, by visions, ; secondly, by afflictions, ; now, by the "messenger," thirdly, .

**30.** Referring to ([Psalms 50:13](../../../kjv/psalms/50/13)).

**32. justify**—to do thee
justice; and, if I can, consistently with it, to declare thee
innocent. At [Job 33:33](../../../kjv/job/33/33) Elihu
pauses for a reply; then proceeds in [Job 33:33](../../../kjv/job/33/33).

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